Yeah i didnt really add enough of this perspective. The surrounding areas (both solono, north bay, sac, northern delta, etc) do not have an FBS or major conference level team. Davis from an academic and athletic standpoint IMHO could step up and provide that. I feel like GCU gets a ton cause its near a big metro, and has been aggressive in facility upgrades, a HUGE social media presence (our stuff has been getting more views too).

this i totally agree with.

yeah the paint is chipping on the outside..

I think its sorta a big mix of things. I think students do like free stuff, but again I think who we are playing matters a bit now adays, especially with social media. Kids seem to only talk about the sac state, montana state (because of the level of competition) or cal poly games (less because we just blow them out all the time). I think people just like going to games where they recognize the other schools name. I will say unless frat culture becomes big again (idk if it was before), or we get them to come out, thats def not a driving factor at games right now crowd wise. I mean ill be honest, experience at the game wise, the concessions that are not food trucks is like cold woodstocks pizza and beer. I think that could be better for sure. I think leaning into the tailgate would be really good, and I think (again) , playing teams with loyal, large fan bases would make us want to come out and support our team. Everyone I talked to wanted to go to the montana state game because it was a "big team" that has a lot of fans, and the environment is fun when there is some competition. idk it just is more exciting, motivating, and fun when you play big teams.

another thing is that as successful as this season has with the exception of the Illinois state game (which i think is a complicated issue), we had great fan support this year, and I have heard the team talked about more than ever. Its also true that I have had more people this year ask where they could watch davis games on tv and everytime I have said ESPN+ which is great that people are interested but damn it would be nice to get some more televised games.

I agree about getting turnout to be more consistent, but I think our turnout improving and moving up do not have to be mutually exclusive. I think our turnout this year has been good overall. I'm just thinking long term plans. I think FCS turnout is a hard one to read because of the fact schools like sdsu, montana, etc happen to be in places without FBS teams, so they are the top of the totem poll in their states in a sense. I think fcs programs in California struggle a bit considering that the teams we play often have much smaller student bodies (less opposing team fans traveling to davis), inconsistent school finances (think ewu with thoughts of possibly cutting football), and that lots of people see cal/stanford (for example) as just playing a much higher level of football than us (even though I think we could beat both or one of them this year). It just seems like moving up so that in the long term we play teams of a higher caliber, with more fans, as a school with 40,000 students and lots of alumni, would get people to visit more. Also, our alumni going to games at these schools in the MW that are in large metro areas/have a lot more fans, seems more likely.

This is not to say I think less of our big sky friends or anything, but I just think people want to come out and watch us play UNLV or SJ or Nevada consistently enough to show up more than Portland state or even a EWU. Also, getting into a bowl game that would actually be on tv instead of a playoff (as much as I like the playoff system) that doesn't even get televised for some of its games, AND confuses the hell out of people how its the D1 playoffs but then look at a bracket and see a drake or SEMO vs UC Davis. Its impossible to predict what actual turnout numbers will look like, but beyond tv viewership, things like name recognition, recruiting, level of competition, increased revenue shared, bowl game potential to win and/or play major schools, all seem like they would build excitement both in the stands and around the school generally.

I just dont know if fans care about some of these big sky teams/fcs teams, and I dont think us just being really good will make people care. I also think people dont really know what were playing for on campus. People know bowl games and college playoffs, but ive had multiple people ask me why we are not playing schools like oregon if we are in the playoffs... This year especially, I do think us being really good has brought some more support and the early games get good amounts of fans, but I just think we would boost somewhat going up.

this made me laugh lol

I agree that in the short term it will be rough with some not so amazing seasons, but I also think our positioning in California, with facilities which by any means should be very attractive for a d1 fbs program with renovations, i can imagine we could move to be decent somewhat quickly. I also think looking at a team like Sam Houston gives me hope. I just think its one of those things where ya need to bite the bullet at some point to get up.

our video team sure is MWC quality… if not better! Jeez they kill it every time

praying for an announcement of football joining after the fcs playoffs:pray:

yeah i do agree its def a shakeup, especially with schools and their academic reputation for those who live on the west coast

I do have to say one thing that should be noted is being in the MW we do still have membership in a conference that is mostly made up of large, research based, flagship schools, with the facilities to match, compared to some of the big west members.

they put somewhere in the press release they are hoping to be able to stay as an affiliate member but are “prepared” to look at other options

super interesting! Will be curious/excited to see then….

Part of me wonders if a stadium expansion/football membership could possibly be coming once the FCS playoffs are over… seems sort of in line with them inviting NIU potentially to get to 10 football members

totally agree

Would be so curious to have been a fly on the wall during Tim Plough day today. Curious if he had conversations with his players about all this realignment stuff?

A fantastic write up! Totally agree :)