SAC State was an affiliate member for baseball, and I believe they still are for soccer.
There are fewer sports at CSUS, and their athletics program gets money from the state (whereas UCD's relies entirely on donations). The trade-off there is the govt. gets to meddle as much as it wants. Of course the on- campus athletics facilities are smaller, mostly pre- Vietnam War (except for the stickball sports). They've been there so long Tom Hanks probably thought they were old when he was a student. Hey- oh !
But the thing is when you have a smaller program that doesn't spend millions of dollars on a 1 win field hockey team (especially when you already have a run down the field with a stick making other women less pretty sport), and have small, outdated facilities that don't require as much upkeep you have money for things like lights for your baseball stadium and travel for your teams, so more trade- offs I guess.
While we're at it, why not invite Cal State Monterey Bay ? No one will root against the otters. If you do you hate animals !
Bingo. 6 UCs would be awesome. ... Farrell went to SDSU, is that why he is yearning for Bakersfield, support for a fellow CSU ? ... Add UCSD and call it a day. Then add another university with a solid rep if it makes sense. Heck, are there 2 solid academic schools in Texas that would move?
Just browsed the Big West boards and there aren't very many fans who are excited about this. Granted, we can be a pessimistic bunch, but it is hard to see why the conference would do this.
Guys, I still think this is great. Baseball gets three more home games every year (or six more every other year). That's two more teams that have to come to Davis. They don't have a choice !
I think in terms of recruiting baseball will get more competition than basketball from Unhappy Clowns Seek Dessert. Davis has extended its recruiting for basketball into Canada and many different parts of the U.S. It has plenty of options. Baseball has restricted itself to .CA, and it's going to get a lot tougher to recruit if the coaching staff can't expand its search to at least the states that directly border CA.