yes, the new upcoming if funded and actually gets built changes will be awesome at RH/Pavilion. That’s definitely a game changer as are all of the Aggie Ascent projects. In my opinion if these get pulled off as planed (realizing construction never does…like the two deck fully surrounded Aggie Stadium brochure from the 2000’s or Rocko’s Tweet with a different two deck design) we will have some of the best non-P4 facilities in the country, and surpass some P4 programs.

I was referring to the already happened RH renovation which is nice, better, and something compare to the original, but akin to fresh paint. Though, I haven’t been too impressed by very many college basketball facilities in general.

Ok a hypothetical for everyone here (including Central Campus aka the AD and President) who says we have to win the FCS NC before moving up…

What’s your excuse in 2027 when we win it and we get bypassed for yet another less “ready” school?

mid 1990’s.

Rec Hall change doesn’t do a lot for non-students, or improve the gameday experience much.

As others have said here the marketing behind our athletics suck. I’d be willing to bet on any given Saturday more UCD alumni are in Berkeley than Davis someone mo eh at a game

Again, we don’t want to be, can’t be, and shouldn’t be Cal. But right now the college athletics map of Highway 50/80 goes from the Bay to Sac to Reno without even stopping for a potty break.

The biggest problem most of us who are upset about the NDSU situation is that instead of a statement that gives clarity on our path forward and benchmarks, we are simply “staying the course” of lacking progression. The idea that you have to win an FCS Championship before moving to FBS is silly. It’s literally just wanting a banner hung in the rafters.

To move to FBS, and even retain the funding necessary for FCS as it ALSO gets more expensive there needs to be excitement around the program, not just a little tease which feels like a money grab as our peers (like NDSU who moved from D2 to D1AA with us) actually won the Championships and created a sustainable product.

Fact is, asking us for more and showing us what more looks like (stadium tweets and a conference contract that one can logically read and assume says we are next up), only to let a school with much less financials, resources, and growth potential bypass us, is boring, especially when only explained by an official statement that provided ZERO in new information, and was clearly a reaction to the negative reaction of at least enough Aggie backers that Rocko realized he had to say something, but did not say enough to temper the dissatisfaction and confusion.

Did we apply?
Did we reject the opportunity to apply/join in football?
If we applied and were rejected, what was the rationality behind the contract language?

Right answers only Rocko, not a bland statement created with too many adjectives and a thesaurus with what we already knew.

this

No one is dreaming of the Irish or Trojans. Just not some school in a state we need directions to get to and Wikipedia to learn about our opponent.

We will not get donors to donate for a “mid” program (as the kids say). They haven’t gotten a dollar from me because they haven’t shown me a reason to give. Provocative tweets and false hope is working against Rocko’s tenure at this point as well as the ticket revenue for next year.

Excite us. They have not. Zero “ascension.”

I blame us and for that…I thank us

Very true…being on par with UNLV may be tough given their Gameday facilities and investment in practice facilities by the Raiders. No reason we can’t be with most others in the MWC.

We also need to position for the “next” division of D1. It’ll be hard to be in the second group when the super conferences happen if we aren’t already there. Then, we are effectively back to D2.

So the Instagram post post by UCD Athletics and football is a little upsetting. Allegations of posts being deleted, and then, that post is no longer visible as well as I watched in real time.

Pretty sad if what I actually saw what I saw. We should be better.

that put me to sleep as has every UCD ICA statement from the last 30 years.

Requiring an FCS Championship before being ready to move up is like saying let’s win the lottery. We’ve proven we are as good as any team, but you never know when Illinois St. will show up and ruin everything.

or that part of the contract no longer applies, since we were don’t get the first spot and now it is open season for the next team, even if it’s Sac St.

That clause of the contract has passed, we no longer have leverage or a “right” to the next spot. That’s what we gave up by not fighting for our brand.

one example and he can’t simply use that as the barometer for all other transitions he may or may not be a part of.

honestly…I think most of the alumni base I know is more aligned with ANY FBS conference and would rather win the Toilet Bowl sponsored by Ajax than consistent runs at FCS playoffs. We don’t sellout because we aren’t putting out a product that’s interesting to our fans/community/massive staff (think main campus plus UCDHS)/industrial-academic partners (Fresno St does this very well with the Ag industry which we actually dominate the executive tier of compared to them).

More interest drives more revenue. Could we actually be hurting ourselves by remaining uninteresting?

Let’s study our student and alumni demographic…. Where did they come from? San Luis or LA/SF? Let that sink in as we think about generating athletic interest. Is UNLV (Vegas) or Weber St. (Weeeeburrrr not the BBQ) going to make students leave their dorm or adults come to a night game after the kids soccer matches all day? That’s what we are fighting. Watch us play Portland St. or go watch Tennessee / any SEC School (btw…went to a UTK game this year…OMG!!!!) on TV and have something other than Woodstocks Pizza made offsite and delivered to the stadium?

Our product is stagnant/stale after 23 years. Not sure within FCS there is much we can do to elevate it. Dare I say…ascend?

So with some background in communications/marketing and dabbling in fundraising, I will say the lack of a statement from our AD is concerning. Were they caught off guard, unprepared, or just don’t care and are apathetic to us?

I think this hurts our readiness. Motivated backers aren’t so motivated this morning.

Let’s assume one of two things:
- we got first invite/consideration from the MWC to be an ALL SPORT member and we declined which is a little sad to not capitalize on recent energy around the program. It’s a buzzkill. Not even a statement from the AD. Poor.
- the MWC didn’t actually accept our application “first” and/or after giving us “first consideration” decided a school further away with a smaller budget and less reporters would be a better conference fit for the MWC than our full membership.

So either we think we are lame, or the MWC thinks we are lame. If the MWC thinks so, why are we wasting our time with them in other sports? If we think we are lame, what are we doing about it? Killing off ANY energy, and doing so silently, isn’t any way to build.

yeah…the Cal Poly game is a manufactured rivalry vs the regional one we had. Not sure it sells out. Great school and fun place, but rivalry it truly is not.

You can’t just make a trophy and suddenly despise the other guys. Especially Cal Poly…they’re too nice and never really competitive with us for any length of time.

Kinda makes the whole Aggie Ascent facility drive descend.

If FCS is where we stay, why bother donating for bigger and better things? A nicer FCS stadium will just be more “empty” than now and further amplify the “see no one cares” argument.

The ineligible period will always exist, regardless of when. If that’s an excuse to stay down, that’s not valid. Not like it’ll magically disappear for us in 2-4 years.

Besides, when bowl teams were needed to fill the schedule the “ineligible” teams suddenly were eligible for postseason play.

. Clearly the Cal situation was unfortunate in terms of CMS. We have literally a hole in the ground that additional seating can be built around as new structures, not additions to existing structures. That’s cheaper.

Also, everyone worried about the cost should also factor in the “give a damn” factor of FCS vs FBS. Donations will not drop with an FBS program, they’ll increase. As will tv revenue and other media/marketing deals. FBS teams travel with more fans to away games too so expect more visiting fans at our home games (in addition to more of our fans going to our games than Cal games). A review of FCS to FBS teams in the last decade does in fact show significant attendance increases.

Finally the readiness…we sound like a bunch nervous anxious indecisive tools. You wanna know how you’re ready? Test yourself. We’re UC Friggin’ Davis damnit…our academic and professional swagger has us with a mentality to go charging ahead to kick rear end. Why are we sitting around watching others?

And for watching others? The NDSU statement today states they accepted an invite from the MWC. Should MWC want ANOTHER football only school? It only stands to reason that we rejected an invite/consideration which quite frankly is not a way to get more donors on board.

“Our stadium is too small!” NDSU seats 18,000. We have had 17,000+ in attendance per Rocko. So…null and void. Or like his tweets with fancy stadium build outs is that just another false hype?

To be fair, this is momentum killing for most Aggie fans who saw hope with the MWC deal and contract. We could always point to the fear of debt or the low donation level, but why would we give our money to a $3 billion endowment that can’t write its own checks if we aren’t excited? Sometimes you have to build it before they come.

It’s cute, like a girl that’s not interested in you but knows you have resources. Keeps asking for gifts, but never reciprocates. The attendance problems will not improve in FCS and without Sac St there’s not a game worth attending with my time or money. So, the 3,000 or so fans that attend games now (non-students) can continue to enjoy our purported big time academic institution playing “we are nexxxxxxxxxxt” forever, but the tens of thousands who might care about non-directional state opponents are nauseated.

Comparing the excitement of football to FBS with the attendance at MBB vs. UCSB is so funny too. As mentioned, there is zero marketing for our basketball program and UCSB is not a peer athletic institution. So stop. Now if we drop football it would be a peer institution.

No reason UC Davis is less ready after 23 years in D1 from the Athletic Department standpoint financially. Rocko trading stadium expansion photos on X is bad leadership, as is letting NDSU jump us.

The debt Cal is in that’s always referenced here has to do with a stadium renovation from earthquake retrofit for a Power 5 facility, not a simple upgrade/expansion to a home in the ground built, allegedly, for an expansion that’ll never occur and was just a ploy to excite donors for more money for something that’ll never occur.

So go on, make excuses as to why not, instead of “why not us?” We actually have the resources, the money in the bank, the alumni to fund it (if they don’t keep getting disappointed in the ICA stagnation), and the media market and population center to support it. While I think Sac St. in now way should do this, I have to credit their leadership with motivating their donors vs. decades of boring the crap out of them.

Hey 69....it wasn't directed at any one person (except those using a K) as midpelled university names should be reserved for Suc St and Stanfraud. I think criticizing Cal is no different than anyone who buys a home with mortgage. Cal has some of the wealthiest donors in the country, but not the kind like Oregon has in Uncle Phil (nor do I have that uncle darned it). Based on earnings and revenue however, Cal can afford it. The debt number is high, but not without merit for their program. Now if we did that at Davis...ouch...even if only a minuscule fraction of the total.

Whether the profit comes from TV or not, ESPN and Fox games are worth more than P12 Network games, and paydays down under help too. Those are all things that are a result of money spent. The SAHP was only about $150 million and privately funded (separate from the $321 million Memorial project).

Tweaks to an unsafe and century-ish old facility don't work. Besides, Cal plays P12 Division 1 football brother, not Intramurals. The concern over Cal's athletic debt is more created by academics and newspaper writers. I agree Division 1 sports cost too much, but they are also generating the revenue. With good business decisions following a plan, its no issue any more than academic costs to attend college which is high at schools that don't have athletic debt or costs.

One thing that has always appalled me here is the hatred towards other UC's, most notably Cal. I know it sucks Davis is the backup school but really? We hold our own academically and socially. Having degrees from both I enjoy the atmosphere of both, athletics included. They are different but nonetheless "mine." Both also need to pick up their game in certain areas, but neither deserves the spurn of the other. We are more partners than not, in fact, there's no way we aren't.