I believe Hawkins already busted a few of those items out, like not being a teacher on campus.

I think the fan base would jump up big if we were to bring in bigger name programs.

I want to believe that, but I'm just not sure personally. I actually lived in Virginia in the years prior to JMU making the jump up to FBS (2018, 2019) and man... they were regularly pulling in 20K to their games against their normal FCS opponents and 25k for ranked opponent games. It's just a different culture to have a fanatical football following and I don't know if that can be cultivated in Davis by making the jump up.

I'm not sure if there is a great future in west coast FCS football. I would love for Davis to make it to the big time, but I just don't know how the numbers get there in terms of support and backing funds. With the current NIL landscape we're going to need more big time donors showing up. The Edwards family can't do it alone.

Cal has trouble getting fans to their great stadium, $200M remodel, micro beer, solid food, etc. We have 500 options for our entertainment time, South not so much.

Davis faces many obstacles, among them these:
1) Fans here are biased toward only watching the top level of competition. Many fans here aren’t native to the town and region they live in, so they don’t have the feeling that the local team is “our team”. They’d rather watch the NFL.
2) To the limited extent that local counts, people apparently don’t think Davis is local to Sacramento, a mind boggling fact.
3). We have entered a phase where the major conferences are engaged in anticompetitive practices. The 5 million FBS fee is a barrier to entry and the ridiculous 105 scholarship count is going to allow big programs to hoard talent so conferences like the mountain west will have the quality of play of FCS schools and FCS schools the quality that Div 2 teams had years ago.

Is this guy going to DO something or just keep tweeting nonsense? This is the second one.....What's the actual plan? Any official statement?

It’s kinda funny. He’s asking us what we are asking him

Possibly the most important part of this tweet is that Chancellor May retweeted it. I'd say these leaders are putting out the feelers and likely seeing if the big donors are willing to pony up enough for a commitment to expand the stadium.

WOWOWOW.

In a halftime broadcast last year with Scott Marsh, the chancellor said something like 'we're working on big things, but we can't tell you more'.

That attendance figure includes 4,000 of his imaginary friends.

The Chancellor May retweet does give more credence to Rocko's posts, but I'm still firmly in the "I'll believe it when I see it" camp. I'll be more excited when we get something concrete and not just ambiguous posts about stadium expansion, conference changes, etc.

Late to the party here but does a depleted MW drive more interest than the Big Sky? i.e. SJSU or New Mexico or Wyoming drive football attendance? I’m honestly not quite sure. At least w Sac we have the local angle, Cal Poly the academic rivalry, and teams like Montanas, Idaho and EWash are all at the top of FCS. And then, for all other sports, the BW is way more budget/ travel friendly and has fellow UCs.

In the unlikely/ nearly impossible scenario we’re invited to Pac12- even then do the best teams drive 30k attendance? OSU? WSU? Maybe they’d drive a little more, but I’m skeptical even then. I’d think USC/Stanford/Cal/UCLA/Oregon etc would, just not sure that Fresno or Colorado St would do the trick. Also I doubt the Pac12 is interested. They want to maximize their shot at an auto bid or least be best of the rest- Memphis or UNLV could help. Unfortunately Davis doesn’t.

College football needs to break off and be its own minor-league football feeder to the NFL so that regional conferences for all the rest of the sports can come back.

agree and agree!

When we make it through an entire game with the referee’s microphone working, I’ll take this ‘move up
to the PAC’ serious. Has to be easier than getting a second deck built

It's a Davis tradition at this point. :lol:

Reports are out that Utah State is going to the new Pac "12" conference while Air Force and UNLV are committing to stay in the Mountain West.

Ms Gould allegedly was targeting several southeast schools including Memphis, Tulane, and South Florida, but they publicly recommitted to the ACC today.

Reports today also say Air Force allegedly staying in the MW.

Rumors Pac Conference also talking to the Zags and UNLV.

FTR, a few Mountain West stadium capacity:

- Utah State's - 25,513
- Nevada - 30,000
- SJSU - 30,456
- Wyoming - 29,181

I thought there was a decent chance Air Force would join army and navy in the AAC. Maybe that didn’t make sense for their other sports

Utah State? Memphis? Tulane? South Florida?

Make it make sense.

This is an interesting read on transitioning from fcs to fbs:
https://www.texasfootball.com/article/2023/10/31/the-ncaa-announced-new-fbs-requirements-here-are-the-biggest-hurdles-for-fcs-programs

“ Four weeks ago, the NCAA Division I council changed the membership requirements for Football Bowl Subdivision schools. Two changes went into effect immediately and garnered most headlines surrounding the new requirements.

The council eliminated attendance requirements at FBS schools. This change is effective immediately and relieves schools from needing to average at least 15,000 in actual or paid attendance at home football games over a rolling two-year period. This change provided a relief to some schools currently in FBS.

The next change to receive most of the headlines was increasing the application fee to transition from FCS to FBS from $5,000 to $5 million, effective immediately. Many fans and some pundits wondered aloud whether the fee increase would affect schools wishing to move up.”

We may find out soon that Davis and Sac were really never in any of these discussions......

the mountain west is down to 6 teams; they need to get back up to 8 to remain a conference. Preferably 9 for football scheduling (and to a lesser extent basketball, else you have more out of conference vs conference). I can’t see any AAC schools eager to join. Sunbelt? They might not have any choice but to reach out to 2-4 transitioning FCS schools. That’ll bring in the big TV bucks.

Why isn't the large Sacramento-Modesto-Turlock TV metro a big deal? And both Sac and Davis have a large alumni base.

AS PAC-12 GROWS AND MOUNTAIN WEST SHRINKS, ARE AGGIES IN THE MIX? ... On Monday morning, the six-team Pac-12 reached across the country and offered spots to AAC members Memphis, Tulane and South Florida, but all three turned down the overture and elected to stay put.

This led to a quick Pac-12 offer to Utah State Monday afternoon that was just as quickly accepted. So yes, the Aggies are now in the Pac-12, but not the same Aggies that Davis folks know and love.

The Pac-12 (the league retained that title even when it was down to just Oregon State and Washington State) has already raided Mountain West schools San Diego State, Fresno State, Boise State and Colorado State, leaving both leagues with seven schools, one short of the NCAA minimum for recognition as a conference.

UNLV, which earlier on Monday committed to stay in the Mountain West, withdrew that commitment when Utah State announced it was leaving and is now reconsidering a Pac-12 offer.

If UNLV leaves, the Mountain West will need to quickly add at least two teams, which is where rumors about UC Davis continue to swirl, along with other top-enders in the Big Sky and Missouri Valley. Even if UNLV stays, the MWC may consider UCD and perhaps the Montana or Dakota schools. Sacramento State would also like to be in the conversation.

https://www.thewaryone.com/p/early-season-football-showdown-coming?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2582284&post_id=149333205&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=31ratq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Make the move bc of football? How big of an impact does that have on the Olympic sports, and we severe our ties with sister UC schools. Why not stay where we are, increase the size of UC Health Stadium, and see how things shake out?

John Canzano is an excellent sportswriter based in Oregon. His recent post / fast moving developments:

"I knew the Pac-12 was annoyed with the Mountain West Conference but didn’t grasp just how pissed it was until Tuesday.

"The Pac-12 unveiled its hard feelings in a complaint filed in the Northern District of California. The conference wants the poaching penalties that were included in the scheduling agreement with the MWC deemed illegal by a judge.

"It wants the court to know that it tried to work reasonably with the Mountain West but ultimately felt pushed around, bullied, and backed into a corner.

"It wants an open and free market.

"It wants UNLV — basically.

"The lawyers win again, right? ...

"Pac-12 staff was frustrated as it ended the negotiation to extend the football scheduling agreement with the MW earlier this month. On the Sunday night when negotiations broke down, one source called the MW’s position “delusional.”

"The court filing on Tuesday underscored that. It also indicated that the Mountain West wanted to boost the annual scheduling payout from $14 million this season to $30 million next season...."

the MWC deal pays out approximately $6M to each school. With the top half of the conference leaving, I can’t imagine that going anywhere but down even with the addition of the Sac market.