Lackluster start...

WOW...this is amazing! Who would have thought that all those brainy Cal kids get excited like this for a football game?

Everyone knows that Cal has had lots of financial problems and they've struggled to put fans in the seats of their renovated stadium but just look at the enthusiasm that has been generated with Miami coming to town. It will be interesting to see if the students' excitement is shared by the Berkeley community and the game actually draws a huge crowd.

This reminds me of how the students turned out for those few basketball games some years ago when ESPN came to town. Just having ESPN in the arena excited the students. Can you imagine how excited they would be if we were playing against nationally recognized competition as well? This is what could happen in Davis too if we were playing on a bigger stage nationally. I hope that our AD and our chancellor watch this video.

Great story. Thanks for posting it, Amurden.

Unfortunately, those days of regular rainstorms in the PNW and northern California are largely a thing of the past now and, instead, we find ourselves praying for rain and hoping that the wildfires don't turn into raging firestorms that consume everything in their path.

For sure! Personally, Coors Light taste smells like kerosene to me and probably tastes about the same!

Dunning picks the Aggies by 28:

AGGIES over PORTLAND STATE ... The Aggies have won four in a row. The Vikings have lost four in a row. Enough said. Take the Ags by 28.

https://www.thewaryone.com/p/bobs-picks-welcome-to-the-big-ten?utm_source=publication-search

Here's a little tidbit of PSU history from the past that a few of us old timers might remember:

Longtime FCS fans will remember that this is the same Portland State that attracted national attention in 1980 when head coach Mouse Davis invented the run-and-shoot and the Vikings beat Delaware State 105-0.

Quarterback Neil Lomax had seven touchdown passes in that game. In the first quarter. And placekicker John Kincheloe set a record that will never be broken by going 15-for-15 on extra points.

Also that year, Portland State beat Cal Poly Pomona, 93-7, and Weber State, 75-0.

https://www.thewaryone.com/p/vikings-looking-for-first-win-of?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2582284&post_id=149743241&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=31ratq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Looking at the Barnum's bar tab, I'm surprised to see that Coors Light won big over Oregon's own Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA that's brewed locally in Bend!

From Bob Dunning's column, "The Wary One:"

COMPETING PRIORITIES ... My friend Eric sent me a headline from The Sacramento Bee that stated "Sacramento State to build new football, multi-use stadium" and another headline from CalMatters that stated "Cal State budget woes: Officials warn of layoffs and academic cuts."

Who is going to win this battle?

https://www.thewaryone.com/p/friday-fish-fry-has-either-debate?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2582284&post_id=149742658&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=31ratq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Our AD sent out the tweet that generated all this FBS excitement and speculation just after we had a crowd of nearly 15,000 in the stadium for our first game. So, maybe he was just putting out a teaser that it might be time for a second tier expansion.

Unfortunately, it coincided with the PAC12 announcement that they were adding new members and Aggie fans got excited and thought it may mean that we might be considering a move to FBS. In hindsight, I think it just may have been an innocent tweet reflecting his excitement about the large crowd we just had and suggesting that maybe we'll need to add a second level at the stadium pretty soon.

No harm, no foul as I see it but it sure generated a lot of passionate discussion about the future of Aggie Athletics which is a good thing!

I think you summed it up completely, Kerberos.

Sac may or may not get an invite to the FBS but they've made it clearly and emphatically known that they want to move up and they are ready and willing to do whatever they can to make it happen. Good for them, really.

Aggie fans naturally got excited when DeLuca posted that tweet with the photo of the expansion of Aggie Stadium at the same time that the PAC12 was announcing they had added 4 new members and they were looking to add a couple more members as well. We wondered what the timing of that tweet might mean about the future of Aggie Athletics? Were we really going to actively pursue a possible opportunity to move to FBS?

Now we get an email from him that publicly states that we are in no position financially to make any announcement of actively pursuing a move up. I think most of us thought it was mostly wishful thinking considering how it expensive it would be among many other critical issues that would have to be addressed but, nevertheless, his tweet made us feel like there might be something happening behind the scenes that was not being publicly announced at this time.

He must have known that his tweet was going to create some speculation and excitement among Aggie fans given the how it corresponded with the timing of the PAC12 announcement but now we know the tweet really didn't mean anything and that it's only Sac and not us who is serious about pursuing a move to the FBS. He shouldn't have posted that tweet in the first place, in my opinion. It just gave many Aggie fans taste of false hope...

Here is the main message in the email from Aggie AD Rocko DeLuca:

Over the past few weeks, there has been significant media coverage regarding conference realignment, particularly regarding the Mountain West Conference and the Pac-12 Conference. I’ve also heard from many of you about the possibility of UC Davis making a move to FBS football. While the possibility may be exciting, such a significant and expensive transition decision cannot be driven by public campaigns or stadium expansions, as there are many reasons and factors that play a role in such a transition.

The best path forward to ensure the future of UC Davis Athletics is through increased fan and donor support. Many of our conference rivals have some of the largest FCS season ticket bases in the country. Across the causeway, they've raised $35M to support their student-athletes’ name, image, and likeness (NIL) opportunities. We have the coaches and campus leadership in place to meet any opportunity presented to us in the ever-changing landscape of college athletics

Here is the link to the official website for Sac's drive to get into the PAC12. There are a lot of additional links to various media reports regarding current happenings for the PAC12, MWC and Sac on the website also.

https://sac12.org

KCRA Nightly News covered the announcement that the Kings and Sac State are working on the details of the Hornets playing in the Golden 1 Center for basketball. They also said that downtown business owners are in favor of the push for Sac to move up to a major D1 conference.