The California State University system isn't sending any of its 23 schools to play football against the University of Illinois in the Redbox Bowl.
That’ll be the University of California, Berkeley, despite what the Redbox Bowl merchandise page showed when the 2019 designs were posted this week.
The products, which have since been removed from the website, referred to California as “Cal State.” The Pac-12 school in Berkeley, which is part of the University of California system, has never had “state” in its name.
John Lemein, the creative director and brand/web manager at Cal, tweeted Tuesday that “We officially rejected this design. It was released without our approval. The University of California, Berkeley Athletics Department either goes by Cal or California, period.”
Lemein’s tweet also jokingly referred to Illinois as the Redbirds – Illinois State’s mascot.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Roger Hacker, the director of communications for Bay Area Host Committee, said that none of the Cal State merchandise was printed or sold.
“The designated third-party merchandise vendor mistakenly posted unapproved images and depictions of 2019 Redbox Bowl merchandise,” Hacker said in a statement. “None of these erroneous designs was printed on any merchandise nor available for actual sale. The vendor is supposed to get prior design approval and sign-off by both the Redbox Bowl and each university, so we are working with the vendor to ensure the oversight process as outlined is clearly followed with regard to all official merchandise for the 2019 Redbox Bowl. Once designs are approved, the website will begin making items available for sale. This vendor manages merchandise sites for a number of college bowls and has sincerely apologized for their mistake. We have been in consultation with both university athletic departments about the error, and they are understanding of the situation.”
California and Illinois will meet Dec. 30 in the Redbox Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.
