I don't think we are, especially without doing stadium renovations. I do think we would get more people watching a uc davis vs nevada or unlv game than vs a southern utah or northern colorado. What I am saying is its just interesting pr. I stand by my opinion we should move to the mw for football once we renovate, but I do think that's more of a move by 2028-2030. The MW for every other sport I think is a good move already. My posts are more just pointing out the complicated pr of our annoying split conference affiliations (even more as we move to an FBS conference for everything but an FBS sports) and the watering down of the big sky. I agree with what others have said that moving by say 2030 gives us a window for a FCS championship (even more without NDSU lol) and allows for renovations to happen.

ALSO we are supposed to play NDSU for football the next few years?!

Could we be moving up as a pair

my question is: does this boost donors to donate showing that we CAN move up, or does this deflate them making them think what the hell are we doing joining the conference and letting them add another school before us?

I continue to think our PR moves around conferences is not great. I am stoked we are moving to the MW but it was already going to be confusing having our sports in an FBS conference except for football... and even weirder when I have to explain they added another FCS school before us?

This is very interesting. Makes me think about what our admin said/is saying to the MW if this happens. NDSU doesn’t exactly have that big of a stadium and it needs renovations. Would imagine that would have to come with an invite…. Very interesting times. Considering Davis would have the opportunity to apply first to join the mountain west before any other members I wonder if we said no?

Ahhhhh guys I’m as impatient about things as it comes, but I’m a hell of a lot happier to be in the mountain west next year and basically just at our own whim on when we join for FB.

Looks like an awesome crowd! Was about to buy tickets and drive up but the north bay to Davis at 5 pm sounded dreadful. Great game! Despite my frustrations with les (some founded, some me just being cranky) I loved that he jumped in with the student section after the game

You always do a great job! Thank you!

Bobby hauck is stepping down?!?

seems like a good media deal tbh

that’s kinda my point. I think the program has just been kinda good? Ish? For a while and Les just seems to make comments and stuff that basically is summed up as “we need to have more fire in how we play” but I just think moving into a new conference we need new energy in the building. It seems like Les is a nice guy and likes Davis but it’s not like we have been AMAZING during his tenure, had some great years but also have just been mediocre in the past few and I think a younger coach would be a good move.

I’m ready for a coaching change.

Woah that would be cool!

Honestly for alt uniforms like the tahoe ones, I think a few that we could do over the years (from my random half-asleep brain this morning):
-An ag inspired one with that cool CA logo that has the wheat in its design
-A wine inspired uniform with some grape imagery under the logo on helmets (maybe could work with the grey uniform)
-TOMATO UNIFORM (the amount of tomatoes on yolo county roads during harvest is wild, I was driving my truck towards esparto last year and had 5 land on my windshield)
-Blue Ridge uniform inspired by the Berryessa gap

Thank you :)

Such an awesome dude. Ravens were a great team to draft him too.

here comes my essay pitch lol

While I understand the points made and agree that FBS moves are not instant wins, if you look at attendance stats for teams that moved to FBS, in the past 5 years attendance numbers are up:
-coastal carolina: 24.22%
-sam houston: 52.39%
-kennesaw: 42.61%
-liberty: 10.54%
-JMU: 8.17%

Delaware, Missouri state and Jacksonville state have not been in the fbs for 5 years but all had successful seasons joining the G5.

Objectively the MW is a better conference than the CUSA, moving up to the FBS to join the MW in my opinion is a good move to make before 2030 barring some huge change in conference membership beyond the departing members currently. I would much rather see a UC Davis vs SJSU or UC Davis vs UNR game than UC Davis vs northern Colorado or UC Davis vs Utah Tech.

I know that the Montana's and NDSU's of the world have a ton of financial support, fan support and talk about them, but simply don't exist in metro areas or have large alumni bases that schools like that of the MW have. NDSU is pretty much openly asking to join the MW but has not received an invite for the reasonings I listed (speculation).

Also, academically and culturally UC Davis fits much better with the size and scope of research, student body and national profile of the mountain west than big sky schools (other than GCU which I think academically is sketchy to say the least but has good athletic support i guess).

I would much rather be in a conference that is adding schools like UTEP than Utah Tech. The Mountain West is adding members with much stronger fan base support and institutional foundations than the Big Sky when it comes to growth.

If we want to grow our support base financially, I agree winning an FCS championship would help, but I also think moving the team to a more nationally prominent level would help exponentally.

Its also much easier to visit the schools in the new MW than many of the Big Sky schools that are in smaller metro areas (and transit option wise/price).

Another thing about the MW is just the enthusiasm overall of fans and facilities that exist, its exponential compared to most of the Big Sky (with the exception of the very top of the conference). Losing Sac in the Big Sky takes away half of our regional rivalries that exist. Other than Cal Poly, joining the MW would add Reno and SJSU as natural rivalries (and rekindle the Nevada rivalry).

I see the vision for joining Olympic sports in the MW, its a no brainer, but football seems like a logical move for our future, no matter what happens with the FBS in the future. The MW no matter what has a stronger hand than the Big Sky no matter what happens with relegation of level.

I hear all the time "in a few years the top of the FCS and G5 will merge most likely", which is probably true, but waiting and taking the risk of not being in that merger OR not having that G5 caliber membership seems riskier than not if we stay in the Big Sky long term for football.

Last thing i'll say, this whole being in 2 conferences for football and other sports confuses the hell out of everyone who is not super deeply involved in Davis athletics, and will only get more confusing now that we are joining a FBS conference for every sport except for the football team.....

Largest vet med donation in history... seems like the Weill's family dog was treated for cancer at UCD

Does anyone have any idea where the old bako coach is now? I know he had a tumultuous exit.