I see us in the Big Sky for the foreseeable future. Which I love, as long as we are having consistent success at the level of the Montanas/Dakotas on the field and in the stands. It is time for the program to start dominating, as things are set up pretty well for that.

At this point if we aren't able to dominate at the level we are at, we have deeper issues.

I may be reading too much into things, but the Plough 5-year extension ends about the time we should be making a decision, or perhaps a move. Seems like a good time for him to get paid or move on.

For some reason, he has decided against announcing. I trust his judgement (the premature stadium renovation tweet makes sense now, although could have been executed better). I think its mostly because we aren't in a hurry and the program is doing ok financially year-to-year. Fundraising is a different story.


I believe Wood got a sh*t-or-get-off-the-pot warning regarding football. They clearly weren't in good shape.

Feels like a huge, desperate gamble.

He does appear to be very careful about alienating the Big Sky. The whole facilities upgrade thing does everything but say we are moving up in 5 years (maybe).

I do give him credit for being calculated with everything he does. I much prefer Rocko's style to Wood's.

This thing folds within 5 years, right??......unless something miraculous happens like they win the conference and move to another...

I'd like this as well. Put it out there, Rocko. What is our goal with football and the MWC? This would help fundraising and recruiting tremendously. He doesn't have to be an idiot about it like Wood, but he could set a goal. Big difference. "Football's goal is to move up by 2030...." Unless I'm missing something we don't have that. Perhaps he is unsure.

That would be amazing. I'm looking forward to when all the money comes in to get started.

We ain't buildin' nothin' yet. Stick around a while (20+ years) and you'll see how long this stuff takes at Davis....They've only just asked us to pay for it.

Sac may be excited today, but they've placed the entire cart in front of the horse. At least Davis is smart enough to not do that.
Sac is waaaaay overextended the way they've gone about this. Hey, they did say "FBS or bust." Hopefully they can make it work.

How do I feel? I know how I'd feel if Davis was paying $15 million to join a conference like the MAC. :death:

Sounds like the MAC Council of Presidents can vote this down (?)

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.

I'm in agreement with a small capacity at Aggie Stadium. I think the planned renovations are right on target for what we need.

I've always thought our issue was getting students and alums to love football (and the gameday experience in general). UM, MSU, NDSU and the entire South love football and their gameday experience. If there is no passion for the experience itself, it really hard to show up for stuff consistently. Davis has shown the ability to show up for select major events (Stanford basketball 2005, D2 Break-the-Record Nights, Causeway football, as examples).

The potential is definitely there. And I think we will experience some really cool stuff at Davis in our lifetimes.

I think the SJSU renovation was spot-on what they needed and looks great. They adjusted to the reality of their situation.

Its telling that SJSU slashed the capacity of their stadium with the renovation they did. They essentially removed the East side of their stadium. The capacity went from 30,000 down to 18,000.
In the same region, Stanford reduced from 85,000 to 50,000. Neither school comes anywhere near filling their stadiums. Football attendance is tough in the Bay Area (and Sac region).
It remains to be seen whether replacing Northern Arizona with New Mexico will move the needle in Davis.

It appears we have bumped attendance 35% with every "move-up" or major program improvement. So the next one could get us to 13,500 average at least.

It seems the Bison don't sell out these days primarily due to severe weather and fans generally losing interest in watching non-competitive games. Blowing out teams is a great problem, uninhabitable weather not so much.

Speaking of….Pablo Tomba has started all 24 games for LSU averaging 7/7. — DrMike

Impressive!

Its because we've historically drawn around 4,000-6,000 non-students/band/player family for a majority of games since 2006.

Some on here might argue that number is lower.

Attendance has been increasing steadily since 2003 though, which is great. Program improvements can be attributed to this, for sure. Things are headed in the right direction.

D2 Toomey ~6k avg.--> D1 Great West @ Aggie Stadium ~8k avg.---> D1 Big Sky @ Aggie Stadium ~10k avg.

I agree. There is fatigue, since fans have been body-bagged over the past 5-10 years now. Our fan base did prove itself under more enjoyable circumstances though.

I think Davis has shown the potential to show up to Cal/Stanford/SJSU if we are in the MWC and playing on a more level playing field.

I'm more worried about the Yolo / Solano community for home games, to be honest.

It seems Bay Area alums will come out if its a "once-in-a-lifetime" thing like Stanford 2005 or Cal 2010. Other than that.....crickets. The good news is: there were ~5,000 alums interested enough to show up for those 2 events. The pride exists, at least.
The Bay Area folks seem to be most likely to show up, and only to show we "belong" with Cal/Stanford. SJSU doesn't seem to stir anything.

I think being in a more seemingly important/visual conference might help......in 20 years...

Personal commitment and program stability. Hard to find in college athletics these days.