We've made the FCS playoffs once and we do not have the facilities to support an FBS program. Without expansion to the stadium we would have one of the smallest in all of FBS. We are just starting to find success in FCS. I don't want to become a punching bag for the Pac 12. Now this is just my personal opinion, but I love playoff format. An overwhelming number of bowl games in FBS are total who cares bowls and the "playoffs" are pretty much reserved for Alabama, Ohio State, etc.

I have little to absolutely 0 interest in moving to FBS at this point in time.

Agree. Look how Cal and UCLA have done of late. Fan base won’t support the cost, general interest in college sports in California is in decline.

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It’s a worthy goal but let’s not put the cart in front of the horse. My hell we can’t fill our current stadium. When i go to a Cal or Stanford game, the excitement around game day is tremendous. We just don’t garner that sort of response. Remember games like the Reno games at the Toomb with standing room only? We need to pack Sochor field regularly before we consider any big jumps.

Very unlike Bob Dunning to come up with an idea like this. Even if we had the stadium and the fan base (which we do not have) Stanford and Berkeley would nix this in a heartbeat. How would it possibly help them? It would take away and dilute their NorCal presence and recruiting. Much more likely the PAC-12 would look at Nevada and UNLV than UCD. And, by the way, if you have been to a Berkeley game recently their stadium is less than 1/2 full, except for Stanford most games. Few students as well. $400M ICA deficit. Great program to emulate!

I’m trying to figure out how the Pac12 commissioner tries to sell us to the other schools as an addition that makes them more money (bottom line!). SEC is taking in Texas and Oklahoma and Pac12 counters with us and ……Boise?

I believe he's pushed this before. Huge big time football fan, Oregon fan, picks weekly college football winners.

Dr. Mike, how to sell? <tongue in cheek>

1. Short low cost commute
2. Twenty years of wins
3. Sacto region not a key area of recruiting
4. Support non revenue sports
5. Plainfield Station

This is recycling his long standing opinion. Unfortunately a major college football team usually has press coverage not behind a paywall

Ha, the Department can barely get a crowd of 8000 at the current level. I don't think the Aggies are established enough as successful across the board to make a jump. Need a decade of winning first...

My god that's a terrible column.

Several years ago UCD qualified for the I-AA — now the FCS — playoffs and came within a whisker of playing for the national championship.

It was three years ago. Several implies like a decade or so. Just say three years ago.

If men’s and women’s basketball can do it, so can football.

Yes, we're D1 in those sports because the FCS only exists in football. We're essentially in the FCS though if you did break it up into two divisions.

Well, just as I was thinking all these thoughts, I saw a story by ESPN’s excellent senior writer, Heather Dimich, with the headline, “Pac-12 commisioner George Kliavkoff says conference not looking to add schools, but would be ‘foolish’ not to listen.”

Yeah, they're looking to add schools from other major conferences, like the Big 12. They're not even looking at MWC schools, let alone a random FCS team has had 1 season in the FCS with 7 or more wins and only 1 winning season in the last decade.

And, miracle of miracles, the Aggies actually own a football win over Stanford, rallying from a 17-0 deficit to take a 20-17 victory home to Davis.

Of course that win was great. But one upset isn't a reason to justify moving up to the Pac-12.

This is a "I'm up against a deadline, have to come up with something and I've got nothing better to write about" type of column.

Be thankful we have Mr. Dunning and the Davis Enterprise. Who knows how long it can survive.

The Davis enterprise doesn’t offer much. Dunning isn’t really a sports reporter anymore, he’d rather be the community elder talking about bigger themes. We’re not going to add fans without team publicity, and the Davis Enterprise readership isn’t enough especially since the stories are behind a paywall. I thought the athletic department was going to do more stories on their website, including some by a former Davis Enterprise reporter but those haven’t been seen since COVID.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is listening did it make a sound?

Ulonzo Gilliam feature.

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2021/8/12/football-captains-profile-ulonzo-gilliam-jr.aspx

That’s an example of what they need more of. But are they going to do a position review? How long has it been since there was a coaches show? Why did no stories come out of sending coach Hawkins to the BigSky kickoff for media. Some other regions media reported his comment on this being the best team ever, Did that even get reported here? Anyone ask “why do you say that?” I think there is a story there.’

Maybe the Assistant, Associate, Senior Associate, or Special Assistant can answer those questions.

The basketball equivalent of FCS is called mid-major.
“The last time, as of 2021, a mid-major team won the National Championship was 1990 when UNLV won with a 103–73 win over Duke, since UNLV was then a member of the Big West and since 1999 has been a member of the MW; the Big West was not then considered a power conference, nor is the MW today.”
Because of the larger number of games, mid major basketball teams compete more frequently with major conference teams. But one might say they're not in the same league,; I think the winning percentages of those games would reflect that.

For what it's worth, Zaga has played in the title game twice since that, and in the 2020 season that didn't have a tourney there were likely going to be three mid-majors on the 1 or 2-lines (Dayton and SDSU were contenders)

Still obviously very rare, but it's not an absolute hopeless cause like if an FCS team entered the CFP