“Why not stay where we are, increase the size of UC Health Stadium, and see how things shake out?”

100% agree

What are the costs for increased scholarships, NIL, gender equity and travel? (I hope ICA has had those numbers for years.)

If we got $4M, would that pay for most of it?

My dream football conference would be Cal Poly, Sacramento State, San Jose State, UC Davis, Hawaii, Nevada, and UNLV. I think people could be hyped playing these teams over the Big Sky's teams. This feels geographically more of a Far West Conference though.

I think a lot depends on what Sac State does. I have a hard time believing that Sac makes the jump to FBS and Davis doesn't or vice versa. There's a lot of chatter on the Sac forum about a jump to the Mountain West. I think MW will still be trying to pull from FBS ranks to get to 8 teams, but if UNLV and Air Force decide to leave I think they will have to pull from FCS ranks.

Except Sac has poor HS facilities.

I guess my educated answer is ‘who knows’. I was thinking a move to FBS requires an addition of 22 football scholarships ( and a similar add/drop of womens/men’s due to title 9) BUT I forget they are changing the limit to UP TO 105 next year. There’s also increases in basketball (2), baseball (+20!), and softball (+20). I would assume only the power 4 try to hit those limits.

For a football playing school in the Big West, that change in baseball scholarships could really have a negative impact.

The "show more ..."

1. Securing $50M in NIL commitments to cover the first 10 years in the PAC 12.
2. Securing funding and approvals to build a new, state-of-the-art football stadium that seats at least 25,000 attendees.
3. Securing funding and approvals to build a basketball arena that seats at least 6,500 attendees.
4. Turning out at least 15,000 attendees per home football game for the remainder of the season.
5. Securing $5.25M in Conference Fees for NCAA realignment into the PAC-12.

ESPN plus media rights gives each Big Sky school $110,000.

Mountain West TV deals gives each member school $9M per year.

This and many more insightful nuggets on the big sky breakdown podcast.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6orefImLUx71deTbHZf0ET?si=hv_DtSfURu6QrRTSDoBC8Q&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A26uqir18PE9svScC7HaLq7

Again, staying in the big sky threatens your football program becomes irrelevant playing the Idaho states instead of the Fresno states

Focusing just on the Mountain West, as that seems more likely than the PacX.
What will the new Mountain West TV deal be, after the 4 or more top schools leave?
And for both the Big Sky and the new Mountain West, what will the quality of play be once the bigger budget conference schools hoard athletes by offering 105 scholarships?
The outcome of moving up may be fielding teams that have similar talent to what is fielded now, and teams that that don’t draw better, replacing Cal Poly with San Jose State, Montana with Wyoming etc.

2023 MW attendance

1. Fresno State, 39,939 (up 872 per game, +2.2%)

2. Boise State,35,867 (up2,329 per game, +6.9%)

3. Colorado State, 26,509 (down 382 per game, -1.4%)

4. Air Force, 25,060 (down 1,866 per game, -6.9%)

5. San Diego State,24,832 (down 4,393 per game, -15%)

6. UNLV,24,777 (up2,665 per game, +12.1%)

7. Wyoming, 23,163 (up 3,456 per game, +17.5%)

8. Utah State, 19,282 (up2,328 per game, +13.7%)

9. Nevada, 16,998 (up 2,093 per game, +12.3%)

10. San Jose State, 16,804 (up 382 per game, +2.3%)

11. New Mexico, 15,982 (up1,016 per game, +6.8%)

12. Hawaii, 11,251 (up 2,041 per game, +22.2%)

2023 big Sky attendance

Montana 26,269 104.1
Montana St. 21,610 121.
Sac St. 13,348 62.9
Idaho 11,737 73.3
UC Davis 10,562 97.3
Weber St. 8,155 49.8
Cal Poly 7,392 66.7
Northern Ariz. 7,235 72.3
Idaho St. 7,226 60.2
EWU 5,678 66.1
N. Col. 3,648 42.9
Portland St. 2,636 36.6

Now imagine the montanas accepting an invite. If sac state and UC Davis go with them to the Mountain West it’s a strong conference. Maybe the Dakotas will go instead though. Then the main powers in FCS are gone.

‘ UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka has decided to sit out the rest of his undefeated team’s season because of a dispute over a $100,000 NIL payment that was promised but never paid after he agreed to transfer to the Rebels last winter, Sluka’s agent told The Associated Press on Wednesday.’


By sitting after 3 games, he didn’t burn a year of eligibility. Welcome to the new, improved college football landscape!

2. Securing funding and approvals to build a new, state-of-the-art football stadium that seats at least 25,000 attendees. — PortlandAggie

Easy-peasy complete tear-down / rebuild....NBD....and when does this need to be complete?
And then there's the HS gym.....What is the SAC-12 committee, fans? This is crazy


Its easier for Sac to move right now, as they can jam 22,000 into their erector set bleachers (and hope it doesn't collapse).

It sounds like a cost of $125 - 150 million for a government town and commuter school.

If UNLV goes, I’d be cool with a trip to Laramie and Colorado Springs, but do any of those schools move the needle sufficiently more than the Big Sky foes? Schedule one every year or two but I don’t feel the need to see them every season.

I wonder if Sac State has reached out to the Republic FC about working out some sort of arrangement on sharing their proposed Railyards stadium. Seems like it could be a viable option that would make both teams' plans more realistic.

Regarding a possible move to the FBS. Some quick stats on fan attendance.

Average attendance for all FBS games in 2023 was 42,000.
Average attendance for Pac 12 in 2023 was 49,000.
Average attendance for the Mountain West in 2023 was 24,000.

Average attendance for UC Davis in 2023 was 11,000. FYI, this ranked us 22 out of the 128 programs at the FCS level. To get into the top 10 for the FCS level, we would have to average north of 15,000/game.

With respect to attendance for 2024 we are trending higher (at this point of the season) compared to last year. We will see if that continues for the balance of the season..

Considering that our stadium capacity is 10,743, I guess that's good unless if you're a fire marshal.

I always wondered why the official capacity was listed as 10,743? Last week we had 14,832 so the official capacity figure is certainly not a number that the fire marshal enforces. In addition, there's nothing in the stadium that would be a fire hazard since it's a sunken, concrete stadium and has many easily accessible exits if there was the need for an emergency evacuation.

The only health hazard to fans is the heat and the later start times have mostly addressed this problem although the fans on the east side and the end zones can still get baked in the games that start at 1 or 4 pm if the temps are high later in the season.

The “official” capacity is based on seats, so if the seats are relatively full and the berms are hopping, there ya go. Fire marshal capacity is more based on the ability for the crowd to safely exit the facility, so all of the gates and wide concourse assists with that number.

Fresno State is gone. The MWC without Fresno and Boise is essentially the Big Sky and the media deal will reflect that reality. For Davis to move to the new MWC and be marginally competitive in football would require at least $50m of capital expenditures plus an increase of $10m per year to the football budget. $10m per year is more than 2x the annual ticket, sponsorship and donor contributions for the entire athletic department. Good luck.

Paid attendance at ucd has been in the range of 5k in a good year. The total attendance is juiced by the students the first two weeks of class. They don’t contribute to the gate and nobody is really counting. 11k is generous as max capacity within the fences. There’s no way 14.5 is a real number.

Neither of them have any money.

Several reports on twitter that UNLV and Air Force have decided to stay in the MW which leaves both the Pac and MW at 7 teams

Yes, and $25-30 Million to stay. What a bonanza! But how many years will that lock them in?

This whole saga has certainly been something to say the least. As much as I think it would be cool for Davis to make the jump up, I'm not sure this level on instability is healthy for a program.

How are the finances of mediocre FBS programs? How do they justify staying in the FBS?

Ask Idaho

Apparently, some mediocre FBS schools succeed and others fail. I presume UC Davis should be in a healthier financial position over other schools like Nevada or San Jose State, right?