long term wise, yes, getting into the FBS before major conference realignment is worth it.

this this this. FCS is gonna be basically relegated even further in the future imo. Staying FCS or going FBS for me at this point is more of a debate of what eventually will be like playing d2 vs d1 (even if the group of 6 ends up being sorta like a new FCs to a certain extent).

I'm with you. Bank some of the money we'll need for the jump, then invest the rest into what we have and what we're building.

All Davis to FBS deniers, please answer the following questions with sources.
1. What is our current FOOTBALL media rights distribution vs what we can expect from the mountain west.

2. Please explain how moving football, which is the biggest revenue producer in college sports (Football and men’s basketball subsidize the other sports with their revenue), to a higher division, which would then increase our media payout, increase the level of competition and brand name competition (which would increase ticket sales and tv viewership) would hurt the school. KNOWING that increased media payout from football would boost the athletic budget.

Also knowing that being in FBS would boost the brand recognition and get more out of state tuition, again, making more money. Here is an interview with AD DeLuca speaking on this. https://youtu.be/t3fbSpb_WJc?is=Hq78LWbgQhsRb4Kg

3. Please explain why we would pay and exit fee from the mountain west to join the PAC 12 when we JUST joined the mountain west. That literally does not make sense. REMINDER, Davis is a NON FOOTBALL member of the mountain west. Meaning we are already a member of the conference, just not for football. We CANNOT join the pac 12 for football and remain in the mountain west for all other sports.

4. Please show what 20 year football revenue projections would be for moving to FBS vs staying in FCS. I find is EXTREMELY unlikely staying in FCS will provide a better economic outlook than moving to the FBS

Also I won’t be surprised if in 15+ years Davis tried to move to P4. I’d like to remind everyone UC Davis is an affiliate member of the Big 12 in some sports (that aren’t included in the MW)

You're only looking at one side of the ledger. How many millions in debt is Bay Area titan Cal in debt? Cal's FB HC makes $6 M per year, basketball HC $3 Million per, football GM over $1 Million per. Cal is in the Bay area, near Silicon Valley, while Sac is still an ag / government area. You seem to avoid the fact that most college Division I programs lose lots of money. Cal subsidized, UCLA swimming in debt. We already have more students applying than anyone can accomodate, while St. Mary's College may be in trouble. Let's say five years down the line our HC in basketball wins a few tourney games, he'll want to cash in.

We'll have a clearer picture in 3-5 years. Cal, UCLA, Stanford not happy flying East. We've had the good fortune of one particularly generous alum helping fund several large projects. Just 1.5 years ago Athletics couldn't figure out how to give away Playoff tickets or publicize the game. That isn't a money issue.

I’m not a fbs denier to use your description, but one that believes we need to have the resources to be competitive at that level. So my answer is another question. What are the average expenses of MW football participants (coaches salaries, NIL, travel, food for the players, etc) vs the anticipated revenue from the MW? At the moment, we’re way below the resources that the top fcs schools have. I don’t want to see us being a tune up fight for the heavy hitters. We’re going to need big time resources to be competitive at that level. In pizza terms, Woodstocks is great but we need Dominos.

Good point.

And on the pizza front…what I would do for a Roundtable Pizza in Colorado. Little Leagues e memories….

Cal Athletics: $165.4 million expenses vs $153 million in revenue. The department operates with an annual deficit of around $24.3 million.

The Bears receive institutional support totaling roughly $68 million to $75+ million annually. (This includes stadium renovation costs. Right now they are just paying interest. A few years down the road when they start paying principal, costs explode.)

UCLA Athletics' yearly operational shortfall sits near $40+ million per year, with the campus chipping in $30 million per year.

You are thinking about it the right way. The budget number for MWC football is $20m. A full share of MWC media rights is 3.5m.

1. UC Davis is not moving up to P4 status like Cal and UCLA, so their budgets are not comparable. UC Davis would be moving to G6 football. The average HC salary in the mountain west is under 2 million dollars. We aren’t talking about basketball cost as all other sports other than football are already in the mountain west. Davis is a non football member. https://nevadasportsnet.com/news/reporters/how-much-every-head-football-coach-in-the-mountain-west-and-pac-12-will-make-in-2026

Davis does not have the facility debt UCLA or CAL has, and will be using donations to fund the football renovations. Again, the cost of G6 football is extremely lower than P4. It’s slightly a step about FCS.

I will also like to point out while yes, Cal and UCLA are in the bay and LA, UC Davis is in the #20 tv market in the country. Far better than most schools. So it’s not like Davis is in an unfavorable location.


Now onto the point of resources, this is something I agree on and have been harping about. Davis has been doing a bad job with this, but we are slowly seeing improvements. I don’t even understand how the coach had to fight to make sure players had a place to stay for the FBS semifinals. Absurd. Even the game day experience sucks. But I’ll let the admin take care of that, and I may make a few suggestions to that.

where did you get that number

https://herosports.com/fbs-mountain-west-football-budgets-look-like-ksks/
Actual operating expenses. Less than what you quoted. Again, most schools subsidize their football program, just like every other sport.

If we’re worried about turning a profit let’s cut all Olympic sports and most women’s sports. The fact of the matter is college sports cost money, but they don’t cripple the university. Again, someone please show how staying in the FCS would be a better long term economic decision than moving to FBS. WITH EVIDENCE.

From the conference. And that does not consider the cost of a UC scholarship relative to the rest of the conference or the NIL budget. 25 is actually a better bare bones number to be marginally competitive at the sub power league level for Davis.

Again, please provide sources. Davis tuition is only $6k more than SJ State, a mountain west school? So how would that blow up the budget. There is also no minimum for the amount of scholarships, but there are 85 (full) max scholarships allowed, up from 63 from FCS. So they CAN, but not required to, offer 22 more scholarships. 85 x $48k (I’m rounding up on tuition and board) is 4.08 million. San Jose state would be 85 X $37.5 = 3.1875 million. So let’s say a difference in scholarship cost of about a million dollars.

San Jose Stats football expenses were about $16 million according to . So let’s assume Davis would have about $17 million in expenses. NO WHERE NEAR the $25 million amount you threw out there.

Where are you getting your numbers from? You keep throwing it numbers with no evidence, no links, just saying stuff. I’m not engaging you on this anymore.

The point I was making today is most people against the move are not pushing any reasons backed by fact. All I’m asking for is just to provide sources. It not hard to add a link to your post.