Good for him - nice story ending. I do remember Ron as a very good running back and if I recall correctly he had some nice spin moves.

I love this and, yes, I remember Ron Austin well from watching him electrify Aggie fans at The Toom. Congratulations to him!

I saw a story on the national news last night about an 88 year old woman in Maine who just got to go through the 2025 Maine graduation ceremony to be given her degree that she had actually completed in 1959. She was prohibited from going through the graduation ceremony in 1959 because she and her husband had just found out that she was pregnant and pregnant women were not allowed to go through the graduation ceremonies. Thank God for the women's rights movement for eventually getting these kinds of misogynistic rules put behind us.

So how is it that you thought you had a degree but didn’t? As i recall there was paperwork to fill out to walk.

This story sounds more accurate. Left school to pursue opportunity in CFL, so didn’t finish probably needed another quarter.
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-student-graduates-after-more-47-years

I would think that your parents would have told you that making negative comments on an otherwise very uplifting human story means that you were being a bad person and should not do it. Maybe no dessert and early to bed. Hey, this guy was an Aggie legend. I am so sad to see these silly comments coming about how he “should have seen the documents to get his degree” or “he left for the CFL early” hey guys this guy was a legend Aggie and do not dis him in any way.

What is negative about saying a guy, after he used up his eligibility left to see if he could play professionally?

I guess we are opting in.

Per Team Aggie Insider news letter:

A note from Athletic Director Rocko DeLuca

With graduation just around the corner, we are sending off our seniors into the world and already looking forward to the fall. As we plan for the continued growth of UC Davis Athletics, I want to provide some updates to you, our valued stakeholders. As you may have seen in the news, the House v. NCAA settlement has been approved and will bring significant changes to the structure of college athletics. While much of the national conversation is centered on high-revenue programs, I want to take a moment to share what this means for UC Davis—and how we’ve been preparing.

After thoughtful review, we plan to opt in to the revenue-sharing model beginning with the 2026–27 academic year. This timeline gives us the opportunity to continue building the financial and operational foundation necessary to deliver a system that reflects our values and long-term aspirations.

While the settlement sets an initial national cap of $20.5 million per institution, that figure is based on commercial revenue models that don’t align with programs at our level of competition. Our focus is on developing a sustainable plan that allows us to support student-athletes in a way that’s consistent with peer institutions in the West—particularly as we look toward future competition in the Mountain West. The extent to which we can do this will depend on growing our base of support and continuing the work already underway:

Restructuring our annual fund to drive broader, long-term philanthropic engagement and increased investment in NIL.

Expanding sport-specific and unrestricted giving through targeted campaigns and storytelling.

Creating new ticket programs focused on expanding our group of season ticket holders and driving attendance from the community.

Identifying new coaching and program endowments to strengthen stability and competitiveness.

Investing in student-athlete services through IGNITE and additional life skills, academic, and career development resources.

Enhancing our NIL strategy to increase clarity, community support, and third-party opportunities for student-athletes.

In addition, student-athletes will continue to participate in third-party NIL agreements with businesses and organizations, supported by a new national clearinghouse for transparency and oversight. This remains a vital area of opportunity, and we’ll continue to help our student-athletes develop the skills and relationships needed for meaningful and lasting success.

These are significant changes, but we’re not starting from scratch. We’ve taken proactive steps to prepare, and with your continued support, I’m confident we will navigate this transition in a way that upholds our mission and strengthens the student-athlete experience. We will be communicating more around our annual fund efforts later this summer but please do not hesitate to reach out directly to me or Chief Development Officer, Liz Gullett, emartinatucdavisdotedu, with any questions about what I have outlined above.

Thank you for all you do. We look forward to raising the bar for UC Davis Athletics and upholding Aggie Pride—together.

With gratitude and Go Ags!

-Rocko

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“ I would think that your parents would have told you that making negative comments on an otherwise very uplifting human story means that you were being a bad person and should not do it.”

How dare you make any comment about my parents. You are either losing it or need a hobby.

How has this group devolved in to insults, either toward sac state, or eachother. This group is wearing me down to the point I don't get much enjoyment out of it lately. Grow up.

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I have noticed a recent trend of declining civility (and posts rivaling PhD dissertation lengths), and I wonder if it is correlated with last years winning season and quite a few new board posters and changing board dynamics. I sure hope things don’t end up like the self-immolating EGriz board Montana has. Perhaps things will calm down when the season starts and we can all focus on the season. The wait 24 hour rule might be helpful in some instances.

That's a good point. Pre-season angst.. But it is entertaining!

As far as daily participation AST is near the top of the BSC, right up there with UM and MSU. A ways behind egriz as far as number of active posters. After UM, MSU and UCD....its a huge drop-off. Lately Sac has closed some of the gap.
AST is by far the most civil forum I've experienced, though.

Admin. has been 99.9% hands-off......we hope it remains this way. And I'm sure it will.

I've been a member of AST since the early days when it began. We are, for the most part by far, a very considerate and friendly Aggie fan forum and I hope it stays that way and grows in popularity and participation. I think it's good for the Aggie fan base to have a supportive fan forum where fans can discuss Aggie Athletics.

I read the Sac forum because I'm interested in what's happening with our long time rival but I would never join and post over there. Some of their members get nasty with each other regularly and call each other out. Our forum administrators would not allow that kind of stuff here and I'm 100% in support of that.

Insults directed at Sac State are a tradition that are at least twice as old as you. — yolohw

How old do you think I am? Anyway, thanks for reinforcing my point. Also, for what it's worth, although the forum is free to join, some of us chip in once a year for this paid service. So, free to join, but not free.

Well, the sac bee thinks that the Ron Austin story is worthy of a frontpage story. See today’s issue. Very positive. And I don’t have to say the Bee does not like saying nice things about UC Davis.so this is very nice for Ron Austin. Someone please cut and paste the Bee story as I am not able to do it.

https://x.com/mattbrownep/status/1937906711433482618?s=46

Well this is interesting… adding SUU and Utah Tech seems to be the Big Sky backfilling Sac States exit… and future proofing the conference for when davis inevitably leaves for the FBS in the future. Can’t see any other reason to add Utah Tech as well.

from reddit: While Sacramento State was yelling about how they're a lock for the Pac-12, Davis quietly announced they were moving from the Big West to the Mountain West as a non-football member in 2026, but the agreement includes that the Mountain West has to give priority to UC Davis before inviting another FCS school. So Davis is still a football affiliate in the Big Sky, but everyone knows that they have one foot out the door

this is exactly what I am talking about, I think these moves from davis and the big sky are correlated despite sac decisions seeming to push everything.

I don't think we have one foot out the door. I think we are happy in the FCS and Big Sky for now. We are smart to have someplace to go if things get really good for us.

One thing is for sure: Davis is never in a hurry to do anything. I could see minor stadium improvements over the next 5-10 years of FCS membership.

Keep in mind, we were happy with the Big West/Big Sky set-up for 13 years, and it provided a nice opportunity to move into the MWC basically at our leisure.

Was just watching all the videos posted on the board and reading the articles about Sac.

Its striking that UCD got a MWC invite with basically a "come play football when you are ready" option......where Sac is getting no invites and doing whatever the heck it is they are doing.

It really shows a huge difference between the two programs. I strongly believe Sac's leadership is failing the university.

The more we watch Sac, the better this deal looks....

Grand Canyon will start MW play this year instead of 2026.

I think you meant MW conference.

Oops...brain fart!. Gotta improve my proof reading! I corrected it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DL5jYmTzF2_/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Either cbs knows something we don’t and we are going fbs or they screwed up the graphic

Source: The Mountain West's next TV deal will include CBS, @TheAthletic, has learned.

CBS and Fox currently split the Mountain West rights. MW commissioner Gloria Nevarez said earlier today they were optimistic about their current TV partners and adding new ones.

https://x.com/ChrisVannini/status/1945581238951252381