And now they’re going to hire a $500 per hour attorney to help get them out of this jam. Probably a $25000retainer for starts. Then he will get 4-5 young associates up and running at $250 per hour. Absolute gold mine for this so-called A++ “sports attorney” and who is paying for this? Good thing for Wood that the students are all gone for the summer. But, guess what, they will be BACK!!

Interesting read. I think that's the first time we've seen a realistic estimate for stadium cost ($300 million). Still no details about how to plausibly pay for it, beyond hand waving and promises of future fundraising.

Must add an addendum to my post:
1) Kessler has not yet accepted the offer per sac states information office.

2) the law firm of Kessler, Winston and Strawn has stated that Kessler on the House case billed at the rate of $1980 per hour for 1624 hours. That my friends is $15840 a DAY!

I merely ask, is the “tremendously wealthy” Sac12 going to agree to pay for this.

Sorry for the erroneous Kessler billing statement.

Sacramento State, which has had some of the most downtrodden athletic facilities in the country, is upgrading its football home, Hornet Stadium, to a 25,000-seat multiuse venueexpected to be completed by the fall of 2027. It’s estimated to cost as much as $300 million, which Wood confirms will be funded by money allocated to the athletic department, as well as sponsorships and donor pledges.

How do people write this stuff and not ask any follow up questions? At least here it's 2027 instead of the 2026 Wood claims elsewhere. When is construction starting? What will it actually cost? Where is the final design? Specifically, in exact dollars, how is it actually being funded? It's all vaporware that media just take at face value.

Xavier McDonald is a 6'3 WR and has a 93 rating and 4 stars on 247 Sports. He has offers from many of the top Power 4 schools and Sac is one of his final 4 choices
.

They probably tossed him $50k to tweet that...... lol

247 Sports is currently showing that Sac has already made 516 offers for 2026. Their strategy is to flood the zone in hopes of capitalizing on the publicity that gets generated by all of the retweets and social media posts from the players they make offers to even if they know they have practically zero chance of getting some of the most highly recruited players in the nation. The whole idea from Dr. Wood down to their huge football staff is to throw everything they can at the wall and see what sticks and occasionally it does but, when it doesn't, they feel like they will capitalize on all the increased media buzz.

https://247sports.com/college/sacramento-state/season/2026-football/offers/

I'm not saying its good or bad, I'm just saying the college sports we grew up with is effectively over. Let's not kid ourselves, if you were a decent D1 player and a school offered you $100K to play at their school, you'd probably take it. I guess if you look at the true purpose of what college is designed to do, its to give young people a chance for a career. So in a way college is working, just different than what we are used to.

I look at at SACST and I cannot for the life of me think what they are known for. Accounting? Business? I don't know, but what if they used that to be a sports school? Low entry requirements give it a really key advantage in the area. Who are they competing with Davis, Stanford, Cal, Fresno St? It's interesting...

Remember, I'll it takes is one kid to turn a school around. Remember when Jason Kidd went to Cal? Elway to Stanford? Marshall Faulk to San Diego St?

I'm very curious on their strategy. The more I look at it the more it seems possible. What if they go undefeated? Beat South Dakota ST in the opener, then go on to beat Nevada, Montana St, etc. It could be a really interesting storyline.

Sac just had their 1st (to my knowledge) decommit. He committed May 12 .....decommitted and committed to Fresno State yesterday. He is Class of 2026.

We'll see if this happens more....as I'm sure Marion is counting on plenty of defections as they have like 400 offers out....

as they have like 400 offers out.... — SochorField

247 Sports showed them having 30 hard commits for 2026 already and another 516 offers out as of a couple of days ago.

https://247sports.com/college/sacramento-state/season/2026-football/offers/

They've also had a TE, Luke Galer, decommit and pick Washington State. That was pre FBS denial though.

Sac has had 4 three star recruits decommit since 6/25 according to 247sports and a 5th without stars but with multiple offers.
https://247sports.com/college/sacramento-state/Season/2026-Football/Decommits/

holy smokes!

the other question ….how long with this process last? There will be appeals regardless the outcome. This seems like a multi year process to my admittedly non-legal mind.

1

Its like.....take your time and do it right vs. ram it through with hyperbole and half-truths and spend tons of money while pissing everyone off.....
I bet Sac and Davis arrive in the FBS at roughly the same time (within a couple years) with completely different paths/expenses.

Davis doesn't do chaos...for better or worse, we shall see.

Sac may be chasing their tail, they may end up FBS, just in time for college football to divide into new tiers with new names, and the certainty is that Sac won’t be top tier, The top conferences want to split off, leaving the lessor conference, likely including the Mountain West and the Pac12, as the new “JVs”.

Yep. Entirely possible the FBS isn't what we think it will be in less than 10 years. "FBS-A" and "FBS-AA" would be hilarious.

Imagine Sac going through all this to end up in "FBS-AA".....talk about chasing tails.....

FAS, FBS, FCS.

to paraphrase the French, we don't make waves, we quietly buy it when publicity is unfavorable

Canzano: Will the Pac-12 stop at Texas State or keep going?

"The Pac-12 has now pivoted its focus to adding a football-only member, sources tell JohnCanzano.com . Adding a ninth football-playing member would create an eight-game conference football schedule, relieving the burden of finding one more non-conference game. It would also add tonnage and value to the Pac-12’s TV deal.

"Who are the candidates? Is the University of Memphis still a target? How about another Texas-based football member? UTSA? Rice University? Someone else?

"Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould said on Wednesday that her conference is asking itself some other questions..."

Sac State ... or UC Davis... would add the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto TV market ...

The PAC whatever it is isn’t the PAC of old.

Now that North Dakota State and other MVFC teams can have 105 scholarships while SEC teams have limited themselves to 83, the FBS / FCS distinction is ridiculous.

@SochorField you seem to have struck a nerve over on the Sac forum :lol:

They eat their own over on the Sac forum and they have a few members who do not like any "outsiders" to post anything on their forum. SochorField was actually able to make a few neutral posts about Sac before someone called him "a douchebag" and told him "to get the f... off their board."