as a alum of a school that made the LEAP from FCS to FBS, I am here to say: you will raise the entire Profile of YOUR number 4 ranked Public University. It is full of negatives and hard challenges. More than every - particularly since 1998 - you are not going to compete with a Alabama. But you can schedule big games (far more than a Coastal Carolina or Georgia Southern); gain big money from those games + TV + assorted ancillary streams from boosters/attendance/marketing. As you are today ... you are just not even in the conversation of where UC Davis should be.

YOU won't be seen as San Jose State. YOU are a Public University of stature growing up. Today's Football World is exploding with opportunities; and FCS is a loser (slight) guaranteed. MWC would be an ideal landing spot. As for your Olympic Sports: no change honestly. However, a baseball or soccer might grow to a national program. Who knows YOU could have the dominant Women's Hoop in the west with the right coach. My view of the landscape is twofold: one GREATER regionalization. OK ... you have the P5. In the eastern states, that is going to continue to slide to a handful of relevant programs: from 65 to 12 or so. Just no business thinking the others are anything but cannon fodder. The Elite (with OU and UT moving) will cheat for even more money; it is Econ 101. And they will try to toss the Northwesterns, Vandy, others. In the coming years, UC Davis should jump and promote a major World U.