So Luke Wood says they have draft schedules for several years. Are they planning to just do full barnstorming road schedules in the 2026-2028 period? Where is the money coming to get any home games?

Everything he does looks like fake it til you make it.

don’t need a stadium if you live on the road. Luke Wood follows Roy Cohn’s playbook - attack everything, admit nothing, and always claim victory. The question if this is just a stop on the Luke Wood promo train before he skips town for greener grass or if he’s been drinking his own Kool Aid and is a true believer in this plan.

I guess I just realized that his brother is the ci-leader of the Sac12?

Or is it the Sacdependent?

the brother also owns a sports consulting firm and a stadium/arena management company. Certainly a lot of opportunities for an inappropriate relationship that I would hope CSU is watching.

I would look for 5/7 split of home vs. away games in 26 and 27. Big paydays on the road, and less home games during stadium construction won't be the worst.

FCS Daily Dose: Thoughts On Sac State’s Plan To Go FBS Independent

-I have heard and confirmed that Big Sky school officials recently voted to increase the exit fee from $250K to $1 million. I also heard there was only one dissenting vote. It’s a pretty safe guess who voted no.

-There is also a $5 million transition fee for an FCS team to move to the FBS.

-Sac State would have to find another conference to park its Olympic sports in.

-What happens if this waiver isn’t approved? That could happen. But Sac State president Luke Wood and NCAA president Charlie Baker have met. I assume Sac State feels confident that this move will get approved, or else it’d be odd for the university president to be publically promising they will be FBS.

-Going from FCS to FBS independent is unorthodox, unstable, and expensive. Liberty, with piles of money, pulled it off in the 2010s and eventually landed in CUSA. But it’s a gamble that may make sense for Sac State. More on this below, but in short: Get better positioned for an FBS conference invite and potential for massive community engagement and financial support.

Whole article here: https://herosports.com/fcs-thoughts-sac-state-plan-fbs-independent-bzbz/

FCS Daily Dose: Sac State’s Path To FBS Independent Approval

It’s no secret that FBS leaders, especially those in the Power 4, do not want to see the FBS grow by adding more FCS teams. Some within the Mountain West Conference wanted to add North Dakota State, but MWC presidents instead voted to invite Northern Illinois as a football-only member, and a big reason for that was wanting to add an already-established FBS program.

Sac State has a strong pitch to join the FBS as an independent due to its location, facility upgrades, and reported community financial support.

However, its fate is essentially up to other FBS schools and conference representatives. Will these FBS leaders deny Sac State’s request to join their subdivision as an independent? Will a “no” answer result in a lawsuit from Sac State, so they’ll say “yes” to avoid that headache? Is there a concern of opening the floodgates and a precedent if they say yes and we see other FCS programs try to take this same FBS independent route? How does the future pathway from FCS to FBS look as NCAA governance sees some changes?

It’ll certainly be interesting to see how it unfolds. Liberty was able to make a similar jump in the 2010s. Sac State hopes to follow that same path.

Whole article here: https://herosports.com/fcs-sac-state-path-to-fbs-independent-approval-bzbz/

"Sac State has a strong pitch to join the FBS as an independent due to its location, facility upgrades, and reported community financial support."

So two of these three are unproven or speculative right now.

Your Central Valley: New fee to designate $5M to Fresno State Athletics

"Beginning this fall, the instructionally related activities fee for Fresno State students will increase from $628 to $1,123."

"...The increase is projected to bring in more than $11.3 million to the university. What’s getting criticized is the $5 million that will be designated to the athletics department.

"That total outpaces second second-place holder by more than two and a half times and is 43% of the total increase."

- it looks like there was no student referendum, the Chancellor acted w focus groups
- the Chancellor took no direct questions
- looks like they're banking that 50-55% of students will have the new fees covered by financial aide
- the campus provided close to $20 million in direct aid to Athletics last year
- it's possible the $5 million will be used to reduce campus support
- I thought I read somewhere these monies could also be used for NIL deals
- I'm sure Dr. Wood is following this

https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-news/new-fee-to-designate-5m-to-fresno-state-athletics/

I drafted the exact same response but didn't post. Only one of these is in evidence yet, not three. Non-local commentators on social media, and in the professional media, are way too credulous(/gullible) about this. It's possible that everything about how Sac State has operated to date has changed, and they are finding it way easier to raise money than they have in the past, but we certainly don't have any tangible visible evidence of that yet. Phase 1 of the stadium rebuild that will likely ultimately cost a quarter billion dollars is a $2 million bathroom upgrade. The stadium (and NIL fund) are still fantasy at this point.

AMA! Ask me (President Wood) anything. Lots of disinformation, let’s talk about it.

I’m Luke Wood, President of Sac State. Ask me anything. Respectful questions only. Here for two hours.

>Stingers Up! I’ll run this back again in the future.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CSUS/s/GDauvV2Ar4

Some snippets from the Reddit page.
- seems that most student disapprove the new athletic fees. He also sort of admits to some of his previous lies including no conference showing real interest in adding them, and he is now giving updated timeline for “stadium”.

Probably didn't go the way he was hoping it would. He's surrounded himself with so many yes men that I don't know if he's heard dissent in the last year.

"New stadium will be in place for 2026, latest 2027" :lol:

They would need to be building it now to keep to his stated timeline! They don't have a plan, to say nothing of actual funding for said plan, to say nothing of building approvals to get shovels in the ground. This is ridiculous.

I was shocked by this response, too.

"New stadium will be in place for 2026, latest 2027" :roll:

I think he meant the beginning of construction will begin in 2026 or 2027. But even then he is now starting his back track of doing phase 1 of lights/bathroom this year and next phase “most likely” next year. In reality he probably has $0 for it yet and hopes to build some excitement with all his propaganda, move to FBS, and hoping for a good 1st year of Marion. I doubt they will have the funda to officially start phase 2 before 2027

If Marion succeeds, he may be quickly gone.

That could well be given his track record of changing schools nearly every year.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brennan_Marion

Stadium in 18 months, make it so. lol, money/project hasn't been secured and hasn't broken ground yet (?) Who says things like this?

"I've been careful to announce anything because of the purposeful misinformation that is being constantly spread."

lol what? This guy has been the most irresponsible disseminator of information I've witnessed in a while.

he and his team of fake social Influencers are the ones giving fake info and propaganda to build up fake excitement to get more $ and conference invite.

Summary of Reddit questions in addition to the above-

• his kid plays Halo and Pokémon
• he is kind of into the collectible sneaker game and prefers to wear basketball shoes with his suits
• when asked if he would consider donating a portion of his half million dollar pay package back to student causes in light of budget cuts, he said no, that he is underpaid and already doing the state a charity.
• didn’t want to talk about protest/speech issues on campus
• didn’t want to talk about international student/visa issues
• wasn’t aware of electric scooter safety issues
• wasn’t sure how commencement speakers are chosen
• wasn’t aware that commencement tickets are being scalped at high prices
• doesn’t have a specific plan on parking and transportation but if you do, please email him
• didn’t want to talk about recent staff/faculty layoffs.
• when asked about administrators, he said how valuable they were, so no senior layoffs planned.
• when asked about dilapidated lecture halls, he said not his fault and deferred maintenance, which would be too hard to explain.
• when pressed about buildings without working AC, he explained his plan is to make Sac State football so profitable it can fund repairs all over campus.

"...underpaid and already doing the state a charity"

Boo-fucking-hoo. :roll:

The downvotes are priceless. On the other hand, I can only imagine what Linda Katehi's Q&A would look like before she left.

Gary May, I wonder if he has ever done something like this?

Say what? Incredible! :gasp:

Woods should enroll in clown college. He probably already has some credits that would transfer.

I wonder if Katehi types the way she talks - without regard for “th” or “r”. Vanderhoef used to have an open office hour in the coffee house every week. I think Reddit can be a great way to have a town hall but the premise of an AMA is to ask me anything—you better be prepared for that. Refusing legitimate topics as a public employee or worse, saying ask me in person, I don’t want the internet trolls to see my response, eeesh.