Such an awesome dude. Ravens were a great team to draft him too.

here comes my essay pitch lol

While I understand the points made and agree that FBS moves are not instant wins, if you look at attendance stats for teams that moved to FBS, in the past 5 years attendance numbers are up:
-coastal carolina: 24.22%
-sam houston: 52.39%
-kennesaw: 42.61%
-liberty: 10.54%
-JMU: 8.17%

Delaware, Missouri state and Jacksonville state have not been in the fbs for 5 years but all had successful seasons joining the G5.

Objectively the MW is a better conference than the CUSA, moving up to the FBS to join the MW in my opinion is a good move to make before 2030 barring some huge change in conference membership beyond the departing members currently. I would much rather see a UC Davis vs SJSU or UC Davis vs UNR game than UC Davis vs northern Colorado or UC Davis vs Utah Tech.

I know that the Montana's and NDSU's of the world have a ton of financial support, fan support and talk about them, but simply don't exist in metro areas or have large alumni bases that schools like that of the MW have. NDSU is pretty much openly asking to join the MW but has not received an invite for the reasonings I listed (speculation).

Also, academically and culturally UC Davis fits much better with the size and scope of research, student body and national profile of the mountain west than big sky schools (other than GCU which I think academically is sketchy to say the least but has good athletic support i guess).

I would much rather be in a conference that is adding schools like UTEP than Utah Tech. The Mountain West is adding members with much stronger fan base support and institutional foundations than the Big Sky when it comes to growth.

If we want to grow our support base financially, I agree winning an FCS championship would help, but I also think moving the team to a more nationally prominent level would help exponentally.

Its also much easier to visit the schools in the new MW than many of the Big Sky schools that are in smaller metro areas (and transit option wise/price).

Another thing about the MW is just the enthusiasm overall of fans and facilities that exist, its exponential compared to most of the Big Sky (with the exception of the very top of the conference). Losing Sac in the Big Sky takes away half of our regional rivalries that exist. Other than Cal Poly, joining the MW would add Reno and SJSU as natural rivalries (and rekindle the Nevada rivalry).

I see the vision for joining Olympic sports in the MW, its a no brainer, but football seems like a logical move for our future, no matter what happens with the FBS in the future. The MW no matter what has a stronger hand than the Big Sky no matter what happens with relegation of level.

I hear all the time "in a few years the top of the FCS and G5 will merge most likely", which is probably true, but waiting and taking the risk of not being in that merger OR not having that G5 caliber membership seems riskier than not if we stay in the Big Sky long term for football.

Last thing i'll say, this whole being in 2 conferences for football and other sports confuses the hell out of everyone who is not super deeply involved in Davis athletics, and will only get more confusing now that we are joining a FBS conference for every sport except for the football team.....

Largest vet med donation in history... seems like the Weill's family dog was treated for cancer at UCD

Does anyone have any idea where the old bako coach is now? I know he had a tumultuous exit.

I go to the actual 1140 website and you can usually stream from the stations website itself and have had no issues no matter where I am (from Davis to Utah)

Dude had over 7k yards in HS

Thanks for this write-up! This would be a huge game. I am amazed how well they reloaded this year.

Do you feel Sevilla has found his footing again in the shooting game? He really jumped at the start of the season and then seemed to level off after a tough game or 2.

Niko has grown. happy he is back, dude is a great rolemodel and face for the team now

Team has been up for a bit now, not able to watch live rn but nils seems to be playing well.

Sac state gets Conklin back. Pretty big and exciting news

UCI has really stepped up these last few years. Riverside seems down?

I agree. I get the whole landscape of equestrian is small, but I also have not heard a ton about STUNT either as a d1 sport (I don’t mean that as a diss but a legit question/personal observation)? In a perfect world we could have both but personally something like women’s rowing going d1 seems more obvious?

Yeah I think it has to do with stagnation as of recent. I agree we have had exciting players and a couple decent seasons but since 2021 I think from most people I’ve talked to they feel the team is going to finish just above .500 but not make march madness. The branding and general vibe from football also seems much higher energy. Plough is just such a good communicator to the fans. I do think the MW should bring more energy (even with a less stellar record when we first join I assume). Long term vibes are good, but while I do personally think Les is a good coach, I wonder if someone more energetic would help.

Came back to Davis to visit friends this weekend and found savemart to be full of Fresno state merch. I know they are a valley company but how the hell do Davis stores have more Fresno merch than the college in the town..

Hunter Ridley has entered the transfer portal.

That game was awesome to watch by the end. Missed the first half but it was really great to see the defense step up at the end even after an exhausting first half.

This is incredible. Sac is now playing the big boys. Scheduling a team that literally started sponsoring a football team a year ago, going to Fresno, paying Youngstown from Ohio to come to Sac, playing Maine and the 2017 Big Sky champions SUU is some high-caliber stuff. Leaving the Big Sky without an FBS invite/conformation of FBS independence acceptance was a stroke of genius by Luke Wood and company!

In all seriousness this is crazy, especially when Wood said a few months ago now, that in 2 weeks he would have conference news. The goal post never stops moving. I am surprised they wouldn't pay low tier FBS schools to at least have some resemblance of an FBS schedule (considering Wood from the get go said they will 100% be playing an FBS schedule in 2026), but instead are playing mediocre fcs schools that no one in CA knows about.

You are correct. I more just mean that I think for a school getting a new HC this seems like a good one.