This is all about labels. SJSU is D-1, FBS. UCD is D-1, FCS. USC faithful simply cannot bear the thought that they might have played an FCS school and the only two FBS schools that had never scheduled down are UCLA and Notre Dame.

Back in the Pete Carroll era I had family reasons to follow USC football. At one point there was a big chat-room banter that followed the USC vs LSU poll ratings. LSU and SEC fans pooh-poohed Pac 12 football and boasted that the only conference that really played football was the SEC. SC fans countered that SEC schools peppered their non-conference schedules with FCS/D1AA schools, and quite frankly, weak ones at that. They weren't scheduling the North Dakota States, James Madisons, etc. I think there were about five FBS schools at the time that had never scheduled FCS/1AA schools. Now it's down to three. This is a game of chicken and the first one to flinch loses. That's even tougher with the rivalries inherent in USC, UCLA, and Notre Dame.

Dunning's remarks about Ohio State, Michigan, Clemson, Oklahoma are good as far as they go, but if I recall when the UCD at USC game was announced USC claimed there were no FBS schools with an open date on Sept. 4, 2021. SJSU only became available when Clemson and Georgia scheduled a neutral site game and bought off their previously scheduled opponents. USC pounced on SJSU's availability. One wonders if someone at SJSU saw USC's need for an FBS opponent as leverage and squeezed some more money out of the deal.

Part of this, and something the new AD at SC mentioned earlier this year, was that USC had been adamant about playing home games. With the new PAC-12 scheduling, combined with an intersectional rivalry with UND, they are guaranteed 5 home games a year. WIth ten given games every season they now have two games to play with. They were unwilling to schedule teams home-and-away and insisted on home games with no reciprocal away game. A lot of teams balked at that. That "policy" will probably be changed.

Purely my $.02. I have no leads into the USC thought process.

Per this article USC is paying them $1.1M to play. And as already reported Georgia is paying them $1.8 not to play. $2.9M total for the weekend for the Spartans.

https://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/02/22/san-jose-state-taking-home-nearly-3-million-for-swapping-usc-with-georgia-in-2021/

"So removing us from the schedule cost $C about $2.6 Million?"

Or, as they call it at USC, "petty cash."

A couple of million dollars and a relatively good season last year should quiet rumors of the San Jose State football program's impending death.

It's official, or as official as these things can be, SC has added SJSU to its 2021 schedule.
https://usctrojans.com/news/2020/2/20/usc-trojans-football-future-schedules-san-jose-state-sdsu-spartans-uc-davis-aggies-2021.aspx

"The Spartans will receive a $1.8 million cancellation fee from Georgia plus their new guarantee from USC, which will likely be similar."

LA Times is reporting that USC might be trying to schedule San Jose State. Spartans were supposed to travel to Georgia, but Georgia and Clemson have agreed to a neutral site game that weekend, resulting in Georgia canceling their game with SJSU.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/usc/story/2020-02-19/usc-cancels-2021-matchup-in-football-with-uc-davis


And the Clemson v Georgia game also freed up Wyoming which had been scheduled to play Clemson. The Cowboys schedule now shows a game against Montana State for that date.

IF UNLV isn’t the undisclosed team that USC is trying to pick up for that date.

Yep, but there were protests about moving to D-I, and before that merging the NCAC into the CCAA because the CCAA played basketball on school nights, and....

Heck, having athletes that can find the classroom sets UCD apart from some places....

Not unusual that the education faculty and the athletic department have differences. We have experienced it for a LONG time at Davis.

An Aggie or a Gaucho? The team where you won a national championship and from which you left on your own terms? Or the team that fired you?

Re the emphasis on Nosek: note the article was written by former Enterprise sportswriter Bruce "Time of Possession" Gallaudet.

Order is restored and my OCD is in remission, Ags placed second in a quadrangular meet last night with 192.975 points while Sac placed third with 192.675. That gives UCD 2.5 points in the Causeway Cup to make the running score 32.5-10. Next schedule event, (I think,) is softball at Sacramento on February 26th.

A correction is in order. An earlier news release stated that the Causeway Cup meets for gymnastics would be January 5 at Sacramento and January 24th in Davis. (https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2020/1/2/womens-gymnastics-uc-davis-gymnastics-opens-at-sac-state.aspx)

A more recent release (https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2020/1/20/womens-gymnastics-uc-davis-returns-home-for-friday-quad-meet.aspx) and the Causeway Cup webpage (https://ucdavisaggies.com/sports/2019/8/9/2019-20-causeway-cup.aspx) say that the Cup points will be determined at the quadrangular meet in Davis on the 24th and at a dual meet in Sacramento on March 7th.

So we are at square one, with no gymnastic points awarded and the running score is 30-10. The Ags and Hornets will compete against each other at least six times this season. In two meetings thus far the Ags have defeated the Hornets both times.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I think his wife, Stacey, is a Sperbeck, and related to the former Sac State coach....but I could be wrong.

I'd always heard that he transferred because he "wanted to throw the ball." Mattos was the Sac coach and he had a running back named John Farley. Getting the ball to Farley and letting him run with it was a pretty good game plan. Farley was drafted by the Bengals in '84 and stuck around on the roster for one season.

It's official:
https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2020/1/20/football-coombs-named-aggies-defensive-coordinator.aspx

First things first. Get the athletics into D-1 and FBS, then start funding for the library.

For family reasons I followed the Trojans closely in the 2000-2010 era. Trust me, the USC faithful were more than aware of the streak. Used it frequently on chat site "discussions" with SEC fans who felt that SEC football was what God watched on Saturdays. A common thread from the USC fans was that most SEC schools schedule a game or two with lower tier schools, and we aren't talking James Madison or North Dakota State. We're talking University of Southeast Western North Carolina Teachers and Ferriers College at Mayberry, etc.. I think there were a couple of other FCS schools at the time that still had not played "down." As the article points out, part of the issue now is that the only other two schools that have not played FCS opponents are Notre Dame and UCLA - USC's biggest traditional rivals.

When the game was announced people pointed out that there were simply no other FBS schools that were available that weekend. Maybe USC can find an FBS team that is scheculed to play an FCS or "mid-level FBS" team that weekend and bribe, encourage or pay them to get out of that game, freeing the FCS (or FBS) opponent to play the Ags.

I think most of us saw this (the execution of the cancellation or buy-out clause) coming back when the game was announced.

It's ironic, to me at least, that one of the arguments the big schools in the FBS make against a larger playoff is that more games will be harder on schools, coaches and players....and throw in the effect of an extended schedule on the scholar-athletes. Then you look at NDSU playing 16 games (and that's with an opening round bye in the playoffs) and of course the lower divisions, D-II, D-III and the NAIA, have larger playoffs, yet as you 'descend' down those divisions there is less and less likelihood that the athletes will ever extend their playing careers beyond their last college game.

And a begrudging congratulations to the Bison. They set the standard in D-II and now in D-1/FCS.

Yeah, given a choice between a pair of games at say, UCLA and UCSB, or a couple at Davis and Sac State (particularly Sac's campus gym) I suppose most teams would take the former. I recall hearing Sochor once say that he was worried about rumors that UCSB was considering playing football at the DII level. Any time a DII level, UC eligible recruit saw Santa Barbara the recruiting war would be over.

If I recall correctly, always a big IF, UOP football used to schedule games at Miami or Hawai'i. Good recruiting tool for the Tigers. No matter what else happens you'd get a trip to Florida or Hawai'i.

Another avenue to explore might be pairing with other programs in Northern California to bring schools from other regions....as an example An Ohio State women's team traveled to California in December and played Stanford and Sac State. The visitors got two games, one of which gave thier reserves some considerable playing time. Perhaps Ags could work something with Pac 12, WAC, and WCC schools along those lines.

Ags defeated Hornets, 191.825 - 191.175, in gymnastics this afternoon in a meet at Sacramento. (BUT THE MEET DOES NOT COUNT TOWARDS THE CAUSEWAY CUP) Running score in the Causeway Cup is 32.5-10. REMAINS 30-10

SEE CORRECTION BELOW