Michael Saffell is driven to succeed on two teams at Cal.
 
While the offensive lineman is proud to put his helmet on for the Golden Bears' football team, he's also a part of an on-campus club known as the Sports Business Group.
 
SBG combines athletics and academics for students interested in a career involving sports from the business perspective. The group members analyze current business problems that exist within sports organizations and strategize to help solve those dilemmas.
 
Saffell, who hopes to one day earn a degree from the prestigious Haas School of Business, applied to join the group last winter and was admitted at the beginning of the spring semester.
 
"I really wanted to get involved with something, especially during the spring when there's more time to do that, and really take advantage of the academic side at Cal," Saffell said. "I was really excited to become a part of any related group. This club, and wanting to get into the Haas School of Business and being a football player, I was really excited to be able to blend both of my opportunities."
 
One of Saffell's teammates, tight end Collin Moore, is one of the founding members of SBG. The club originated in the fall of 2016 when one of Moore's friends in the dorms brainstormed the idea and asked him if he wanted to be on board. Moore easily accepted the offer.
 
During their first year, they worked directly with Cal Athletics discussing matters with fan experience at Cal football games, and specifically how they can continue to increase the enjoyment of attending games to continually increase attendance rates.

"It was a great opportunity to work with the Sports Business Group," said assistant athletics director of ticket promotions and sales Dave Kao. "Seeing their participation, energy and willingness to help Cal Athletics was a humbling experience and made me feel even more blessed to work in college athletics. Everyone volunteered and participated to complete their task that provided additional insight to what we can do to improve the gameday experience for our students and fans."
 
Now in 2018, SBG is expanding to work on projects with the Oakland Athletics and the San Jose Earthquakes.
 
"The long term goal is to keep allowing Cal students to get real-life experience in the sports business industry and to keep providing various teams with our assistance," Moore said. "That's how there's benefit from both sides. We get something to put on our resumes and valuable experience while being a student, and also assisting these teams in various ways that they may not have the time or resources to complete."
 
Moore will be assisting the A's and their current issue with transportation, traffic and other difficulties that will arise if they move from the Oakland Coliseum to a new stadium in downtown Oakland.
 
Saffell will be working with the Earthquakes. Their task is very similar to what SBG did with Cal Athletics and Cal football the year before – trying to increase fan experience to help keep attendance rates growing.
 
This first-hand introduction into the corporate world is something Saffell wanted to get involved with when he decided to come to Cal. Academic opportunities like this that are outside of the traditional classroom are part of what makes the education received at Cal so rewarding.
 
"Just because you get the degree, that doesn't mean everything," Saffell said. "The benefits of attending Cal are the connections you're able to make, the great minds you're around and the network you can build. Having such a prestigious school backing you, a group like this is a perfect example of how diving into the academic opportunities at Cal is so beneficial when you're getting recruited by Cal. Cal allows you to open so many more doors for your future besides taking classes and getting a degree."
 
Obviously, having a love for sports is the most important criteria in admittance into SBG. Saffell and Moore aren't the only student-athletes to be members of the club either as Emma DeSilva on the track & field team and Jordan Elliott on the women's soccer team are also members.
 
How well somebody can work in a group setting is the other important criteria. Moore said there's an advantage for student-athletes, not only because they play sports, but also because of their experience in team settings, which translates very well to the environment in SBG.
 
"The great thing about Cal is you get a lot of like-minded people in terms of goals and wanting to be successful," Moore said. "It's fairly easy to get people together who have a love for sports, too, and want to do it as a career. They see the benefit that it can offer us because people are so focused on life after sports and what they want to do as a career. Everyone comes here for a reason, and a big reason is academics. Along with academics is work ethic and wanting to be successful, which makes forming groups like this very easy."
 
Moore and Saffell prove that being a student-athlete at Cal can be much more beneficial than competition and good grades. They're laying the foundation for future success on multiple teams.