California Memorial Stadium was also build directly on top of the Hayward Fault so the renovation was made as much or more for safety reasons than game related. They also did it piecemeal because of concerns it would block views from Panorama Hill (fancy homes) or Tightwad Hill where people watch for free.

in this new NIL/House Settlement world, too many college athletics programs are in deficit spending mode.

if UC Davis decides to move up to FBS (or whatever higher level it will be), what needs to happen to not be one of these deficit spending programs?

. Clearly the Cal situation was unfortunate in terms of CMS. We have literally a hole in the ground that additional seating can be built around as new structures, not additions to existing structures. That’s cheaper.

Also, everyone worried about the cost should also factor in the “give a damn” factor of FCS vs FBS. Donations will not drop with an FBS program, they’ll increase. As will tv revenue and other media/marketing deals. FBS teams travel with more fans to away games too so expect more visiting fans at our home games (in addition to more of our fans going to our games than Cal games). A review of FCS to FBS teams in the last decade does in fact show significant attendance increases.

Finally the readiness…we sound like a bunch nervous anxious indecisive tools. You wanna know how you’re ready? Test yourself. We’re UC Friggin’ Davis damnit…our academic and professional swagger has us with a mentality to go charging ahead to kick rear end. Why are we sitting around watching others?

And for watching others? The NDSU statement today states they accepted an invite from the MWC. Should MWC want ANOTHER football only school? It only stands to reason that we rejected an invite/consideration which quite frankly is not a way to get more donors on board.

“Our stadium is too small!” NDSU seats 18,000. We have had 17,000+ in attendance per Rocko. So…null and void. Or like his tweets with fancy stadium build outs is that just another false hype?

If UCD moves up, we'll also be ineligible for two years.

The ineligible period will always exist, regardless of when. If that’s an excuse to stay down, that’s not valid. Not like it’ll magically disappear for us in 2-4 years.

Besides, when bowl teams were needed to fill the schedule the “ineligible” teams suddenly were eligible for postseason play.

yeah I’m really curious what our admins response was when the conference told us NDSU wants to join and gave us the opportunity to apply. Did we do it? Is there a plan in place where we have a deal to move in 2028 or something? I feel the transition period is not really a point of contention, the FCS is great and all but losing members like NDSU doesn’t make it a stronger conference in competition, just an easier one to win a trophy from (in which no one outside of FCS niche fandom actually understands what it means). I would be a hell of a lot happier joining the MW with NDSU then staying in the Big Sky with new members SUU and Utah Tech.

+the stadium thing. Adding extra seating to a side or filling in a berm when building the new press box to meet standards of the MW doesn’t seem like the hardest thing in the world considering the stadium was built to be expanded in the first place. NDSU has a dome that can’t be expanded so meeting 18k seats could be a goal, but also we already have a nicer base stadium than some of the MW (I’m looking at Nevada having a track around the field and bleachers over it). I know people have made points of Mrak hall moving slow with these things, but it’s just weird to me to build all this momentum and STILL have this uncertainty.

I’m not even going to argue that sac moving to the MAC makes any sense, but they already left the big sky. That is our biggest FCS game off the board. Now we are going to play in a weaker FCS, with a weaker conference and expect the hype to continue building at the same rate? I totally think if we make a FCS CHAMPIONSHIP push this year that would be awesome, but I just don’t get this joining the MW thing and then seeming to be full steam ahead in another direction in the FCS.

I am so happy to be playing more recognizable teams for every other sport. Now I would like that football football too.

Be where our feet are... the allure of "FBS" and "playing more recognizable teams" is not what it's cracked up to be. A bunch of 5- and 6-win seasons (at best) and possible playing in some crap bowl game in a stadium filled 1/3 to capacity will get old in a hurry. People will blame the coach. You know where it goes from there. Then we're back on here crying for the "good old days" of losing in the Quarters with a team ranked in the Top 10 every year. Let's take care of our business, save some money, build a monster, and enjoy the ride.

Sac State was 7-5 or something this year with a much more talented roster than what they have today. Sure, we sell out the Causeway game and it's fun to whip their ass and take that ugly trophy, but they are toxic. The team to the south and the little horseshoe trophy now moves to game 12 and we'll sell that one out. We do not need Sac State.

Kinda makes the whole Aggie Ascent facility drive descend.

If FCS is where we stay, why bother donating for bigger and better things? A nicer FCS stadium will just be more “empty” than now and further amplify the “see no one cares” argument.

yeah…the Cal Poly game is a manufactured rivalry vs the regional one we had. Not sure it sells out. Great school and fun place, but rivalry it truly is not.

You can’t just make a trophy and suddenly despise the other guys. Especially Cal Poly…they’re too nice and never really competitive with us for any length of time.

Understood on Cal Poly not being Sac State, but it is one of Plough's pillar goals every year and I think the people in the building (players, coaches) look at it as a rivalry. As I stated many posts ago, I think the old trophy is buried somewhere in the depths of Cal Poly's existing, pile of crap football dumpster and someone needs to come clean and get that thing back. A BIGGER trophy may create more hatred towards them (joke).

I do disagree, however, on staying put in FCS for a little longer hurting the Aggie Ascent drive. Ascending with a plan > ascending unprepared. Plenty of improvements to be made at the stadium to bring it closer to FBS-ready, plenty of money to be spent to get to a consistent national championship contender (spend it on players, feeding them, summer housing/school, recruiting budgets, etc.). We're probably more prepared than Sac to make the jump today (minus all their newfound money), but not nearly as prepared as NDSU. That will be a decent barometer for us.

I think this hurts our readiness. Motivated backers aren’t so motivated this morning.

Let’s assume one of two things:
- we got first invite/consideration from the MWC to be an ALL SPORT member and we declined which is a little sad to not capitalize on recent energy around the program. It’s a buzzkill. Not even a statement from the AD. Poor.
- the MWC didn’t actually accept our application “first” and/or after giving us “first consideration” decided a school further away with a smaller budget and less reporters would be a better conference fit for the MWC than our full membership.

So either we think we are lame, or the MWC thinks we are lame. If the MWC thinks so, why are we wasting our time with them in other sports? If we think we are lame, what are we doing about it? Killing off ANY energy, and doing so silently, isn’t any way to build.

I'm with you 100% on the necessity of a statement from the admin. I see where you're coming from; perhaps the statement could include verbiage that we are focused on a national championship, building it to a national championship level, using the words NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP as the rallying cry.

From your perspective, what would fire-up the donor base more: jumping from today right into FBS, or talk of staying the course, focusing on the present, and a drive towards an FCS national championship?

I can understand your frustration with UC Davis when you try to compare it to FBS schools, however you need to take into the general landscape of college athletics as a whole. The entire college athletics you and I grew up with has changed. This change is still in its infancy.

I find your defense of Cal as hilarious. What has Cal ever won? When was the last time Cal won its conference? When will it win a national championship? Probably never. And you want Davis to follow that model? Yeah....nah. I'm good.

I would much prefer staying at the FCS level and making the playoffs and competing for a national championship vice being in Cal's position. And before you talk about talent, let me remind you the Seattle Seahawks had 9 FCS players on its roster, New England had 9 including our own Lan on the team. So its not about talent.

Davis is building a solid program and it will take time. It will take $$$ too. But don't be in such a rush to join an FBS league that might not even exist in 2029. I keep saying it, Cal and Stanford begged to be in the ACC....don't be surprised if the ACC decides the travel costs and fit just don't work and cut both programs in 2029. Then what? Where is Cal and Stanford going to go? See what I mean? Things are really fluid right now and the best option is to take it slow.

For the all the hub bub about FBS, I find it funny the only school who has made the college football playoffs since FBS joined the playoff format is UC Davis. USC Nope. UCLA Nope. San Diego St. Nope. Fresno St. Nope. Cal Nope. Stanford. Nope. And you want Davis to follow these schools? Nah...I'm good.

Very good points. I think it's worth keeping in mind that Rocko DeLuca was a part of UMASS transition from FCS to FBS, so he's seen what works (or rather what doesn't) to make that leap successfully..

uhhh I never said anything about cal I think that was someone else. I also think the mountain west and the ACC are very different conferences in level of competition. You make some great points, but I just think being in the position of being in the mountain west already instead of the big sky sets us up in a better starting position no matter what happens division wise coming soon. Also, arguably the actual travel of the mountain west is similar if not better than the big sky for us.

I agree that we need to spend money to upgrade facilities and prepare before joining the mw for football (and other sports too). NDSU though, has a stadium that is (by the ndsu fans themselves) not great other than having 18k seats. I think we would need to invest sure, and I think a 2028 or 2030 at the latest addition would make logistical sense, but I also think having all our sports move to 1 conference would be SO great.

I will say it for the 100000th time, explaining how the fcs works and how its still d1 but has a different championship but also doesnt play fbs schools normally is so confusing for anyone not super tuned in. Everyone I know thinks Davis still is in d2 (or thinks fcs is basically d2) and looking at many of the big sky (and fcs as a whole) stadiums and facilities you would think the same.

I know things dont happen overnight, but to join the mw for all other sports its already going to require stepping up, and not doing football with it just seems dumb considering football is far and away our most popular sport.

yeah I can understand him feeling that way, but also Umass was setup worse than davis in every single way to move to FBS. The funding was worse, smaller student body, smaller economic impact, the northeast is worse than even the west coast for football, and the stadium is TERRIBLE and continues to be worse than ours.

My wish to join the MW for football is not to say I am not excited for the upcoming season or our team as an FCS program, I just think being a MW member should eventually include football.

If I wanted to make my best guess, I would say realistically we start renovations at the stadium and basically have already agreed to move to the MW for football somewhere between 2028-2030.

Just give it some time.I think Davis is the in a great spot overall. Those games on ESPN are having a huge effect. Will we move to FBS sometime? Sure. But I'll be honest, I'd rather follow the NDSU route and win a couple championships first. And that can easily happen here. Let's do that first and then move to the FBS or whatever league is formed after 2030. There is no need to jump to FBS right now.

Unrelated but im curious, what do you think NDSU's win total is the first year they move up?

I just hope our home-home series with NDSU stays on. That's huge for us

Someone on reddit said something I think is probably true

My suspicion, and hope, is that the MWC and UC Davis did discuss NDSU's inclusion, and UC Davis approved it. But what I also hope is that UC Davis got something in return. Maybe the Ags did get fast-track approval for football inclusion. Or maybe, the Ags media term was changed from a one-sixth share increase over six years to full-share status to one-fifth share increase over five years to full-share status. Or, maybe, the Ags will get a balloon payment out of NDSU's $12M entrance fee.

I’m sure officially UC Davis was offered, my guess is there’s a handshake agreement for Davis to move up in x amount of years once it gets its facilities up to par. And it wouldn’t surprise me if relevant Davis execs knew this was gonna happen somewhat in advance and watched it develop to get a sense of cost to move.

Well that really depends on their schedule. I'll have to see how it lines up, but I'll be honest If Nebraska who has a much more successful history in football can't win, I'm not sure how successful NDSU will be. They probably will follow App St progress....really powerful at the FCS level...lower tier at the FBS level.

True. To be fair, the Sac vs Davis game historically was the one non FBS game that was televised, not even the Horseshoe can say that.

Also they had an advantage that many teams don't have, hosting a rival every year. Now it will be every other year. I'm not an FBS or bust guy but I also follow Cal for my FBS fix and Davis for FCS so maybe I'm not the one to ask.

not likely since they would be FBS then.

Rocko just posted a statement. No particular details other than planning to build program at FCS level for now. https://www.facebook.com/ucdavisfootball/posts/pfbid0EAmParJBB2EJoURmKmqmzefCqRKW6pNBSxMW9M9N4JzjbaXpPhSsyiXZu9yVdfMXl

Was the game a regional, ESPN game, or was it broadcast in the Sac Metro and Bay Areas? I am all about reviving that rivalry at the earliest date possible. It's just not going to happen for a couple seasons so we'll have to make the best out of the semi-rivalry to the south.

I highly doubt UCD got paid a cent by the MWC or by NDSU for passing on the first shot at moving up.

Davis seems to love football being safe and snuggled up in whatever Division its in. It took forever to break free from D2. It will take the same to break free from the FCS.

We moved to D1 with NDSU (Great West Conference). They've blown our doors off in every way.
Football program means completely different things at each school.

honestly…I think most of the alumni base I know is more aligned with ANY FBS conference and would rather win the Toilet Bowl sponsored by Ajax than consistent runs at FCS playoffs. We don’t sellout because we aren’t putting out a product that’s interesting to our fans/community/massive staff (think main campus plus UCDHS)/industrial-academic partners (Fresno St does this very well with the Ag industry which we actually dominate the executive tier of compared to them).

More interest drives more revenue. Could we actually be hurting ourselves by remaining uninteresting?

Let’s study our student and alumni demographic…. Where did they come from? San Luis or LA/SF? Let that sink in as we think about generating athletic interest. Is UNLV (Vegas) or Weber St. (Weeeeburrrr not the BBQ) going to make students leave their dorm or adults come to a night game after the kids soccer matches all day? That’s what we are fighting. Watch us play Portland St. or go watch Tennessee / any SEC School (btw…went to a UTK game this year…OMG!!!!) on TV and have something other than Woodstocks Pizza made offsite and delivered to the stadium?

Our product is stagnant/stale after 23 years. Not sure within FCS there is much we can do to elevate it. Dare I say…ascend?

So with some background in communications/marketing and dabbling in fundraising, I will say the lack of a statement from our AD is concerning. Were they caught off guard, unprepared, or just don’t care and are apathetic to us?

one example and he can’t simply use that as the barometer for all other transitions he may or may not be a part of.