That is exactly what is happening. The PAC 12 brand is really just the MWC plus a couple of stray animals. The MWC looks like the old WAC with some randoms. Neither of these conferences are particularly appealing to casual football fans in the Sac market. Plus, in five years the media deals wind down and it’s back to the drawing board.

Oh, I'm well aware. I lurk around on most of the active forums for the Big Sky and theirs is the most openly hostile and like you said, not just to fans of other teams.

No, the FCS does not have 105 full scholarships, it's still 63.
From Sam Herder:

FCS schools that opt-in to the House settlement can go above the 63 scholarship limit and it won’t impact playoff eligibility. However, an FCS conference can set a cap on number of football scholarships. Even if the Big Sky, for example, set the cap at 63, a team that opts in can spread their 63 scholarships over 105 players instead of the current 63 scholarships spread over 85 players. (FCS can offer partial scholarships.) So opting in gives you better flexibility to get more players scholarship $. A team could also hypothetically offer a number of “non-scholarship” players an in-house NIL deal that pays their tuition, so they could creatively go over the scholarship minimum anyway even if a conference set a cap. FCS schools that opt in could create a good competitive advantage, but mid-major athletic departments don’t just have extra $ laying around to throw a ton of more scholarship $ to players, so it’d take some fundraising help

Not getting into the FBS doesn't seem to be affecting Marion's ability to continue to bring in some of the top talent in the nation. This kid had over 20 FBS offers including schools like Alabama, Auburn, Miami, Florida State, Penn State, Colorado and Tennessee among others. Marion's recruiting must have those programs dumbfounded by what they are seeing.

An FCS conference can set a limit and some do. The Big Sky limit is 63.
Last week the Missouri Valley Football Conference, just decided not to set a cap, joining these listed from google AI:
CAA: The CAA has mandated that all member institutions opt-in to the new NCAA rules, effectively removing the scholarship cap.
NEC: The Northeast Conference has also opted into the new rules, allowing for up to 105 scholarships, mirroring the new NCAA roster limit.
Southland: The Southland Conference will not enforce a football scholarship cap, allowing its members to distribute scholarships as they choose within the 105-player roster limit.
Here is why, also from google AI
NCAA Changes: The NCAA has eliminated the previous scholarship caps for most Division 1 sports, including football, and implemented roster limits instead.
House Settlement: The House vs. NCAA settlement, which includes provisions for revenue sharing and the changes to scholarship limits, is prompting these changes.
Conference Autonomy: While the NCAA has made these changes, individual conferences, like the MVFC, have the ability to set their own rules and scholarship caps.

For purposes of athletics, what is a “scholarship”? Tuition, while certainly not inexpensive, is the lesser compared to housing, fees, insurance, etc. and many California residents already qualify for discounted or free tuition based on income, with the non-tuition costs frequently being the larger challenge for an ordinary student. Do athletic scholarships include cash allowance for all the non-tuition costs like housing, fees, books, etc? And let’s say a particular recruit was already eligible for discounted tuition based on income, would the athletic scholarship count as whole or partial in that case? Said another way, could a partial athletic scholarship stack with other kinds of scholarships or financial aid to equal full cost of attendance?

Full athletic scholarships cover tuition, fees, books, housing, meals and probably etc.
I don’t think it matters if the student gets discounted tuition, because the amount of tuition varies in other ways as well, like in state or out of state. Partial and full scholarships can be augmented with NIL money and revenue sharing, to meet or exceed the cost of attendance.
But the scholarship count issue is becoming moot, as the NCAA now has roster size limits in place of scholarship counts, and I suspect conferences don’t audit scholarships, which as you indicate are complicated and debatable. I think the NCAA got rid of scholarship counts just because what is
a scholarship is undefinable when mixed with other payments.

What!!!?? Holy crap....that is unbelievable. They are def playing the SACST athletic school angle. More than that, they are using the minority angle to bring in black coaches for black students. Really smart. This is really interesting.

Before all these players sign, the schools are going to have to put in writing everything that is promised. Since the payouts will be directly from the schools for schools that opt into the House settlement, it follows that what these kids are being offered by public schools
will be public info. That will be interesting.

From Facebook:

Sac State Enters Agreement With Chinese University

Under the leadership of President Luke Wood, Sac State has announced that it’s entered into an agreement with a Chinese university controlled by the Communist government that also includes a School of Marxism. Meanwhile tuition for American students at Sac State are increasing. In other words California tax payer money is now being used to help strengthen a communist government’s universities while simultaneously increasing the financial burden on Sac State students to just be able to afford to go to school. Make it make sense.

“Today, Sac State signed a memorandum of understanding with Guangxi University in China - an exciting first step toward creating student and faculty exchange programs between the two universities." ...

The comments are interesting.

https://www.facebook.com/100063754704993/posts/pfbid0386sgT68pMaEU4UWmMxqnbbruxbj26gZ9tMV7sqJM2SjZeMPQdBky7iTrWSVkEmr5l/?mibextid=CDWPTG

I haven’t seen any other sources report this and the picture is definitely not Luke Wood. That said, part of the chicken and egg Wood strategy is use football to market to out-of-state students and use those out-of-state fees to subsidize football program until it turns its imaginary multimillion dollar profits by itself. I don’t think football would be a big draw to Chinese students, but I’m sure he would like to attract full fare international students however possible. In fairness, this is not really a new strategy. UC and other research universities have been selling access to the CCP for a long time because they are willing to pay full price. I just think historically CSU has had less content of interest to the CCP.

Marion is a heck of a recruiter that is for sure. It's hard to argue with what he personally has been able to do at Sac so far, though I wouldn't want the number of players with criminal records coming into the program I support. He hasn't been the problem at this circus.

Being able to convince a 4 star player to come to Sac State of all places is exactly why Marion won't be with the Hornets for long. If he has success on the field this year a program that has more money than Sac is going to come knocking and looking at his track record with employment, history says he'll jump ship.

I’m aware of a single Sac State player, Diesel Gordon facing a criminal charge and his case was treated like a nothing burger by the court. Tell me if there are others.
Gordon was charged with assault and reckless driving related to he and another Washington football players assaulting a bicyclist This was several years ago, He has since olayed at a community college.. i’m not saying he’s a fine citizen.
“ He pleaded guilty to assault and his reckless driving charge was dismissed. His sentence was deferred for two years - it will be dismissed if he has no new criminal violations in that time frame. He had to pay a small court fee and served 24 hours of community service.”

with SEC schools set to pay roughly $15M (estimates I’ve been reading) to their football players AND trying to suppress the NIL system, what’s the incentive to NOT sign with one of the 2-3 major conferences. The lure of FBS independent football? Weird

Even if Sac has a rough season, I wouldn’t be surprised if a P4 team hires Marion as a well-paid assistant coach and then lets him take charge of recruiting. With the limited TV exposure and Sac’s facilities, I’m baffled at how he’s managing to attract these recruits.

The majority of the top athletes that Marion has landed are black athletes and I think a big piece of why Marion is getting so many highly rated recruits is due to the inviting, inclusive, black culture that Marion and Wood have established. This culture speaks personally to many of the black athletes and it means a lot to them on a personal level.

Many black athletes come from disadvantaged backgrounds and college football can provide an avenue for success for them and, for many, their families as well. Both Marion and Wood represent huge success stories to them especially having overcome difficult circumstances that they can relate to.

Black athletes represent the largest racial group playing D1 football:

Data from the NCAA Race and Gender Demographics Database shows that among Division I men’s college football student-athletes in 2020, 36.5% were white, 48.4% were black, 3% were Hispanic/Latino, 0.3% were Asian.

However, black D1 football coaches are very much underrepresented:

Race and Gender Demographics Database shows that among Division I college football head coaches in 2020, 81.7% were white, and 15.6% were black, with other minority groups also severely lacking representation. For Division I College Football Offensive Coordinators, 82.7% were white, and 14.8% were black. For Defensive Coordinators, 74% were white, and 20.6% were black. Additionally, for all other assistant coaches, 51.8% were white, 40% were black, 1.1% were Hispanic/Latino, and less than 1% were Asian.

Culture means a lot to everyone. It's normal for people to feel more comfortable and connected with others who share similar experiences and values. It gives us a sense of identity and belonging and fitting in. Marion and Wood understand that and the Sac football culture is currently filling that need very well for many of the athletes they are landing.

PS: I am not suggesting that white athletes and other racial group athletes would not be welcomed to play at Sac...not in the least. I'm only saying that the current football culture at Sac has been heavily influenced by Marion's personality, coaching style and previous success and, along with all the FBS hype from Wood, this is very attractive to many black athletes in a sport that is heavily underrepresented by black coaches and role models.

https://insight.balancenow.co/diversity-of-college-coaches-and-athletes-college-football/

Interesting to read that Ole Miss is still recruiting McDonald despite his verbal. This is a great coup and pick up for Sac, but they need to continue to recruit this kid until December.
I am a huge skeptic about what Sac is trying to do with FBS, but even I must admit they are getting some positive results in the short-term.

Black President, AD, HC, staff ... but if the HC jumps after a year, how many will stick? Local loyalties, educational goals? Sac is ripe for local, successful teams.

Maybe he “committed” to Sac based on the superior academic experience offered there ,,,,,

My guess is that maybe:
- The SEC offers weren’t that good as a 160 lb. 6’2” (and weight is normally fudged upward in football) would end up as a pretzel in SEC football although he could fill out
-he knew he would ride the bench for a while if not most of his career at an SEC school
- and in either case Marion - who obviously is quite charismatic- sold him “I will get you to the NFL” spiel. 18 year olds hear what they want to hear and Marion won’t be around long enough for those he recruited to experience reality. He seems to always be one step ahead of his promises. The reality is that many of theses young kids think they are going to the NFL and the reality is that very few make it. I don’t think a lot of coaches care about the degree or academic/job preparation of the players, and in that sense the athletes get taken advantage of.

Regarding the lack of role models for blacks in coaching.
How many role models does one need? If 40% of the Div 1 football assistant coaches are black that would seem to indicate role models are not hard to find, even if one assumes that your role model should look like you.
Expecting the % of head coaches should be equal to the % of players in Div 1, ignores that coaches are drawn from a larger pool. There are a ton of coaches who didn’t play in Div 1.
The journey to becoming a head coach or AD often includes time coaching high school, division 3 schools, volunteering for no pay as an analyst. There are individuals of all races that take that career path, but one can’t assume they do so in proportion to demographics of players. Cultural issues affect who wants to do what in life.

Matthew Sluka was recruited by Marion to UNLV (from Holy Cross) and according to Sluka’s agent Marion told him he would get a 100k NIL deal …. and when Sluka did not receive compensation he left.

I think it comes down to money, and Sac is willing to promise more than the going rate for a three and four stars.
It is cheap to make promises, when signing date comes around they’ll have to put it in writing,
Sac’s recruiting class is rated 56th by 247 among all schools, even after grabbing McDonald.

Including FBS?

I think there are a lot a valid comments here regarding my post about the new football culture at Sac and the various racial statistics of D1 football players. It's an interesting conversation.

My point of view comes from my own professional experience working with predominantly minority, junior college students at one point in my career. I'm a retired therapist and, for the last 11 years of my career, I split my time between my private practice and contracting with Sacramento City College to provide mental health counseling to students.

I have always been deeply interested in the dynamic interplay between our external environment and our individual biology and psychology and the profound effects it has on shaping our inner self, our personality and our world view. Multicultural influences adds yet another significant layer to all of this too. Oh well, don't let me get going on the "shrink" stuff! :lol:

Role models are particularly important to young people who didn't have successful role models who looked like them during their formative years. Sacramento City College offered College Success Courses that were available to all students but some were specifically aimed at various ethnic groups and they were taught by counselors who identified with those ethnicities. These classes were designed to help students learn the basic organizational, time management and disciplinary skills necessary to have a chance to succeed in college.

For example, there was a male, African American counselor who taught a College Success class aimed primarily at black males who were one of the highest risk groups to drop out. Many of his students took his class because he was black and they felt that he could relate to their cultural identity better than a non-black counselor. Similarly, various Asian students, Chinese, Hmong, Philipino etc, were drawn to the College Success Classes taught by Asian counselors and the same was true for Hispanic students.

So my point, regarding the current Sac football culture, is that many of the elite players they are getting may be strongly drawn to the culture that has been created by their largely African American football staff and an African American university president who are successful role models who look like them and share their cultural identity.

According to 247sports. Somewhat better than the revised Pac-12. But its early.
Idaho is ranked 81, Davis 100

These are verbals, right?

247 Sports is currently showing that Sac already has 7 hard commits for 2027 and they a have made an a whopping 295 additional offers.

https://247sports.com/college/sacramento-state/season/2027-football/offers/

We are talking 2026 class so the NLI signing period hasn’t occurred yet, so only verbals.

I completely agree with your analysis—it makes more and more sense the longer I think about it. How many historically Black colleges do we even have in California? I mean, is there anything out here that compares to a Howard on the West Coast? Honestly, I can’t think of any. Given how many successful Black men and women are out here, it would be incredible if SACST evolved into that kind of institution. If that’s the direction this is headed, it’s a really compelling idea. A “Howard” or “Grambling” of the West could have a huge impact and draw a lot of attention.

Copy. You think they are breaking rules?