The city of Sacramento spent hundreds of millions of dollars to prevent the worst team in the NBA from divorcing them. What’s another 50m to create one of the most irrelevant franchises in FBS to keep things interesting with #110 San Diego State. And probably still lose to Davis sometimes if they aren’t too chicken to play.

cuz San Jose kicked their butts and they are hailed as the prime example why the NCAA is making it harder to make the FBS jump. I don’t think job recruiters are tracking them and their valuable diplomas.

It’s true schools like Boise and Gonzaga got big boosts in applications and enrollment with their emphasis/success in athletes. I don’t think we need any help in either area.

As someone who works in an east coast city, the value does not only come in name recognition but networking opportunities. Every weekend FBS schools are hosting watch parties and univesities affiliated happy hours where alumni and interns network and yes land valuable jobs, some of which never even get posted. And to further that networking conferences, like the PAC12, Big 10, etc host conference wide happy hours that only further the networking and collaborations.

While we may not NEED boosts in applications, it certainly wouldn't hurt. Oh and Davis has one of the lowest enrollement rates in the UC system among accepted students. Improving the schools image and noterity could lend itself to a student choosing UCD over a UCSD or UCSB. It would really cement the school as the college town that it is trying to portray.

I say all this while recognizing, based on communications from Rocko, that this is unlikely. But at this point I'd say we are as likely to lose football entirely if this is not being further explored. If the school shared a vision and actually asked for money maybe they would get it. I have yet to receive an email asking me for a dime for athletics. If our alumni are so prestigious then we should have some business leaders with deep pockets, like Sac has been able to leverage by sharing a vision.

Perhaps there is a bit of chicken and egg in that before the alumni and community are going to support greater investment, the university needs to cultivate a relationship. I also live on the east coast, name recognition is not great but I do occasionally run into Aggie t-shirts. The overwhelming response is oh, I (or my kid) went there, loved living in Davis, but haven’t been involved since, got the shirt as a Christmas present. My dad went to Davis, I was Davis guy all the way growing up, and then the relationship went sour. I went on to grad school and they relentlessly called me for cash donations, when I explained that grad students don’t have a lot of income, the phone reps kind of callously suggested I put a $500 donation on a credit card and pay it off over time… I finally told them so wasn’t an ATM and to stop calling, and they did. Fast forward 15 years and now I am a subject matter expert in what I do at my company, have a good relationship with executives and I influence intern and FTE hiring. Still not an ATM, but would I meet with a high school senior considering Davis? Sure. Would I talk to a current student about career paths in my business or look over a resume? Sure. Would I consult with the university for free on my areas of expertise? Sure. Would I let a wayward Aggie have thanksgiving at my table? Of course. Having a sports team that garners a screen at the local sports bar helps provide a venue, but is not required for the university to help facilitate these relationships. But until the university gets over this idea that I’m exclusively a cash resource and they know best what to do with it, I’m afraid the bank is closed. My family funded a scholarship for while, thought it was weird we hadn’t gotten a thank you note in a while (not that that’s why funded it), came to find out the university had forgotten to even award it for a few years and was just taking our money. I know to some degree at least someone in Athletics half reads this board. If they were smart they would building profiles on the posters here as high propensity fans, to try to figure out why we follow athletics and others don’t. You’d think they would lean into it and someone from athletics or Buehler would private message people to engage them - even Comcast tries to PM you if you say something on their social media, positive or negative.

Growing up it was almost a meme before meme existed that UC Santa Cruz would always call us asking for my dad or his fellow alumni friends to give them money.

Thankfully UC Davis just spams my work email every few days which I never gave them permission to do.

Well said. Your situation is unfortunately not unique. The development (fundraising) staff both on the academic side and with althletics is not very strong.

campus fundraising seems to be doing okay:

https://giving.ucdavis.edu/impacts-giving/campaign-success

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My wife and I have always been very pleased with the acknowledgment we have received from the university for our donations to the UC Davis School of Medicine and Aggie Athletics. We've received hand written thank you notes from Jim Les and Jen Gross and phone calls from an assistant football coach. We also receive regular emails from Rocko DeLuca as Team Aggie members.

"Drop football" ....what?! I'd argue the football program is stronger at his moment than its ever been. The talent level on the field and revenue off it have got to be at all-time highs.
The Athletic Department made about $5 million to $6 million last year. I'd say this is mostly from football. Football is very important to the university athletics program.

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2022/7/8/uc-davis-athletics-enjoys-record-breaking-success-in-2021-22#:~:text=During%20the%202021%2D22%20fiscal%20year%2C%20the%20Aggies,boasted%20a%20total%20fundraising%20pledge%20of%20$14%2C268%2C914.

This is from our friends over at HERO sports....Davis has a monster athletics budget, and also a ton of sports (in an extremely expensive state)

https://herosports.com/fcs-schools-highest-2022-23-revenue-bzbz/

dropping football might be a little extreme unless the Big Sky and any remaining FCS fell apart without the resources for FBS.

@DrMike no doubt the phone calls work on someone or they wouldn’t make them. My point is that many recent grads aren’t in a position to be donors yet while they are doing grad school, buying a house, starting a family. But if there was an effort to engage people and ask for contributions of time or skill, there may be a whole untapped market of monetary donors who start to have that capacity as they get established in their careers. Idk what their donor acquisition cost is, but it’s almost always cheaper to keep a customer than find a new one.

I used to fly back for Picnic Day and homecoming most years. But the last conversation I had with a UCD employee was on Picnic Day a few years ago getting hustled out the MU by some jackwagon in a blue polo saying the public restrooms are not for Picnic Day and I will need to use the overflowing portolet outside. So basically, give us money but you’re not worth 1.2 gallons of water and a couple feet of toilet paper, now take your dump outside like an animal. Kind of insulting. Now certainly you can buy respect, with the right donation, you’ll be invited to the club room, the coach will pretend to recognize you, and you’ll be served Sodexo’s finest selection of industrial cheese paired with an $8 bottle of wine disguised by a cloth napkin. Meh, I think I’ll just watch on ESPN and buy my own cheese. My point being that while the P5 schools invest heavily in the high rollers, they do actually try harder to show respect to fans of all levels. Never know who the next high roller might be. If you’re not an insider, the career staff at UCD, not specific to athletics necessarily, are often hostile to the public.

I don't think it's wrong to ask for money or to try to make it easier for those to give it. There's nothing wrong with asking for help. This is one of the best public universities in the country that just so happens to have a small, but historic football program, trying to stay one of the best public universities in the country. Yes, there have been some major donors over the years, but it's not built on private school legacy billionaires. I'm sure the school has tried and keeps trying to find them.

If one doesn't feel thanked enough for their donation, and it leads to burned bridges, that's too bad. And not everyone's always ready or in a place to give. It's hard to please everyone, but hopefully the majority feel like their contributions made a difference. Outside of my full-time job and being a dad, I'm on the board of numerous groups, raising money for students and the community ($20k this year!), never expecting thanks for this volunteer work, or expecting to meet the people who've benefited... in one of the groups, Rotary, we say, "Service Above Self." Helping the cause is reason enough.

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It’s so laughable the idea of dropping football. It brings so much joy to alumnae. It keeps us connected to the university in such a special way. We cannot expect to excel based on attrition.

Agreed. Whether or not UCD football stays FCS or moves up, it is a positive sport/experience to enjoy and rally around. I posted an article earlier about the trend of students enrolling at schools on the south for enjoyable weekends to include football. Georgia Tech was the main photo (rambling wreck rolling into the field with students in the background cheering). I watched the Colorado game - stadium packed, students having a great time. Now Aggie football is, of course, not at that level of enthusiasm with either most students or alums, but dropping football just seems like a Debbie-downer approach.

No sport pays for itself. For decades, Aggie football has brought the campus acclaim, not UCLA level, but not peanuts either. An acquaintance once told me, "I know Davis for agriculture, viticulture, and great small college football."

When Rolf Benirschke was lauded on Monday Night Football by Howard Cosell, and Aggie football was covered yearly in the San Francisco Chronicle and Sports Illustrated, few had such criticisms.

Schools without football often have an even worse gender imbalance. Where are the State and Federal programs to increase male enrollment?

When was UC Davis in the Chronicle? They generally cover(ed) Cal, Stanford, SJSU, and the WCC teams.

At least 1980s. Top columnist Glenn Dickey was big on Sochor and pushed him for the Cal and Stanford jobs. Riding BART into the City, lots of eyes on Herb Caen and GD.

Davis usually got a couple paragraphs each week in “The Sporting Green”.

was before my time circa late 90s and 00's.

I’m a 70s/80s kid and sporting green fan. While I don’t recall many Davis references I would not be shocked that we had coverage. SF is a small town (it really is) and the Chronicle likely appreciated Coach Sochors SF roots (Washington HS…rival of Lincoln- a plug for my dad’s Alma mater) and playing time at SF State. The Gators had a great program back in the day led by coaches Verducci and Rowan. Lots of pride here… to think Andy Reid, Mike Holmgrem were part of the coaching tree is impressive.

https://www.actionnetwork.com/ncaaf/hawaii-full-mountain-west-member-2026?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=BrettMcMurphy

Sources: Hawaii to Become Full Mountain West Member in 2026

Kudos to them for getting a deal without travel subsidies.

from a basketball perspective, I think this is great. Back to 10 teams, without the scheduling considerations made for for teams traveling to Hawaii, will mean a more compact conference schedule. No more mid December conference openers (or worse, conference openers during winter break).

So does this seal Sac's fate as being left out of the MWC, as the conference has reached the required amount of football teams?

MWC doesn't look half-bad considering the absolute carnage over the past few months:

Air Force
Hawaii
Nevada
New Mexico
San Jose State
UNLV
UTEP
Wyoming

I think the answer is ‘no’. I think they’d like at least one more for football scheduling reasons. They’d, of course, like 12 so they can have a playoff but that’s not likely

Damn near reconstitution of the WAC

Oh good, Davis can stop flying there for basketball, etc.

Not good for me, an Aggie in Hawaii who won't get to see them play in Hawai`i after this season.

Who knows, Toke, the Aggies could schedule Hawai'i as one of their non-conference games. I'm sure the trip to Hawai'i is something the players like to see on the schedule.