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.

I would argue that building the base (revenue, operations, scholarships, staffing, NIL, etc.) and not "moving up" at this juncture outweighs the allure of being an FBS program in the MWC. TV money? Try $3.5-4m per MWC member school for 2026. Is that worth scuttling all that has been built to stabilize the jump to FCS and now to contend for the FCS national championship? Just so fans can watch UNLV, SJSU, USAFA, Hawaii, and UNM roll into Davis every other year, or turn on their TVs to watch the Northern Illinois, UTEP, or Wyoming games, for example? "Bigger" isn't always better. Davis is already on par with the bottom third of the MWC on the football field. In fact, the Aggies are capable of beating most MWC programs in a one time game. However, it's different having to do it week after week after week. If they move up and move into the top third, the program is aspiring for the LA Bowl hosted by Grok, the Snoop Dawg Arizona Bowl, and the Hawaii or New Mexico Bowls, respectively. Why?

Finish what's been started. Let's build it up and advance past the Quarters. Support what's going on now. Move up when the program is FULLY ready, if ever.

Eight teams have made the jump from FCS to FBS recently, and most of them we probably can't name without an AI search. I'll give it a shot: JMU, Old Dominion, App State, Coastal, maybe UMass since I read the article about Rocco, and oh yeah, SAC STATE. One of those teams has received a joke of a playoff invite (JMU) which never should have happened. The rest are either in decline or playing in crappy bowl games winning 6 games every year.

Yes I see the same thing. The country as a whole is undergoing some real challenges and I'll be honest if I had a kid going to college right now, I'm not sure I want him outside the state in the current state of the country. There are so many California kids playing out of state who after a year or two realize South Carolina or Texas is not California and are looking to come home. This to me, is the biggest data point for Davis to continue doing what its doing.

In the podcast with Coach, he said a ton of D1 players sought to come to Davis to replace Caden but he turned them down because he prefers developing kids out of HS, which I support. But the bigger point is the UC Davis football name is getting out there. Kids are now looking at Davis as a viable option to attend school and play football. This is huge.

You are right about Stanford and Cal, but I'd suggest USC and UCLA are not happy with the current situation as well. USC for all its pomp and arrogance is quickly realizing they are turning into Nebraska by being in the BIG. UCLA has become a nobody in sports. Which is wild to me considering their location and history.

So what does this all mean? I think the conference realignment isn't over yet. I've said it for years, if California as a state were to invest in the college sports with just California schools, it would be the solution we are looking for. It creates scholarships for California kids. It allows for natural rivalries to develop based on geographic region...SAC vs Bay Area or Bay Area vs LA....etc and it creates jobs...a lot of jobs. Don't laugh, if you go to the SEC you see this with Miss ST/OldMiss vs Alabama/Auburn...none of those places come close to the population of California but the local communities are bought in and it makes the SEC the SEC. There is no reason we couldn't do that in California.

Imagine for a second the California Conference was in existence, check out this potential schedule:

UC Davis Hypothetical Schedule:

vs Stanford
@ Fresno St
@ San Jose St
vs USC
vs CalPoly
@ SacSt
vs San Diego St
@ Cal
@ OOC game (pick)
vs UCLA
vs OOC game (pick)

This schedule would curb travel costs both financially and education wise (kids are not taking 6 hr flights across the country during finals). Families and fans could easily travel to watch their kids play. Imagine the economic impact on Davis, San Louis Obispo, etc. if we hosted a game with USC or Stanford...the money spent in Davis would supercharge the local economy.

The more I look into the state of college football the more I'm convinced this is the only viable long-term solution for California college athletics.

This makes A LOT of sense. However, and there is always a however, I can give you 80-100 million reasons why USC/UCLA will NOT be leaving the Big 10 anytime soon. Stanford and Cal have 40 million reasons in football alone to not budge, not to mention around 40 million reasons to stay for basketball. Its a brilliant idea and makes all the sense in the world. Just not sure it will be possible with the current balance of power in college football. California doesn't care enough.

I do recall USC scheduling a game with us. (Or was it UCLA?) The alums got pissed, so USC changed their minds and removed us from the schedule. We still kept the money though.

It was USC. Davis scheduled Tulsa as a replacement where Davis got paid for winning.

I'm not to sure that TV money is going to be there in 2030. The industry is changing from traditional TV broadcast to streaming apps. I could see the TV contract being a lot less money next go around and you will see conferences like the BIG/SEC/ACC start thinking "we have $100M deal spread among X amount of teams...why not reduce the amount of teams and get a bigger slice of the pie." Then ACC will be like "Sorry Cal and Stanford but there is not enough money for you to be apart of the ACC anymore." The BIG will do the same with USC/UCLA. What are those schools going to do then? They are going to be homeless and their programs will financially bleed out.

here comes my essay pitch lol

While I understand the points made and agree that FBS moves are not instant wins, if you look at attendance stats for teams that moved to FBS, in the past 5 years attendance numbers are up:
-coastal carolina: 24.22%
-sam houston: 52.39%
-kennesaw: 42.61%
-liberty: 10.54%
-JMU: 8.17%

Delaware, Missouri state and Jacksonville state have not been in the fbs for 5 years but all had successful seasons joining the G5.

Objectively the MW is a better conference than the CUSA, moving up to the FBS to join the MW in my opinion is a good move to make before 2030 barring some huge change in conference membership beyond the departing members currently. I would much rather see a UC Davis vs SJSU or UC Davis vs UNR game than UC Davis vs northern Colorado or UC Davis vs Utah Tech.

I know that the Montana's and NDSU's of the world have a ton of financial support, fan support and talk about them, but simply don't exist in metro areas or have large alumni bases that schools like that of the MW have. NDSU is pretty much openly asking to join the MW but has not received an invite for the reasonings I listed (speculation).

Also, academically and culturally UC Davis fits much better with the size and scope of research, student body and national profile of the mountain west than big sky schools (other than GCU which I think academically is sketchy to say the least but has good athletic support i guess).

I would much rather be in a conference that is adding schools like UTEP than Utah Tech. The Mountain West is adding members with much stronger fan base support and institutional foundations than the Big Sky when it comes to growth.

If we want to grow our support base financially, I agree winning an FCS championship would help, but I also think moving the team to a more nationally prominent level would help exponentally.

Its also much easier to visit the schools in the new MW than many of the Big Sky schools that are in smaller metro areas (and transit option wise/price).

Another thing about the MW is just the enthusiasm overall of fans and facilities that exist, its exponential compared to most of the Big Sky (with the exception of the very top of the conference). Losing Sac in the Big Sky takes away half of our regional rivalries that exist. Other than Cal Poly, joining the MW would add Reno and SJSU as natural rivalries (and rekindle the Nevada rivalry).

I see the vision for joining Olympic sports in the MW, its a no brainer, but football seems like a logical move for our future, no matter what happens with the FBS in the future. The MW no matter what has a stronger hand than the Big Sky no matter what happens with relegation of level.

I hear all the time "in a few years the top of the FCS and G5 will merge most likely", which is probably true, but waiting and taking the risk of not being in that merger OR not having that G5 caliber membership seems riskier than not if we stay in the Big Sky long term for football.

Last thing i'll say, this whole being in 2 conferences for football and other sports confuses the hell out of everyone who is not super deeply involved in Davis athletics, and will only get more confusing now that we are joining a FBS conference for every sport except for the football team.....

Sorry, I don't see exponential growth in the near future.

We departed a conference with like-minded in-state top academic institutions for potential football glory? I see nobody mentioning what is in the best interests of student-athletes.

We're on the treadmill now, more $$$, more facilities, more coaches, more glam, more $$$. And $250 million in facilities with no mention of ICA and the campus taking control of student facilities (Hickey, the Pavilion). Where does it end? $7M per year for HC, $2M per year for AD?

I'd be satisfied with being a top dog in FCS, a new football / event tier, and some Olympic sports facilities upgrades. Putting $30-60 Million into student-owned Rec Hall for a few sellouts seems a bit much. Club seats for basketball?

Great discussion, all valid points and questions

Gonna keep it real, if Davis gets the funds to upgrade the football stadium and doesn’t move to FBS, imma be pretty disinterested in watching Davis football. Especially knowing moving up to FBS is the goal and they have first dibs on moving up to the MWC for football.

FTR, UCLA has lost $200 Million the past six years and may spend $60 - $80 Million to break the Rose Bowl lease.

I don't think it's a matter of "moving up" to play the big boys, but more a matter of "waiting for them to come down" as fiscal responsibility becomes more important. The programs with relatively low costs are in a much better position than the over-spenders right now. For all we know, Big Sky teams could be better on avg than MW teams in the future (they're not that far apart now even).

UC Davis hosting Montana, Montana State, Cal Poly, or an FCS Playoff game
>
UC Davis hosting Northern Illinois, UTEP, or San Jose State, et al

The views expressed here are strictly my own.

The attitude from the Davis community and alumni has not changed since I was a student over 20 years ago. People aren't donating to the program in a meaningful way. No passion.

Until that changes, we aren't going anywhere.

It can change, but Mrak / AD has implemented a "show me" attitude. They've put it on us, and things are stagnant.

This is absolutely the right perspective.

The Hero Sports article about Rocko DeLuca and his carefully planned approach to growing Aggie Athletics was excellent. His experiences working at Colorado, UMass and JMU are invaluable in guiding Aggie Athletics. He's a great AD and, with all the great coaches we have and support from Chancellor May, the future of Aggie Athletics is bright.

Fair, but the passion seems to be growing at a rate faster than our FCS and FBS peers. Coaches, players, fans, students of all ages are now more aware that UCD is a high value football brand on the West Coast. I coached in HS in the bay area for a bit, and every coach I encountered had nothing but respect for Davis (I didn't think they'd even know Davis existed). Once we reach critical mass (could be 5-10 more years of winning and producing NFL talent), things could get interesting. The only way to do that is to win and win repeatedly. We're 20+ years behind other Big Sky programs in the transition from D2 to D1 but gaining ground. There's no reason we can't get 1000 alumni donating $1000 each year. That's only $88 per month. My stupid streaming subscriptions surpass that for content I care less about..

If I received an email for a UC Davis Football Campaign for 1000 donors at $1000, and there was a hard deadline of say May 1st, 2026. I'd send $1000 to a link provided.

Finn, Champion Aggie. Just designate football as the recipient. Then enjoy the hospitality :).