Ah I hadn't thought of it in terms of demographics, but you may have a point.

I really hope you guys move with us.

https://x.com/achristovichh/status/1840775619216351306?s=46

I think you guys have the inside lane on this. Literally the only thing we have is like 1 tweet from our AD saying "wouldn't a stadium expansion be neat?" There's nothing concrete on our end.

Sac has a group of people doing something.

It appears Davis does not have a group of people doing something.

college kids get high and go to the football game (staring at tiktok) all over the country.....they just do it less in CA.

I wish we'd just hear something definitive from the AD. The stadium tweet and then nothing.

If there was something definitive, I'm sure we'd have heard all about it by now.

Right, I'm not so much saying specifics. Like Sac hasn't made specific claims about what conference they may be trying to move up to, but they've made it pretty damn clear they're trying to move up.

If we're trying it'd be nice to know. Go public and try to get investments going otherwise don't tease us with ambiguous tweets.

Sac is moving full speed ahead on their desire to build a new football stadium and try to get an invite to the PAC12 or the MWC or both. I'm not surprised by this at all. By comparison, we've heard nothing official other than a couple of teaser tweets about a second level at our stadium. So all we can do at this point is to assume that the university is not seriously entertaining thoughts of moving up to the FBS level.

Here are some thoughts comparing Sac and Davis in regard to possibly moving up to FBS at this point:

1. Sac has the geographic advantage of being located in the center of the greater Sacramento area which continues to expand and grow in population. The greater Sacramento area is hungry for major sports and is a large media area. I think that Sac would have an easier time attracting fans to an FBS program than Davis initially due to their geographic advantage. However, fans at schools like Oregon State, which is located in the small community of Corvallis, drive much, much further than 20 miles to attend OSU games. Advantage Sac.

2. Davis does have a large number of alums living in the greater Sacramento area and is also a important and prominent employer in Sacramento with the UC Davis Medical Center including the UC Davis Medical School, the Tschannen Eye Institute, the MIND Institute, the Firefighters Burn Institute and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. The Aggie Square in Sacramento is currently under construction and will be a major expansion of UC Davis in Sacramento and is being built in the same neighborhood as the Medical Center. Bottom line: the presence and importance of UC Davis in Sacramento is growing rapidly. Advantage Davis.

3. UC Davis is by far a more prestigious and prominently recognized university than Sac. This is not a dig at Sac, it's just a fact of Davis being a part of the highly regarded UC system nationwide. UCD has the #1 ranked School of Veterinary Medicine in the nation and are the #2 ranked agriculture school in the nation among other rankings. This gives Davis a more widely recognized presence nationally than Sac. Advantage Davis.

4. Facilities: the Aggie football stadium and the basketball arena are far better currently than the facilities at Sac. The Aggie football stadium was originally built with plans that it could be expanded to 30,000 at some point. The Aggie basketball arena is far superior than Sac's tiny, outdated, "high school like" Hornet's Nest. Sac has plans for a new stadium and a better basketball facility but Davis has the current advantage in facilities and offers more sports for both men and women. Advantage Davis.

5. Sac has had more recent success in FCS football than Davis in the past few years. However, Davis has a longer and more storied football history. It is yet to be seen if Sac can continue the success built under Troy Taylor in the past few years now that he left to be the HC at Stanford. Davis currently has a wave of new energy under their new HC Tim Plough. The jury is still out as to how well either program will do for this year. Currently no overall advantage - draw.

6. Size: UC Davis 41,000 students, Sac 31,000 and enrollment continues to grow at both schools. Advantage Davis.

7. Endowments: UC Davis $2.2 billion in 2023, Sac $66.3 million in 2022. Advantage Davis.

8. Total revenues: UC Davis $7.1 billion in 2023-24, Sac $100 million in 2023. Advantage Davis.

9. Potential funding sources for athletics: UC Davis has a lot of deep pocketed alums who have been very successful in the fields of science, agriculture, viticulture and the arts and more. Would they step up and contribute to a higher level of athletics...? I'm sure that Sac has deep pocketed alums from their business school who live in the Sacramento area and would probably support Sac's move to FBS. No advantage - the jury is out for both schools- draw.

I was and still remain pretty skeptical of either schools getting a PAC12 invite but, after reading a lot of comments in this thread, I'm beginning to think that FCS football in California, or even the west coast for that matter, may not be viable in the long run. As Portland Aggie mentioned previously. FBS might be the only solution to keep football alive and growing at some point in the future and it seems like there is a possible opportunity now as PAC12 tries to revive itself and the MWC tries to survive.

There are a lot of moving parts and significant financial hurdles for both schools but Sac is making no bones about their desire to get the ball rolling and try and make the move. I'm not sure it would bode well for the future of Aggie football if Sac successfully makes the move to FBS and we don't. It might be best for both of us to move up.

https://x.com/sachornetsnat/status/1840859925385478243?s=46

Looks like good things going for Sac

come on with us

I don't want to see the history of the Causeway die, but I fear that Davis just has too much apathy regarding athletics to make a jump happen.

I haven't read all the stuff on X....but are we talking $35 million cold, hard cash-in-the-bank, or pledge/planned $?

If the conference invite doesn't come, does the money still come for the stadium?

Only in the state capital can you pledge to spend $40M not knowing what the product is nor the customer!

This isn’t a knock on Sac. I just don’t see how this is a sustainable model for anyone outside the power 4 conferences. I can’t imagine substantial TV money coming to either the MWC or PACX. Its just a mess

Clearly all y’all haven’t seen Field of Dreams. (Kidding)

, I sure hope we do.

I would be happy if they proved me wrong.

Here is a link to the whole article that is much easier to read than the X tweet that Kadeezy posted earlier. It's certainly impressive to raise $35 million in less than 24 hours. There's some deep pockets in Sac that are pulling out all the stops to move Sac to FBS.

“The $35 million we have secured over the last 24 hours demonstrates the civic and business commitment of all of those in the greater Sacramento region to this effort, an effort we know will pay great dividends to the university’s athletes and students, as well as Hornet fans and businesses across Sacramento,” said Sac12 co-chair Josh Wood. “We are thrilled to announce this tremendous first step and will continue to work to reach our stated goal of $50 million.”

Whole article here: https://www.on3.com/nil/news/sacramento-state-hornets-pac-12-committee-raises-35-million-nil-funds/

Haven't had time to read it yet, but how does Sac go from a poor high school gym, a stuck in the mud temporary stadium bleachers, to $35 M over 48 hours for NIL - while still an average member of the Big Sky? One or two huge donors in a government town?

Exactly.

They are following the John Fisher playbook.

Good question! They seem to have found some big donors who are all in.

Downtown Sac has made a tremendous investment in new infrastructure and the revitalization in the downtown area over the past few years. There's a lot of new construction along with rehabilitation of older buildings going on currently and lots of street and utilities improvement also. There many new restaurants and bars that have opened and Sacramento has become known as a farm to fork destination. The New York Times recently wrote an article about how Sacramento has become a destination for a wide variety of great restaurants. Downtown Sac has a growing, vibrant night life scene also and there's lots of development going on along the river front by Old Town. The massive Railyard development will have a new stadium for the Sacramento FC Republic soccer team too.

So my guess is that there are Sacramento donors who see a business good business opportunity for themselves by investing in the development of a major college sports program. It makes sense that these donors who have businesses in Sacramento understand that a major college sports program, especially football, would be good for hotels, restaurants, bars and many other businesses.

Not all love regarding the Sac stadium news…
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