The old days of doing football are over. You have to rethink the entire model.

Unless the powers that be realize this, pump the brakes, and rethink the direction things are headed. Doubtful though.

The whole thing is a runaway train at the moment.

Man, I once again reiterate how smart the posters on this board are. There is some real wisdom and education, along with some great ideas on here. I thought the California Conference YouTube network idea was especially fascinating. Anyway, I've been telling my three friends on the planet this for several years, and I qualify this as a not-so-good idea: re-set the FBS football conferences back to 1984 or so. Cut all the sports that didn't exist prior to that time and lean-out the conferences. Everyone else gets a choice: FCS, D2, or D3. For the conferences that had teams drop football (ex. the PCAA: Long Beach St., UOP, Fullerton St., etc.) let the FCS schools that are regional fits apply to move up. How much fun would the Pac 10 or original WAC be? I don't know that 1984 was the right year, but just find the best old days of conference alignments, expand the playoffs, and make college football great again because it sucks on many levels right now. And make them all wear their 1984 uniforms the first year of the really great reset.

the cautionary tale is that the #10 or 20 TV market generally may not be the #10 or 20 market for football interest when you factor demographics.

. Exactly, and college football in California is pretty passé compared to Midwest and South.

Agree with you. Do I think its possible? Yes. Do I think its probable? No. Why? Because of the same mindset you mentioned. I'm not sure what the future holds, but the current protectory isn't good.

Wishful thinking isn't a plan, that's for sure. Davis brass need to be realistic, manage their internal emotions, and look at the dollars, cents and overall experience / well being of their student-athletes...and student body. Football at the FBS level requires way more than what we have now - accelerate the trajectory or just stop now. There has to be a massive push...and even then it's going to take a couple more years.

https://herosports.com/fcs-rocko-deluca-a-builder-in-more-ways-than-one-ksks/

Very complimentary piece.y

Good read, thanks for sharing. I didn't know his bio. Time at UMass is likely a great cautionary tale in his approach to moving football forward to the MWC. Lesson: DON'T DO IT UNTIL YOU'RE READY! We're not ready (yet). I'm also a proponent for investing in the people over buildings, including players, coaches, support staff. Oregon has had incredible facilities and a gazillion uniform combinations, but no national championships. Same at Texas (they've won a title in the last 50 years), Texas A&M, and a hundred other places. Indiana and Miami both invest in players/coaches, dwell in very pedestrian football buildings and facilities, and play for a title.

Excellent. Thanks for sharing.

Rocco has mentioned that as a cautionary tale as we move forward, along with the initial move of ours into FCS - we were WAY underfunded compared to the schools we were competing with. The Stanford victory kind of hurt, in a sense, because it gave the administration the idea that we could compete as brainy, undersized upstarts....they were wrong.

I think they are moving forward with eyes wide open this time.

I have to admit I'm changing my mind on moving to FBS. Taking into account the entire FBS model I'm not sure moving to the MWC will be good move anymore. Things are changing fast and it might be good to sit back and keep developing the program slowly. I like where we are headed. No rush.

At this rate, the MWC could look a lot different (in a bad way) by the time we're ready for FBS. The patient approach is the only prudent one at this juncture. Watching JMU in the CFP did make me jealous, though. Who's to say that couldn't be UCD soon

Thanks for the perspective. My vote is to stay put and build this thing. Also predicting a national title in Davis by 2029...

North Dakota State-to-FBS talk has heated up even more in the past couple days. Let 'em go.

they are in much better place financially

Higher revenue? Lower expenses? Both perhaps?

https://herosports.com/fcs-rocko-deluca-a-builder-in-more-ways-than-one-ksks/

Here is a great article about AD DeLuca and our move to the Mountain West.

In my opinion we have to move up to FBS to be competitive in football. We need the TV revenue. Donors will be more willing to donate to watch us play FBS level competition. The average person would be happy to go UC Davis Health Stadium to watch the football team play UNLV, San Jose State, Air Force, Hawaii, New Mexico over playing teams like Northern Colorado, Northern Arizona, and other directional schools. We don’t even have Sac State in conference anymore. THE BRAND MATTERS. Growth is uncomfortable.

Davis is in the #20 tv market in the USA, the biggest one without a pro football or FBS team. 15 years from now if Davis can be competitive, I could see the school pushing for P4 status… tv ratings talk. But it all starts with at least getting FBS, which Davis is looking to do. (Per the Big mountain Podcast, we’re looking at a 2029 move. https://x.com/tbm_jy/status/1890812691813400686?s=46 )

I don’t get how people can say “CAL thinks they’re better than us” but don’t want to move up. I’m ready to compete with CAL and UCLA. Indiana has shown us that any school can compete now. We have a wealthy alumni base. The school just needs to get them something to be excited about. And it starts with Football.

No team will move to MW before Davis. It is in MW contract Davis has first consideration to move up to MW for football. Any other FCS team moving up to FBS/ MW will do so alongside Davis. ND State and Tarletan State and who are rumored to also move up with Davis.

both. Revenue is much higher. Plough said that NDSU was paying their players (I believe) $10k as part of revenue sharing. That’s way out of our league, by roughly $1M

I agree, no rush. Stanford and UCLA not thriving going back East, UCLA has drama and confusion, and Cal is banking on their QB wunderkid.

“ We have a wealthy alumni base. The school just needs to get them something to be excited about. And it starts with Football.”
Plough has commented several times that Montana has 500 people donating $1,000 each. I’m not sure where our revenue numbers sit since Tim took over but surely its gone up. Success should generate excitement and hopefully revenue. Maybe the wine fund raising event in February will give us an idea of where we’re at.

If there is so much uncertainty why not just put it up for a vote. All those in favor of the Aggies moving up to the FBS level say so with a $1000 donation to the effort. In other words, put your money where your mouth is. Well you all know where this is probably going. I just don’t think it will fly to the tune of the Montana folks at least at this point. Economically the country is not going in the right direction now for a lot of discretionary spending. IMHO . Hope i could be wrong.

GDP 4.4% Q3, Q4 could be higher, Real Wages rising, but lots of uncertainty in our state, Iran, Ukraine, etc. We don't have the history of giving going back to Meyer and D2.

truthfully we don’t have to have 500 people give $1000, I am fine with just 100-200 giving $1000-$1,500 but what I want is 5,000-7,000 alumni giving $200-$300 a year which is much more! Going to FBS can accomplish this. Already many of my colleagues are more interested in UCD Athletics just because we are moving to Mountain West and playing schools they know and respect.

And we left our fellow UC brother campuses.

Improving but nothing to write home about. Anyone clamoring for a move to the FBS, even the MWC, should get a handle on basic economics. The post-Boise TV deal is going to get slashed this summer and was only 4m per school. Neither the City nor the alumni support UCD athletics. Some of this is a history of bad marketing decisions, laziness and really poor facilities planning but much is just an apathetic community culture. The AD is almost entirely funded by the central campus and student fees.

Montana and NDSU were in the 10-15k range last year for a large number of players and going higher this year with a smaller number. Sac spent even more but was all over the map with the money. Most of it went missing with Rashada.

is in the #20 tv market in the USA, the biggest one without a pro football or FBS team.

. The issue is that when one strategies that by market viewership sector, in this case those interested in college football, it would not rank as high. As @LeFan states community apathy and culture is difficult to overcome. When I attended the University of Tennessee (decades ago) everyone was either at the game or listening to it - heck they even piped it in at Krogers (even though hardly no one was there shopping due to game being played. When I was walking around Savis prior to the Rhode Island game - I saw hundreds of students - many in coffee shops on computers but all seemingly totally ignorant that a football game was about to be played. Not much different from my days at UCD when it seemed all students were at the library.

Major differences in culture re: college football. And in northern cal. that extends to Cal and Stanford.

You are always going to have students that don’t care but thats not where the revenue is anyway, given that students get in free. The recent demographics of UC students includes a large percentage that have no prior exposure to football, let alone Davis football. There is a multigenerational fan base in places like Tennessee and even Montana. Still Davis has a large alumni population and potentially a large number if people in the region. People would be interested if they got more coverage which they would get if they weren’t covered in the media as the out of town member of a pair of college division teams.