I'm going to be completely honest. I have no desire to see the Aggies move up to FBS. I would much rather compete in playoffs every year at the FCS level then be a mediocre or bad FBS team that MIGHT make a bowl game every now and then.

I’ll just repeat myself AGAIN : moving up requires a conference that wants us. PAC 12 won’t go to 14 (unless it meant Texas and Oklahoma), and I can’t see a reason MWC needs us and another. Only option would be if a MWC school drops

Just to follow up on my (beating a dead horse point) the PAC-12 is 4th in TV revenue of the big 5 conference (SEC makes over $50M, PAC12 about $38M). I’m guessing the bowl payouts are much lower also. So, how’s does less money divided by more teams help? Don’t think adding the Sac area will boast revenues

I’m with DrMike on this. The geography is just flat against us and we can do nothing about that. Sadly, it is all about TV revenue now and the West Coast cannot be moved to a different time zone to change that.

A move up would be complicated for sure and building a championship program at the FCS level has to be our first priority. I do believe, like Edwards said, that we are "too big and too prestigious" to stay at the FCS level forever.

The greater Sacramento area is extremely hungry for an local college program that they can get behind at the FBS level. The only representative FBS program in the central valley is Fresno State. Sure, there's Cal and Stanford in the bay area and Nevada up the hill but there's a huge void from Fresno north to the California border. There's only UCD and Sac as possibilities to fill that void some day and we're a much better candidate for that given our size and prestige than the commuter school across the Causeway.

FBS and FCS landscape could look completely different within 10 years.
Just never know whats going to happen.
One thing that is proven, is UC Davis hasn't fared well in the "moving up" department. The move to D1 could have been a lot better from the football perspective.

I do have faith in Dr. Blue and Coach Hawkins (and staff). It would be a miracle if we still employed these 2 quality individual in 10 years.

I think Hawk is here to stay. I suppose everyone has number they can't refuse but this is the perfect fit for Hawkins and his love of everything about the Aggies runs deep.

On the other hand, Kevin Blue is on his way to becoming a hot ticket item and other school's will come calling. Blue loves the Aggie ideals also but he's young and I doubt that we will be able to match some of the offers he'll probably receive. I think Chancellor May will do all he can to keep Blue here but $$$ could be a limitation for us. I hope we manage to keep Blue for a really long time though...

@drmike is correct; PAC12 is not in the 5-10 year window. But MWC definitely is because I see future pressure on SJSU to drop out or drop down. That's our spot (sorry for my dead horse issue). That's the only way we get major sac area support - not playing Big Sky, but regional rivalries with Fresno, Reno, San Diego State, Boise, etc.

I'm not saying Hawkins will jump ship to another program. I'm saying he could retire within the next 10 years.
Blue is very likely to be lured away by a P5 / MWC institution with a large salary (good for him!).

They both have achieved a mountain of progress while at UCD, and will continue to do so as long as they are here.

Blue is definitely a flight risk. But shepherding a program from FCS to FBS may be interesting to him.

We had one great year, lets not go bonkers. Time to regroup, forge ahead, get the new facility up, and challenge for another league title as we enjoy JM's last year as an Aggie. QB cupboard loaded, what cream rises to the top? Get Logan Montgomery and DL back. Go Ags!

Regional rivalries sound great, but we have to be ready for the jump and not half-bleep it like we did moving to D1 in the first place.

BlueGoldAggie has a good point. But we have this very unusual love-hate relationship with the Sac media. The Sac Bee hates us and will only do stories on UC Davis when they absolutely have to- then they “like us” for a bit; but its really only stories about interesting individual players that they cannot ignore. Like China; Doss, etc. the only way I see doing this is if we manage to become a “Bay Area” school. That would mean a very hard slog for our AD, but I think the SFChronical would be on board for this. AD Blue maybe could do this.

We had one great year, but we have tons working in our favor.

I looked up some comparisons between the Ags and EWU and NDSU a while ago; the amount of people and money the UCD community has compared to those to schools, and especially EWU, is insane. We could compete with EWU dollar for dollar with only a fraction of the donor, sponsor, and admin interest because of how many more resources we have kicking around.

But I'll parrot others on here that I'd love to see us become an FCS power first. We can do that with pretty much the current level of interest and investment. Davis could potentially be one of the highest-profile MWC schools too, but it would require much more buy-in than the school's teams currently have.

An unknown is whether a successful FCS program in California can generate enough interest to make staying in FCS a good choice. Is being a big fish in a small pond a good option? It might be, but not if the media treats it as just like D2.
Hypothetical question; if UCD had NDSU or even EWU type success would UCD get coverage in media and fan interest similar to what we’d get as an occasional contender in the mountain west?

If we had the success of an NDSU I think the regional interest would demand the coverage.

If so, why move up?

Not an apples to apples comparison. The entertainment dollar / fan base here is competing with 200 different activities and a changing fan base. I believe we do have a huge advantage being on the west coast.

If we can get publicity at the lower level then the same doors would be open.
Winning is the thing that people want to be associated with, not an affiliation. The FCS/FBS thing is overrated; the distinction isn’t binary. There is a gradient of football teams. We have no chance of being a dominant team at the FBS level in the foreseeable future. Why become an FBS afterthought when we can be an FCS contender?

Just talking about publicity and support, I’m not sure that if we went FBS and were ranked somewhere around 30 and didn’t win our conference that we’d get as much or more press as winning an FCS national championship, or contending for multiple years.

It would not be easy for us to be a consistent top 30 FBS team, like Boise. If we went FBS we’d likely be more like San Diego State than Boise and that’s being optimistic. I’m not sure we’d get the coverage that San Diego State gets in their local market.

One good year in FCS...let’s just see how it goes. I appreciate that a major donor feels like we could go FBS, but let’s just focus on continuing to build the program and trying to win a championship. Once that has happened consistently, then maybe it’s time to consider some other options. Don’t want to end up like UConn, their athletic Dept brought in $40 million in 2018, but costs were $80 million!! Big losses due to football. Now is the time to build the donor base and fan base with a winning FCS program.

Pretty sure I'm not going bonkers.....

I'm thinking the entertainment competition argument holds less weight than it used to. All three teams have Netflix as their biggest competitor for eyeballs on a saturday night these days

(One argument for taking it easy moving to higher divisions. A couple of years ago UCD rugby club was doing well in the second level of collegiate rugby, then moved up last season. Score from Berkeley today: Cal 136, UCD 0. Two weeks ago it was St. Mary's 78, UCD 3 in a home match.)

Whoa...those are scary scores!

On the good side, they defeated Slack, 48-18, in October.

Does Berkeley/st Mary’s give scholarships for rugby?

At Cal, Rugby is a sponsored varsity sport. Cal fans are very proud of their team. Rugby is a huge deal there.

I have heard rumors and allegations both ways about rugby scholarships at Cal, but in the end, I don't believe that they do. As a varsity sport, within what ever department handles NCAA and other intercollegiate athletics at Cal, I believe they get some perks, such as a few preferential admissions, access to training and medical facilities, access to study programs, preferential class enrollment....but I don't believe they offer athletic scholarships.

I also understand that the school holds the team to the same standards as other varsity sports, particularly regarding recruiting,...I am not sure if that applies to grades and inter-college transfers.

However I also understand that their participation is included in Title IX issues...and that Cal Rugby, (and possibly other men's sports [baseball??]) help fund some women't sports.

Rugby at St. Mary's is still, like almost every other college, within the club sport program. I have never heard that they offer athletic scholarships for rugby at St. Mary's.

One thing both teams have in common is a strong program with good and consistent coaching. So many club sports rely on a coach who is woefully underpaid and who does it for a few years before moving on. Clark has been at Cal for decades, and O'Brien has been at St. Mary's for 16 years. Both men love the game, there isn't any Nick Saban type money in coaching collegiate rugby.

Success breeds success and the schools lure top level players.

Cal in particular has a strong backing from alumni and fans. They play their home matches at Witter Field, named for the family that started the Dean Witter investment business. Imagine having your own pitch and not having to share it with other teams or with the intramural program.

I did find an 7-8 year old article in cal-magazine which interviewed rugby coach Clark about cal rugby when it was under siege due to UC Berkeley’s massive athletic debt. In the interview were some surprising facts regarding cal-rugby:
No scholarships
Full time paid coach
#3 in merchandise sales
#5 in concessions sales
#3-4 in paid attendance
5 million endowment
Men’s rugby is not an NCAA sport
Woman’s rugby IS an NCAA sport
Cal football was going to take away witter field rugby and put in a turf practice field
Cal rugby has an incredibly powerful alumni base.
Now this is an old article and I have no idea if it is still accurate.