funny. More like someone gave AST Tylenol PM and they’ve been asleep at the wheel from a development standpoint for years.

Like RiverAggie said, the middle initial is damning. Yes, the cost of admission is too high.

But what about the cost of non-admission? If you (a non-alumni) can choose between a Sac St, UCD, or your local HS game in a weekend, you won’t be going to the UCD game. We just got relegated guys. Stop acting like anyone gives a hoot about FCS in the region, especially when you now have an FBS team to choose from.

it was very evident Sac would spend whatever it took to get to FBS wherever they had to spend it. If not, you weren’t paying attention to their statements and actions. For you that’s fine, but I fear our AD was caught with his drawers down as well and that’s NOT fine.

No guarantee we will get a discount from the MWC to add football, or get guaranteed media revenue upon adding football. It’s not in the contract, and even getting to apply first meant absolutely nothing.

The reality is we can’t claim to be top dog in Sac area college football anymore. And if you were a corporate donor you are likely to pull funding away from UCD and move it towards Sac for visibility. Even the local media won’t be covering us next year. Already, they’ve jumped on the sac bandwagon, and rightfully so. This is bigger, even being the MAC, than anyone here is realizing. And that hurts me to say.

UCD supporters are left clinging to “hopes” that things work out for us where NDSU and CSUS made their goals known, excited the fan and donor base, and MADE things happen. Meanwhile we put out glossy ads for facilities (how many stadium brochures with huge designs have we received in the last 2-3 decades) without clearly defined benchmarks and visions. But plenty of excuses, we may laugh at the Ball-Sac situation in the MAC, but in true Aggie fashion we currently look like our mascots arse.

how could you not see they’d end up there? They have a vision and they went for it. We have some righteous dream that we will be invited to the SEC for free. If you work for it, if you build it, you will get it. We aren’t doing a damn thing.

Like someone else stated, Sac now has the head start on cultivating the Sac market. Huge mistake on our part and very emblematic of the “staleness” in our basketball program and entire ICA.

Perception is realty. Why donate to UCD for improvement if all they’ll do is talk about how someday sometime…vs having a stated goal and fighting for it? This is certainly a hit to revenue development not only amongst alumni donors but especially corporate/commercial dollars in this region.

Aggie Fight?

More like Aggie Flight….we might have killed our football programs chances with a gamble and foolish belief Sac couldn’t be successful. If I was Rocko I’d beg to get in NOW at today’s cost. It would’ve been much cheaper a year ago and will only become more expensive each year. With Sac having FBS, our program is second tier in the region now and will be stale like basketball with decreasing attendance if it remains FCS.

We hedged this bet and lost. Now, we have to show why we are actually better than Sac or we actually have to give them credit. No choice if we want our program to survive.

seems like with a little marketing and a down Kings team there could be a push for UCD BB but gotta actually market it AND put some money into the gameday experience. With the Kings having one of the best entertainment products in the NBA it’s a lot to contend even when their basketball is comical, but I’d rather go watch my Aggies than Kings, especially if the experience was elevated a bit. I think the eventual arena upgrades get us there, but we need some in game experience aside from the basketball too.

We can say Sac isn’t ready all we want and we shouldn’t do what they are doing, but let’s consider:
- they generated (allegedly) a bunch of funding through exciting existing and NEW donors and sources (aka “development”)
- they’ve convinced the Sac market they are in it and we aren’t
- we are also actually much better positioned than they are, and way more than we give ourselves credit for
- we are scared which is not the Aggie Way

12-15? That’s not the national consensus.

We talk about wanting to increase attendance, interest, and support yet let those who are ready to get a little excited and maybe start to support be letdown as others that we all view as “less than” ourselves run by us.

My biggest concern is we are going to suffer from missed opportunity. FBS will get more expensive. Conferences may not need us. CSUS gets a head start on cultivating the Sac market and CORPORATE DOLLAR. When the supposed super conference realignment occurs we are left out of even the G5-6 if we aren’t in it.

But hey, you’ll still get your cooked offsite and delivered in bulk pizza slices at the game….

☝️ ditto x3

We are probably the only school looking to move up that’s giving all the reasons we can’t instead of providing and creating the why we can and will be successful.

One coach.

And a few years lead time for Sac St. to have the Sac market to itself.

So…with Sac St going to the MAC how do we feel?

https://x.com/rossdellenger/status/2022379289820147998?s=46

on this note…I bought a tickets for a Tennessee game last year from a 3rd party app a few moths before the game and early during that game week I received an email from one of Development Officers at UTK asking who/what/when/where/why I bought tickets…as below:

We’re excited to welcome you to Neyland Stadium as the Vols take on Vanderbilt!

My name is Mike Nguyen, and I serve as a Development Officer in the Tennessee Fund. I have the privilege of working with Tennessee donors and season ticket holders who are passionate about supporting the Vols.

Since you’ve secured tickets for this game, I’d love to learn about your connection to Tennessee and discuss how you can become more involved with Tennessee Athletics – whether that’s through season tickets, premium seating, or increasing your engagement through philanthropic giving in our Shareholders Society.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Go Big Orange!

Two sides to this - they have more resources to email every single game ticket purchaser to every game but they also attempt to cultivate the casual fan into a donating fan. Ive even seen this in Berkeley. I’ve not seen this when I’ve bought UCD tickets.

My point is, along with not marketing in our nearby population centers (Sac), we do not seem to be doing much to get money from anyone who isn’t already giving money. If we did, I think we’d be even more incredibly funded across ICA and maybe we’d still have an equestrian team.

it’s because there is ZERO marketing in Sac. Plenty of Sac St. stuff, but we don’t spend a dime up in Sac to market athletics across the Causeway. Seems like a little dime could go a long ways.

correct on all. You have to announce the extension, but I don’t think it’s any surprise he’d sign an extension or that we’d want to. We also know it’s extremely unlikely he’d jump to another FCS school. It’s maybe likely he’d jump to the right FBS program with the right offer. We can say he likes Davis etc. etc. etc. but truth is there are tons of great colleges and towns across the country that could set him and his children up for life with a nice few years away from here with the massive increase compare to the money we could offer as FCS. This is a no-brainer.

It’s also a no-brainer to want to win. Find me an announcement for a new/extended coach that says anything different, that he’s not a role model for the players, doesn’t represent the values of the school, so on and so on. Heck, even dismissals/firings can be complimentary to the outgoing coach.

The missing piece in this to me is talking about tangibles…what are doing or have done. That we are 25% or 65% towards our fundraising goals for stadium expansion, we actually have increased NIL/House $, we continue to explore new funding/marketing opps to achieve our goals.

What I read is we are simply staying the course, just extending Coach but no vision of how the CAMPUS will work towards revenue development. They have to work on that too and not just hope we donate. Instead of self fulfilling, it’s self staying. I see nothing to be excited about from the statement itself, which I believe is a missed opportunity because I don’t doubt there is much more that is going on that’s not being provided.

I’ve written quite a few media releases and this isn’t an admission of anything. It’s the typical big dreams and big words format to make it sound like something, at least is terms of the future of the programs status.

Love signing Plough….would also love to see the contract terms which I believe would tell us a LOT more than a glossy statement about a contract.

I’ve wondered this too…especially for those who get NIL that’s 2-3x more than the cost of school. The cost of school is nothing compared to many basic NIL deals now.

Student freed from a large student body are way more predictable that corporate gifts which can fluctuate based on the economy/program interest.

Nice stadium picture…that’s not even close to what we are working on. We are working on 8 luxury boxes and done meeting space.

solutions need well defined and committed plans…we’ve been given plenty of concepts, but nothing concrete.

RH got jumping when the top bleachers were utilized for big games/midnight madness or whatever we called it then!

I agree on not following the Hornets plan.

I also don’t like following the Oaklandamentogas A’s plan of supposedly funded. Let’s get shovels in the ground and see the confirmed $ in the bank. We’ve heard a lot without a lot to see after the fact over the years.

Regarding $10-15m for an FCS fee 2-3 years ago, who’s to say it won’t be $25-30 2-3 years from now when we are ready, which will then be the excuse to say we still aren’t ready?

It may be smart to lock in a fee at today’s known rate than tomorrows inflated cost. Maybe….