Pen is to paper. Announcement this week.

Just spill the beans. No one reads this other than hyper involved alumnae.

For all sports or just football?

Football only.

so the idea is pay $15M or so and forego conference money from TV?

Yes, $5M to jump to FBS, and $10M to MAC (to be paid out over 5 years, I believe). No conference money from TV for first two years. I believe that's what's on the table. Thought Friday would be possibility of announcement. But everyone I talk to expects an NDSU style leak fest over the weekend, then an official announcement next week.

MAC teams make $800k-$1M/year in media rights deals for football only. Big Sky teams are getting in the 10s of thousands per year right now.

Pen is to paper. — Kadeezy

Others might characterize as crayon to coloring book. But to each their own. This is the equivalent of financing a used Saturn at a West Jefferson car lot. It might get you where you want to go. Or not.

MAC attendance figures are helped by the fact they are close to each other and can easily travel to away games. Sac’s closest conference rival would be Ball State. The Causeway or even Sac-Poly are bigger attendance draws than Sac-Akron or Toledo or Kent State. $15M upfront, plus stadium upgrades, to get $1M per year is a massive gamble.

We were 9th in FCS attendance last year without hosting the Causeway. Our 2025 numbers would place us 6th in the MAC. Getting a 2 for 1 with regional FBS opponents will be possible with FBS status. SJSU, Fresno, and San Diego State will fill the stadium more than Cal Poly or any other BSC school, besides maybe Davis.

Yeah I don't really worry about Sac attendance, I just don't see the draw of MAC schools to be close to playing Mountain West or Pac12 schools. Talking about filling the stadium by playing all these west coast schools is just NOT the reality of what is gonna happen if Sac joins the MAC. I think if Sac is putting up a good season the potential for bowl games, etc will draw well, but the MAC seems like a hard conference to draw fans to considering the conference schools are so far away and not super recognizable to those on the west coast.

It's all about a foot in the door at this point. Before a 5 or 10 year moratorium on new FBS schools hits.

Makes sense. I hope it works out, I really do wish in a perfect world sac and davis would be in the MW together. I worry about the Sac admin's spending and broken/constantly changing goalposts but also think forward looking isnt the worst thing. Its all a bit of a gamble right now, but the position of bein an already established FBS school in future realignment seems like a no brainer. I worry about a g6 split that shuts out FCS members (and hope Davis is already in the MW if that happens).

MAC is an ugly conference top to bottom. Things must be pretty desperate to be begging into this. Zero regional conference matchups. That might be the worst part (along with potential Tuesday night games).
I'm not sure I'm buying the moratorium bit. Seems to be coping for Sac ending up in the worse possible FBS conference on their wish list - the last option basically.

How will Sac's attendance be on Tuesdays?

You drew great numbers against regional opponents with fan bases that will travel to watch. You will not have this in the MAC. Montana brings way more people to a game than Bowling Green or Toledo ever will. In NorCal almost all Big Sky teams have greater name recognition than any MAC school. Nobody outside of Upper Michigan and Ohio are drawn to see these teams.
I honestly wish you luck, but Woods took any move to FBS vs waiting for the right move.

MAC TEAMS PLAY ONE TUESDAY NIGHT GAME PER YEAR! And it'll only be at home every other year. And on ESPN.

it could be the MAC is desperate:

https://www.wtol.com/article/sports/local-sports/toledo-mac-football-attendance-financial-impact/512-7e89288c-8e89-4e4b-b4eb-9051d4ab609a

Who knew UMASS was in the MAC?

Yikes. Hard pass.