From 1993-1999 the old WAC was this:

Air Force
Hawaii
Brigham Young
Utah
Boise State
New Mexico
San Diego State
UNLV
UTEP
Wyoming
(San Jose State and UNLV were added in 1997)

So, yeah, it's close.

Anyone else a bit confused why we were served concept photos a few weeks ago, and then saw no push from Davis towards realignment (especially after texas state seemed disinterested)? Even more so with Hawaii leaving for the MW?

"concept photos" is a loose term :D
I've given some thoughts on this previously....
https://www.aggiesportstalk.com/discussion/comment/58400
https://www.aggiesportstalk.com/discussion/comment/59322

a few weeks later and as much realignment news from other programs and conferences comes out, and not one mention of davis has been talked about, I really do find that whole stadium rendering thing embarrassing, considering I had family members who literally have never been to davis see that tweet and message me about it. Also disappointing considering what I consider to be a pretty big increase in social media content surrounding athletics and engagement from fans, but sigh, we continue to get weird tweets from the athletics department and seemingly no offense when it comes to pushing for a move. I feel that a big issue with Davis fans, at least from what I understand as a student and talking to people, is that as the college football landscape changes, most people I know who are casual fans simply feel disenchanted by the literal names and stadiums of schools we play, and also see the FCS playoffs as worse than a bowl game (no matter what I think) because they don't see worth in fighting for a championship that literally could be against a team with less than 10k students. Family friends also (as dumb as it may sound), like the davis stadium but find it underwhelming.

like the davis stadium but find it underwhelming. — Jdur

Maybe they never had the chance to experience the old-world charm of Toomey Field?

https://ballparks.smugmug.com/University-of-California-Davis-Toomey-FIeld-Davis-California

(thanks to @bob busser out there in internet-land for the cool site)

No one cares about the student enrollment in bowl games. Haven’t heard anyone not wanting their school to play Notre Dame because they don’t have 10,000 undergrads.

What I was trying to say was that many people I know already struggle with knowing many of the g5 FBS teams, and know even less FCS teams (even ones that make the playoffs sometimes), leaving them struggling to get very excited about the competition by simply seeing ads or social media posts. I would be inclined to believe that the average fan would be more excited to watch a Davis vs unr conference game, or davis vs the likes of san diego state or texas tech bowl game than playing Drake or UT Martin.

Are you telling me your friends and family didn't call you immediately afrer Davis beat Utah Tech?!? (Heavy on the sarcasm.)

they actually lit off fireworks and had a parade down the street to be exact!

I hijacked a few tvs at a sports bar where we were having an event for my kid's school and had the bartender put that game on. The three other Davis alumni thought it was awesome. I could hear the other 75 parents saying, "Is this a HS game???"

the average fan would be more excited to watch a Davis vs unr conference game, or davis vs the likes of san diego state or texas tech bowl game than playing Drake or UT Martin. — Jdur

100%. If Davis made the jump, I would love to see them lumped in with Fresno St., SJSU, San Diego schools, etc. Anything more "local" than Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. I miss making the drive to the St. Marys games back in the day. At least when we play Stanford and Cal, we might get beat (except that one time!), but people recognize our opponent.

Exactly! Trying to explain how the FCS playoff system works and how were d1 but not FBS is actually such a pain in the arse. Also wild to me that a school with 40,000 fans and a football history of 106 years has not moved up.

i think we haven't moved up because prior to this year, there was no place to go. The MWC didn't need another school, and the Pac12 certainly didn't need/want us. That left....the AAC? MAC? We were stuck by geography. Now there are openings but there is a ton of uncertainty going forward with the FBS. Can the San Jose's of that world exist with the new scholarship limits without a big boast in TV revenue (i can't imagine those TruTV and CW broadcasts are big money makers). The whole landscape is screwed up. Hard for me to argue a HUGE investments in funds for a future that is so uncertain; but, then again, i'm conservative when it comes to how i spend my millions!

The 105 scholarship limit is an attempt by the top conferences to restrict competition.There was a temporary need to increase the scholarships because of the extra year of eligibility, that need is about expired.
The top FBS teams will have sitting on their bench unused talent that used to be in conferences like the Mountain West. The top conference’s level of play will very marginally increase while lower level conferences talent and FCS will significantly decline, and not be as competitive for TV contracts.

Yeah, I have to explain to my relatives how our players are actually true student athletes, go to class, study engineering and biology, and are rarely accepted with a sub 3.0 GPA.

It seems the Big West could market itself better. Instead of Vegas for the BB tourney, why not rotate it to a different site every year? Or two campus sites? Home sites should see some boisterous sellouts which are great for TV.

This is good point.
Moving to D1 / FCS in 2003 was an attainable goal with a landing spot in Great West Conference (with the eventuality of the Big Sky, who added 6 schools a few years later - UNC 2006, UCD CP UND SUU 2012). I seriously doubt we'd have been able to upgrade facilities to FBS levels at the time anyway (if the MWC/WAC had been knocking)- way too big a jump for Davis at one time. And "geography" still mattered back then, so those cross-county conferences weren't ever an option like they are now.

Moving up the ladder over time as we have seems prudent. But how much time are we talking here? It would be nice to hear some kind of timeline from the AD- we talking 2030, 2050, whenever? Give us something....

I sure hope it happen well before 2050! I'll be long gone by then!

Just a note: Hawai'i has elected to move to the Mountain West in 2026, leaving the Big West.

With Hawai'i leaving the BW the move back to SoCal for the BW tournament may well happen.

agree with the student enrollment not being a factor in a competitor

@Jdur There are 40,000 students, not fans at Davis. Way back when I was a student in the late 70’s the attendance at home games at Toomey were typically 7-10 k, and I remember the Nevada Reno game having 13,000 (SRO). I think the capacity of the Toom was maybe 8,000 at best even with the end zone bleachers. Student enrollment then was about 18,000 to include graduate students, so by simple proportion one would think there would be at least twice the number of students attending home games. I don’t see that. I think a main factor is changing student demographics, with fewer being exposed to football prior to college. Add to that the general cultural malaise towards college football in California (especially Northern). Given this, I fail to see how playing a mountain east school for instance would draw significantly more attendance than current trends. I watch what SJ State games I can get and when the drone pans from above I don’t see more than maybe 5-6k people on the stands. Cal’s stadium is never more than half full unless game day comes.

In the south, it doesn’t matter who you play - the stadium is packed. Tennessee could play Sisters of the Poor and there would be 105,000 in attendance. Even at NC State there is not much difference. They had 58,000 (near or at capacity) when they played Western Carolina, a FCS team not even in the top 10.

Anyway I don’t know what the answer is to getting attendance figures bumped up.

Actually, 7-10K attendance wasn't typical - those were big games, no midterm weekends, not 3-day holiday weekend, and not pre season. There were (are) lots of variables.

I think comparing davis and SJSU is a bit tough considering SJSU is largely a commuter school not in a college town. I also think its interesting considering we get crowds around 7-10k playing schools that were not historic rivals like UNR now. I think that is my point, while we may never have a 100k capacity stadium, being in a conference with flagship schools of states like UNM, UNR or heck even Air force seems beneficial to an already higher average capacity. I also think getting into a conference with actually broadcasted games that are not only on ESPN+ would create more energy from alumni who dont want yet another subscription, but people who are just flipping through channels. That increase of recognition on television would inevitably translate to some level of regional and local (campus and otherwise) fan attendance boosts at games. I also gotta say that while our stadium is great for what it is, I can only imagine with a renovation even close to what rocko and others have teased, football recruits, some level of prospective students, and alumni will be more interested in attending a game with a larger and more imposing stadium design, a larger tv audience where you can actually go to a bar and watch the game, and a more recognizable team playing us on the field.

You are right.
I spent some time going back to look at some attendance numbers from old box scores / write-ups from Toomey from like 2003-2006. Attendance really was around 5,000-8,000, if we want to be brutally honest. The average game with students during the term looked like around 6,500-7,000. I remember it that way too.
I wanted to see if the new stadium boosted attendance. It did.

Several people here have had the same revelation. Many missed the opening game w few students, or a Thanksgiving game. The snack bar and bathrooms were minimalist, and we had a dirt track!

I think you are correct with Toomey attemdance. But with both “moving up”, a new stadium, and more than twice the student population, current attendance is still not impressive. Again I think due to student demographics and west coast blase attitude toward college football.

In the south, it doesn’t matter who you play - the stadium is packed. Tennessee could play Sisters of the Poor and there would be 105,000 in attendance.

Can confirm. And it could be during the Tuesday night MAC-tion slot - does not matter.

I can remember one game in the late 90s where at best there were 50 people at a game in the pouring rain during a holiday weekend. We had a blast running from endzone to endzone. Sure, maybe it isn't the same experience as something like Michigan. But we made that north endzone loud and intimidating. So much fun at the Toom!

I saw some streakers once during a timeout... I think they just had tennis shoes on!

Same fun late one night during finals, 1AM, in the Undergrad. Very sad when campus powers took that space back for book storage when they remodeled and expanded the library.

How many could the Undergrad hold? Couple hundred?

Jdur made some great points with nationally televised games and notable opponents.

We have D1 football but we always need to add the caveats of fcs.

JT said it right in the podcast and I’m paraphrasing. We strive to be a top academic we should be striving to be a top athletic program. There is no reason we can’t be.

We aren’t attracting a sports fan student right now. I think that can change over time with a plan to eventually move up.

Has anybody seen was is happening to former Pac-12 schools in conference?

UCLA 0-4
USC 1-3
Stanford 1-2
Cal 0-3

Nobody actually took attendance in those days except for the playoff games, where there were no free student tickets. The SID would eyeball it from the press box. And they would guesstimate based on 9,000 seats. But considering there were actually only about 7,500 seats, the guesstimates were a bit generous. The legendary Nevada game in the 70’s and the early 90’s Causeway games (except when Davis stupidly hosted at Hughes) had 10k with added bleachers.