Time to think BIG for the Aggies. Looks like Rocko is.

I think the key here is timing. Pac8 has to add two schools to be ready to compete by summer 2026. Show of hands who thinks we can be ready in 2 years especially with revenue sharing coming next year?

Jon Wilner who has written extensively about the Pac12 for many years had two articles in the Mercury news today. His feeling is two more mountain west teams fill the void, with UNLV the top choice. He mentioned the Big Sky and basically no way a Montana school (much closer than us up bring ready) could/would make the jump.

And feels like this is the end of the Mountain West as a real FBS conference. Doesn’t see any other lower FBS school wanting to join. So, a new mountain west might have a big sky feel.

So 120 or so FCS programs are just going to die? (I'm assuming a handful of the 129 move up.)

Meanwhile, UCLA and Cal are both bleeding red ink, including Cal taking on $400 M in unfunded stadium improvements. (Debt.) The campus took part of that debt for earthquake retrofitting, but still.

For years their fans said new facilities = wins, which didn't pan out. They struggle to reach .500.

Now they're all playing the NIL game, but it's really rent-a-player with the transfer portal. I saw eye-popping numbers for Cal... have no idea how or where those millions came from. Today's students are on their phones, or from other nations with no cultural appreciation for football.

The overall quality in FCS is going to be considerably watered down.

Regarding Cal, paying $400M for stadium renovations, part of which as you mentioned was bc of the earthquake retrofit, is a much different situation than ours. We just raised $50M for the EFAC. We can certainly pay $5M to move up and another $30M-50M for stadium enhancements.

Some argue football should be broken off from other sports.

Why should Cal field hockey be playing contests on the Atlantic coast? A disaster for the student-athlete.

100%.

What would the total cost be to become a Pac-X member? Would we ride it out short term w an intimate, packed UC Health Stadium? How much yearly is needed for NIL to compete w OSU & WSU? And for additional schollies?

All good questions.

Another good question: IF you are a 3-4 star CA HS Football star, would you rather play at Cal/ Stanford in the ACC or UC Davis in the Pac-12? It is now a debate, whereas UC Davis in the Big Sky is no debate.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/pac-12-expansion-key-questions-and-answers-after-conference-kicks-off-another-round-of-realignment/#:~:text=They%20will%20officially%20enter%20the,to%20CBS%20Sports'%20Dennis%20Dodd.

"Buying out one year of football for four schools will cost approximately $113 million, according to CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd. The Pac-12 has a "war chest" of $250 million available, which includes NCAA Tournament units and existing contracts. Some of this money could be used to help pay off the fines and exit fees."

But we also see little to no turnover. A lot of *** star recruits don't pan out, but an eye for a Jake Maier and Keelan Doss does.

Hopefully the end result of this is getting a nice regional core that includes Davis, Sac, Reno and San Jose and maybe SLO. While everyone else is flying across time zones we could finally have a season with road games that can be done in day trips.

Link to the video on X: https://x.com/Sactown1140/status/1834614627210301780?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1834614627210301780%7Ctwgr%5E849a42376bb06e061cd1e286e2a444297499fd17%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbigskyfans.com%2Fthreads%2Fthe-pac-mwc-dominoes-begin-to-fall.29863%2Fpage-2

My favorite part of the article:

"UC Davis, Cal-Berkeley and UCLA are the only three of 10 schools in the University of California system to field a football team. If the Pac-12 wanted to get back into the UC system, the Aggies are the only answer."

I've seen a lot of "Cal Davis" but never "Cal-Berkeley". Cal Berkeley admittedly does make some sense but since it's not actually what they call themselves it feels particularly appropriate in an article about how Cal Davis UC Davis might be flipping the script.

I think Sac and UCD are going to have a helluva time raising $50m + in within a couple years, let alone get the stadium upgrades built within that time. I mean, where is the temporary home for Aggie football? So many questions.


It took UCD 30 years to get Aggie Stadium built. Now that its there, hopefully major renovations would move more quickly

Regarding filling the stadium, this thought might be more like “build it and they will come,” but the bigger program schools like Wash State, Oregon State, have quite a following that will help fill the seats. Heck, even the bulldogs coming to town would help fill the east side. Add some network TV money and maybe its possible.

I cringe at the possibility of FSU showing us up at Aggie Stadium and making it a home game for them. I mean, it really could be ugly. Most of the teams mentioned as conference-mates travel very well.

AD really needs to think about stuff like this too......are we honestly ready to do this right now? Is the program strong enough in regard to fan/student support, etc?

I want nothing more than to see this happen. Just asking questions for the sake of discussion.

We are top 25 in the country in FCS in attendance at 97% filled by capacity.

These are the 5 most recent FCS to FBS transitioning teams:

James Madison 25k average attendance CAA Sun Belt
Jacksonville State 20k average attendance ASUN Conference USA
Sam Houston 8k average attendance WAC Conference USA
Kennesaw State 10k average attendance ASUN Conference USA
Delaware 20k average attendance CAA Conference USA
Missouri State 15k average attendanceMVFC Conference USA

Big away team crowds almost always increase home crowds in all levels of football. HS, FCS, FBS and Pro. Increases excitement and $ for the university. Also, increases the competitive spirit of the city and school population to have visitors trying to “take over” or talk trash. It would up the Aggie Pride for students and the community alike.

Seems to me that the big NCAA conferences are colluding to put the small ones out of business. The top conferences raid the profitable teams, and they raise costs by increasing the number of scholarships required and create obstacles for new replacement schools to elevate with the ten fold increase in fees. Net effect is to consolidate their market domination.

Remember that the transition fee is now $5M and the 15000 attendence average has been waived. The transition period is 2 years (ineligible for bowls).

Having moved 2/3 across the country and within the SEC footprint, let me tell you, only an infinitesimal percentage of people aside from those from California know about UC Davis.

How do you change that? Major college athletics.

PAC 12 after dark is a gateway drug to recognition.

Welcome back to the forum, 05! I hope you'll stay around and join our Aggie conversations on a regular basis. We need more Aggie fans to chime in and share their thoughts to help make our forum more interesting, informative and supportive of Aggie Athletics.

I want you to be right, but I haven't seen that in my 20 years following this program.
I've seen many important battles for playoff spots / conference implications vs. the biggest FCS names like Montana etc. draw 8-10k. Even the rare 12k is silent or gone early. You guys know what I'm talking about as players.

I'm just saying I'm not sure the community and student body is built for this stuff. If the AD is going to do this the culture needs to ramp up and change- football needs to be important to the community and students. This is definitely a "California" issue.
Aggie Stadium in 2007 and moving to the Big Sky didn't magically change this either (with bigger opponents and being D1)

*I'm trying to check myself here because I don't want to sound like a hater, but this all seems a very forced and on someone else's timing*

agree. the Pac-whatever by 2026 doesn't make sense for some many reasons. so, we set our sights on a TDB Mountain West that will be missing at least 4, maybe more (UNLV to Pac, Air Force to the AAC with Navy and Army). We might not have any choice, but its gonna take a TON of money to move there and the time frame (is it 2026 also) to do that might make it a non-starter.

With the expansion announcement this week of the Pac-12 Conference — gutted when longstanding members bolted in recent years for richer television deals in other conferences — there is a push in California’s capital to have Sacramento State added to the 108-year-old league.

Sacramento State as of Friday afternoon has not made a formal statement of an athletics-program realignment, but a new executive committee dubbed “SAC 12” issued a statement Friday. Their aim is to the point: to get the Hornets athletic programs into a league that for decades went by “Conference of Champions,” citing media market size and a legacy of athletic success. Such a move would not happen until the fall of 2026.

The committee includes state Sen. Angelique Ashby, Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen and Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra, along with local business owners and alums. Nguyen and Guerra are Sac State grads, the latter a former student body president.

https://www.sacbee.com/sports/college/article292432344.html

The Honolulu newspaper wrote today that Cal and Stanford will not be able to get out of the ACC. They listed the four MWC teams most likely to move: UNLV, Air Force, Wyoming and New Mexico, in order of liklihood. Hawaii is not a good candidate partly because they are a "step down" from the MWC in all sports except football, i.e., in the Big West. Does not bode well for UC Davis to be in the Pac 8.

Welp, would be a big bummer to lose out to Sac State on this.