• Week 4: Idaho @ UC Davis
    I've been using the Pluto app on Fire Stick. I use the TuneIn app on my phone to get the 1140 audio feed and mute the TV if the announcers suck like they did this week.

    In my era the Band-uh mustered about 50 to every away football game (every away basketball game too at one point), typically drove ourselves and slept on whatever gym floor we could for free. Last few years travel has been limited to CP, Suck State, and Anaheim, but they have a new band director so maybe some new hope.

    My experience going to EWU and Montana some years ago was that EWU was more pleasant to visit, kind of same vibe as our home games. Montana has a more intense gameday experience for sure, though I was unimpressed with the quality of their fans. I remember getting spit at - and it wasn't drunk frat boys. It was sober middle age guys in dad jeans and New Balances doing it with their 9 year old sons. At that time, very few Aggie fans went to either except a few players parents.
  • Aggie Square
    Lack of affordable housing in Davis is a real issue. West Village was supposed to be part of the answer, but a 1 bedroom apartment there is over $2k per month. Granted, by San Francisco standards this would be a bargain, but hard to call this university subsidized housing "affordable". There are a lot of "I got mine so f-- you" types in Davis who fight all growth, whether responsible or not.
  • Aggie Square
    My first thought? Thank goodness they didn't choose the site adjoining Suck State.

    In all seriousness though, I think there is value in this endeavor if done correctly - that is expanding UC Davis' circle of influence and providing students with more meaningful connections to future employers. At my company, demonstrated experience with internships is as important in recruiting as the framed degree on the wall. This could also help attract some companies to the Sacramento area that want to be near a center of education but would have been too big for Davis proper (like an Amazon-type campus). Maybe could renew some public interest in the Causeway Classic, but in a more mature manner, the way the Horseshoe Classic has become.

    If done incorrectly, this could be a step down the path of transforming UC Davis from a residential university to a regional commuter mega-university with a majority of students eventually never learning to navigate a bike circle because they haven't set foot on the namesake campus. I'd rather let Sac State own the business of wide scale vocational education for the masses while we stay focused on changing the world, elitist as that may sound.

    Or this could turn out to be nothing more than another collection of very expensive LEED certified beige-concrete-and-glass office buildings that don't amount to much other than increased payroll and perceived feather in the cap of the mayor.
  • New woman’s sport
    Interesting. Looks like they followed the money trail (nothing wrong with that). For equestrian they are able to categorize some of the expenses as academic through the vet school and beach volleyball had a donor step up for the facility. Comparatively speaking a beach volleyball center is cheap, but having just been involved in building one, I have to say there is more to it than just digging a sand pit. It must be the RIGHT sand, and yes, I've had coaches insist on measuring the sand grains with micrometers.
  • New woman’s sport
    My opinion is that rowing seems to make sense. Overhead is likely less expensive for one larger team than two smaller ones. Rowing has limited facility cost (local rivers), an established club base, and several opponents in California, including Suck State.

    Rugby has an established club base, but is incredibly hard on turf (either natural or artificial) and would probably require a new dedicated facility ~$3M. Few opponents one west coast. Beach volleyball would require a new facility if we wanted to host anything ~$1M. Numerous opponents in California and certainly wouldn't hurt the, uh, local scenery. But not sure if we could compete on recruiting against schools that are actually near a real beach. Fencing would have a low facility cost if it could negotiate time in Hickey or Pavilion, and might be a novelty here, but few opponents on west coast. Equestrian could probably tap some "old money" from wealthy ranchers but also seems like animal care could add significant cost, with some risk of a future SeaWorld-type problem should there be any incidents that draw the attention of animal rights activists. Few opponents on the west coast and it would seem that transporting horses all over the country could have some complexities.
  • WBB: 2018 WNIT Tournament
    I work with a major K-State fan. This will be fun Monday.
  • WBB: 2018 WNIT Tournament
    close the browser and then start over at kstatesports.com . A second stream showed up. One for audio + video in addition to the one you have been watching for audio only.
  • WBB: 2018 WNIT Tournament
    I was listening to the KDVS stream but they lost their internet connection and back in the studio all they have said is "this just isn't working out tonight..." So I guess I will be listening to the K-State feed.
  • Chima Moneke Suspended Indefinitely
    I recall when I was a student, I had a couple friends who were leaders in a student organization but were a thorn in the side of a non-academic university staff member. Senior year, they were suspended for alleged "alcohol violations" that said staff member overheard from a third party. Student Judicial Affairs suspended the students from participating in the organization while they launched an investigation. They pressured the students to "confess" and take a plea deal that basically said they could return but any hint of further misconduct and they would be kicked out of the university, forfeiting rights to a hearing. They refused to take the plea deal, so SJA allowed the "investigation" to go on for months. There was no evidence and no witnesses came forward. Eventually the students were declared innocent -- with a week left of school after being frozen out of an entire spring quarter. The appearance was that SJA purposely prolonged the process so the staff member wouldn't have to deal with students he didn't like and the students would be "punished" without having to be found guilty.

    Also keep in mind that the burden of proof is simply "is it more likely than not" that the student committed the infraction, not "beyond reasonable doubt." And when all else fails, they pull the "violation of principles of community" accusation out, which is about as amorphous as it comes. Point being, you can expect about as fair a hearing at SJA as a political dissident in Soviet Russia.

    All that said, I am not suggesting that Chima is even under investigation by Student Judicial Affairs. This could be strictly internal to the team or Athletics. And depending on the issue, FERPA may prevent anyone from saying anything.
  • LA Times says Napolitano to cut UCOP budget by 50%
    UCOP occupies the whole building at 1111 Franklin St. Offices are floors 5-12 and parking on 1-4.
    They have several additional spaces rented--
    300 Lakeside Dr, floors 3, 5, 6, 7, 12
    1111 Broadway, floors 14 and 21
    415 20th St, floors 3 and 4 (lower floors are UC Berkeley labs)

    As far as Div of Ag and Natural Resources, most of the people who do anything productive are already at Davis or local county offices. Most of the people in Oakland get in the way of anything productive so I'm curious how excited the local crowd is on this idea.
  • FCS playoffs
    Despite being "non scholarship" I guarantee you the whole USD football team is not paying full MSRP on tuition. They can certainly offer non-athletic scholarships and aid to individuals who happen to be athletes. Even if USD didn't join Big Sky, I think they had 3 OOC games this year. It would be cool if those regularly became UCD, CP, and SAC. Perhaps there could be a California Cup rivalry between the four. Part of what made the NCAC days fun (aside from winning) was that schools were close enough that you knew the opponent and visiting fans would travel. Doubt you find many people in the general population in California who know (or care) what state Weber State is in.
  • Will the Fans Ever Really Come Back?
    There certainly haven't been any sell-outs lately, but one thing to keep in mind is that even in a sell-out scenario, the Aggie Pack doesn't "look" full. On paper each seat is allocated a certain amount of real estate on the bleacher, say 18". The students stand closer than that and crowd toward the center. There seems to be a reluctance to oversell facilities these days, so the edges of the section won't ever fill in.

    I get the idea of giving the students great seats since they are helping to fund the stadium, but there was something lost with not having the AP in the North End Zone. That added a dimension to the coin toss that you did not want to be an opponent facing north in the 4th quarter. They used to pack that grandstand like sardines. As I remember, you just showed your ID and got waved in so they probably weren't counting too closely.
  • Week 6: Eastern Washington @ UC Davis
    Not sure about the official crew tonight. Bad calls and excessive reviews both directions. Do they get a bonus for finding a targeting call? They seemed to really want one.
  • Highlighting our Academics
    I flipped over to the KHTK audio feed during halftime where they were interviewing Blue. He basically said athletics is doubling down on academics and a greater part of the team experience will be professional internships, mentoring, resume writing, etc. That GPA and graduation rate mean nothing unless they lead to meaningful jobs or grad school opportunities. I get the sense he won't stand for a whole team getting A's in "undeclared".

    Toward the end of the game when there was little football left to discuss, the announcers on the video feed were very complimentary to UCD academics and the brain trust of coaches to come out of the program.
  • Week 3: UC Davis @ Portland State
    Although this one doesn't count towards Big Sky championship, I bet it got the attention of the rest of the conference. In reality one of Portland's TDs should have been called back on a penalty and the other was against our second string. This reminds me of what watching Aggie football was like in the D-2 glory days. I hope it sticks all season!
  • Week 3: UC Davis @ Portland State
    I see frustration setting in for some Viks, although still 15 min of football left for anything to happen.
  • Week 3: UC Davis @ Portland State
    99 should have been sent to the showers if the PSU coach had cahones.
  • Week 3: UC Davis @ Portland State
    I wasn't expecting to see Portland State shutout in the first half. Curious what adjustments wil be made at halftime. Go Ags.
  • Week 3: UC Davis @ Portland State
    Funny that the PSU announcers had just got finished calling him the finest punter in the country. Great effort by the Ags.
  • Week 3: UC Davis @ Portland State
    I've got my laptop hooked up to the TV. Using the Pluto TV stream via big sky site as primary, occasionally flipping to the audio stream from Tune In to hear Scott Marsh/DK commentary. Tune In is about a minute ahead of Pluto stream for me at least. Not using apps, just via browser.