I don't have the time or energy to check their schedules now but with the WAC resumimg football at the FCS level next fall there may be some teams there looking for games. WAC football teams will be Abilene Christian, Dixie State, Lamar, Sam Houston State, Southern Utah, Stephen F. Austin, and Tarleton State.

Hopefully not the Lincoln Oaklanders.

South Dakota State opens at Iowa next year. Hard to travel to Davis when you can get Big Ten money, and maybe pull a North Dakota State like upset, against those FBS teams.

So. Illinois 22, South Dakota 10
SE Louisiana 38, Florida A&M 14

Incarnate Word defeated S.F. Austin, 35-28 in OT.

Good find. Thanks.

I tried to come up with something other than "AINO" because it's a little gross in an anatomical sort of way and I sure didn't mean that. No disrespect meant to Coach Laird, just a little frustration that he ended up on the wrong side of the Sacramento River.

At that time I was working in a large office. One of the other employees was a Sac State graduate who never rooted for Davis, until the playoffs. The employee was related to the Lairds. We would listen to the games and send office emails back and forth about the Aggies' success. As a result I was pretty sure Brandon was on the team that year. I will be the first to admit that the story about the foul may be nothing more than a rumor, but a good one. I believe I heard it from that relative, but at this point in my life I will never bet the farm on my memory.

I also have a friend who lives in the Arden area and at one time the Lairds lived in the same neighborhood. My friend had a basketball hoop in his driveway and the Lairds were there from time to time for neighborhood pick-up games. My friend is happy to take a little credit for Brandon's development.

I won't rehash it now, but there are a couple of articles out there about Brandon being an up and coming star in college coaching ranks. There is some grumbling on the Sac State fan site about the timing of Katz' retirement with the suggestion Katz timed it to force the Sac AD into making Brandon interim coach. https://www.bigskyfans.com/hornets/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5503 They may not be grumbling when the season is over.

I will cut and paste a Bee article with more...

"Any places in town showing the game? Gunrock Pub?Woodstock Pizza?"

Woodstock's:
https://ucdavis.imodules.com/controls/email_marketing/view_in_browser.aspx?sid=1768&gid=2&sendId=3000679&ecatid=19&puid=c3f1fd43-b3f4-41f9-bace-246cc364a6d4

Happy Thanksgiving to Aggies everywhere. Lots to be thankful for in a challenging year.

I believe he played that season:

Aggies To Hold Reunion Game On Friday
Feb. 13, 2008
DAVIS, Calif. - UC Davis will honor its 1998 men's basketball national championship team this week as part of a 10th anniversary weekend at The Pavilion. The events include a game Friday night featuring the 1998 championship team against other UC Davis alumni. The 1998 team will also be honored during halftime of the Aggies' contest against UC Santa Barbara Saturday night.
All but one of the 14 players on the 1997-98 UC Davis team will be playing in Friday's game. They include J.P. Bergez, Jason Cox, Scott Darmstadt, Justis Durkee,Brandon Laird, Travon Dugar Muhammad, current Aggie assistant coach Kevin Nosek, Dante Ross, Jon Surface, John Surina, Keith Jackson, J.C. Timmons and Chris Vlasic. Current Aggie administrative assistant Duane Kouba and Justin Clymo, who were both part of Williams' staff that year, will also be on hand.
https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2008/2/13/Aggies_To_Hold_Reunion_Game_On_Friday


First-year Menlo basketball coach Brandon Laird, a member of the 1998 UC Davis Div. II national champions, is as excited about his latest recruit as Lindsey is about the opportunity.
https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2007/06/01/a-transfer-worthwhile/


2000-2001 UC DAVIS VARSITY PLAYERS
BRANDON LAIRD , 6-2, 180, Senior Guard
2.7 ppg, 2.2 rpg, .299 fg%, .254 3pt% , .818 ft%, 48 ast, 23 to, 13 stl in 1999-00
Played in 12 games in 1998-99
Played in 18 games in 1997-98
Agricultural and Managerial Economics Major, from Sacramento, CA
https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~kouba/BallDIRECTORY/UCDGrads.html

FROM HIS BIO ON THE SAC STATE WEBSITE:
A graduate of UC Davis, Laird played four seasons with the Aggies (1997-01). During his four-year tenure, he appeared in 85 games and helped the Aggies to a combined record of 93-24, including a 31-2 mark in 1997-98 when they captured the Division II national title.
https://www.hornetsports.com/sports/mbkb/coaches/lairdbrandon?view=bio



Cutting and pasting photos onto the Aggie Sports Talk site is beyond my skill set at the moment, but the following sites have photos of the championship team and Brandon is included:

1997-1998 UC DAVIS AGGIES 
NCAA DIVISION II MEN'S BASKETBALL 
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

front row (left to right) : Keith Jackson, J. C. Timmons, Travon Dugar, Dante Ross, Brandon Laird, Kevin Nosek 
middle row (left to right) : Chris Unti (mgr.), Duane Kouba (asst. coach), Justin Clymo (student asst. coach), Bob Williams (head coach), Brian Fogel (asst. coach), Trevor Shickman (asst. coach), Omar Sanchez (mgr.) 
back row (left to right) : Justis Durkee, J. P. Bergez, Jason Cox, Rick Gonzales, Jonathan Surface, John Surina, Chris Vlasic, Scott Darmstadt
https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~kouba/BallDIRECTORY/DIRECTORY96-98/Teampicture98.html

While post Justis Durkee bears guard Dante Ross on his shoulders and wing Scott Darmstadt peeks around Durkee for a look, the rest of the UC Davis men's basketball team flanks former head coach Bob Williams. To Williams' (with microphone) right are Jason Cox (smiling),Brandon Laird (holding plaque), J.C. Timmons (in the forefront of Laird), Jonathan Surface and Chris Vlasic (to Timmons' right).
Photo by Wayne Tilcock / Aggie
From the California Aggie, Friday April 3, 1998
https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~kouba/BallDIRECTORY/DIRECTORY96-98/Title.html

UCD players from the 1998 Division II national title-winning squad celebrate a win during that postseason run. The players include Chris Vlasic (55), Travon Dugar (23), John Surina (30) and current Aggie assistant coach Brandon Laird. UCD is celebrating 100 years of men’s basketball with activities on Saturday and alumni from throughout the program’s history will be in attendance. Mark Bullard/Enterprise file photo
https://www.davisenterprise.com/uncategorized/ucd-men-to-celebrate-100-years/

Brandon grew up in the Arden area and went to El Camino High School. Attended UCD and was a freshman, I think, on the D-II national championship team. There is a rumor that he got some mop-up playing time in an early game at the D-II Elite Eight tournament...went in and immediately fouled someone so that he got his name in the record books. May or may not be true, but a good story.

His brother, Sean, also went to El Camino and went on to become a quarterback at St. Mary's College.

Slack State has a better record at the Golden 1 than the Kings do.

Somebody needs to revoke Coach Laird's UCD Alumni Ass'n membership. If we talked politics here I'd say AINO, Aggie In Name Only,....but we don't, so I won't.

This may be the last refuge of the Causeway Cup....UCD has not updated the page on their website since the 2019-2020 season ground to a halt. Sac last updated their site in 2017-18 and I cannot find any hint of it at all on their current site. Too bad for Sac...if we were still counting by the initial rules, when volleyball, football and the basketball games were worth ten points, the score would be tied at 30-30. As it is, with all sports being worth five points and after the split in basketball, UCD leads 25-15.

Next up would seem to be gymnastics, but I am not sure which meets might count, again assuming the whole "competition" hasn't been dropped altogether. The teams meet in a quadruple meet in Davis, and in three dual meets, one in Davis and two in Sac.

Beach volleyball, softball and baseball have not posted schedules yet, and who knows if baseball will even schedule each other this year?

Ranking the favorites to win it all.
https://herosports.com/fcs-football-2021-favorites-national-title-ranked-24-bzbz/

Final: UCD 75, CSUS 46

And another possibility for Olympic sports - competitive pillow fighting.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/20/sport/pillow-fighting-spt-intl/index.html

Ags will play Long Beach State on December 2nd in one of two play-in games in the NCAA Men’s Water Polo Championships. Ags fell to the Beach, 18-10, during the regular season .-

There was something on the broadcast that said that first and second round games would be "regionalized" to save travel costs. This ain't men's basketball and March Madness.

I think they avoided teams playing conference opponents in the first game other than one game where the commentators mentioned that the teams did not meet in the regular season this year. Cannot recall which game that was.

UCD defeated California Baptist, 14-9, in the WWPA tournament finals. Ags will get the bid to the "play-in" portion of the NCAA tournament.

(Water polo is a little different. NCAA says the tourney is only 4 teams, but there are 6 (?) teams and two (?) play-ins earlier in the week at the same site as the Final Four. (Two teams get byes, the other four participate in play-ins.) This year the tourney is at UCLA on the weekend of December 4-5. NCAA will announce the brackets and teams later tonight. No TV...just a press release.)

Yeah, just thought of that.