Denying their waiver at least gives the players some goal for the season, if some are seeking something beyond polishing their resume for the portal.

Do you think FCS or FBS is the driver for recruits? Many had established FBS teams that they passed over, teams that are immediately eligible for the famous potato bowl or other high profile showcases, whereas Sac isn’t eligible for bowls once they get their transition started. I think they had other incentives.

About half of Sacs transfers are seniors, FBS or FCS makes no difference to them.
My question is whether they will want to play in the playoffs games without a bonus.

Look at prior years and you’ll see the same thing. This is from 2024 class

- DL Rayne Mayo Jr. *** 6'3 285 Valley Christian High School (San Jose, CA) Tweet
Offers: Air Force, Army, Bryant, Colgate, Columbia, Cornell, Idaho, Murray State, Navy, Portland State, Sacramento State, UC Davis, Utah State, Weber State
- LB Kyle Hill 6'5 220 *** Xavier College Prep High School (Palm Desert, CA) Tweet
Offers: Army, Fresno State, Montana, San Jose State, UC Davis
- OL David Porotesano *** 6'5 280 Oceanside High School (Oceanside, CA) Tweet
Offers: Adams State, Army, Brown, Bucknell, Cal Poly. Columbia, Idaho State, NAU, San Diego State, Southern Utah, UC Davis, Weber State, Wyoming
- OL Jezniah Thurston *** 6'4 274 Citrus Valley High School (Redlands, CA) Tweet
Offers: Cal Poly, Eastern Washington, Georgetown, Northern Arizona, San Jose State, UC Davis, Utah Tech, Weber State
- QB Damon Wrighster *** 6'3 185 Inglewood High School (Inglewood, CA) Tweet
Offers: Arizona, Florida Atlantic, Fordham, Grambling State, Liberty, Memphis, Middle Tennessee State, Nevada, Old Dominion, San Jose State, UC Davis, Yale
- RB Carter Vargas *** 6'0 200 St. Joseph High School (Santa Maria, CA) Tweet
Offers: Army, Boston College, Nevada, Northern Colorado, Pennsylvania, Princeton, UAB, UC Davis

This analyst says he looks mostly at upperclassmen. He devalues them if they haven’t put up statistics.
Since Davis lists players who were recruited here out of high school by academic year, red shirt sophomores are listed as juniors. (Oddly, Caden Pinnick is listed as a redshirt freshmen, while all his classmates are sophomores)
Jordan Fisher, Sam Goligoski, Trent Carrade, Izaiah Souriolle are examples are guys that got a chance to tiptoe into playing last year as redshirt freshmen. They didn’t generate stats because they didn’t get much of a chance as Davis had a veteran team, yet they are listed as juniors, whereas on most rosters they would be listed as red shirt sophomores.

Scott mentions a lot of holes on defense, but not mentioned was that the defense has added quality transfers.
One of the interesting stories of this years team is that there may be as many as six or seven experienced new faces on D, including 3 players who were all conference at the FCS level, and 3 FBS transfers who played a lot at that level.

Honebein probably be a rush linebacker, maybe a defensive end who knows what he’ll weigh in a couple of years.

Quite a run of Marin Catholic players at Davis. There are 6 on the 2025 roster., and a few more in recent years.

They have put the 2025 Roster back up on the web site.

I don’t see what has changed since it was there last.
Good news is that Davis’ entire starting OL for games 6-12 returns. This includes tackles All Big Sky second team Eli Simonson, and honorable mention Ernesto Nava. Good depth too, including RS Freshman transfer Hasson. None of the FCS previews considered that the entire line returns, Sports Illustrated said Davis returned 4 “contributors” which means players that played 180 plays or so.

The roster inexplicably doesn’t list the year players graduated from high school, which makes their eligibility hard to decipher. In most but not all cases, players who came to Davis as freshmen are listed according to their academic class, not their eligibility. Players who started elsewhere are mostly listed by eligibility. But they are inconsistent even in that,

Number of scholarships is why Sac is leaving the BigSky, they want to build an FBS roster, They claim to have a schedule for next year, probably including some FBS teams. Being FCS independent allows them to build a FBS roster, with the same schedule they would have if they were FBS Independent, no difference. Strengthens their future court case.

So the 2022 12-1 season with the only loss a narrow one in the playoffs. didn’t move the perception much, but this season will?
i don’t know if people appreciate how weakened most FCS teams are from transfers. Anything short of a national championship won’t be a better showing than Sac’s showing of just a few years ago.

Interesting that he says the school committed to 105 scholarships.
(The House settlement sets roster limit of 105 but doesn’t require 105 scholarships. The SEC limits there members scholarships to 83.)
Scholarships is likely why they are leaving the BigSky. As an FCS independent they can recruit just like an FBS team, and schedule as they would have if the waiver had been granted.

I think the goal was to liberate NIL money, and a prerequisite for that was painting the picture of Sac being FBS. The Woods brothers see the future as one where big football programs thrive and small levels and programs suffer, and want to get into the big category. They apparently feel the Mountain West is on the wrong side of that divide. They got their NIL money and they made their pitch with success.
Now they have hit an obstacle, but the NCAA is toothless, and is on a long losing streak in the courts. It wouldn’t surprise me if the NCAA encourages a conference to invite Sac to avoid a potential law suit. They haven’t failed yet.

You lost me.
What do Jackson St, Colorado, Indiana, App St, Boise St have in common? Jackson State and Colorado I get.its Deion Sanders. He had a streaming channel reality show
App state to me is an argument for not moving to FBS, they went from being a massive FCS success to a mediocre team in a less than mediocre FBS conference. I can’t even spell their name.
Does Sac have a chance with their 2025 schedule to upset a Michigan, or an Oklahoma?

Sac has 39 transfers on the roster, and they are a mixed bag. About 18 are seniors or redshirt seniors; those guys all knew they would be playing an FCS schedule, whether the school was transitioning or not. The decision doesn’t really affect them. Many of the transfers committed before Sac announced they intended to transition this year. Maybe some of the younger ones will bail.

Sac might have a great year, if so they may get a conference invite, in which case getting turned down in their attempt to go independent could be in their interest,

Division 1 could split, separating off the power 4 conferences, and leaving the lesser conferences as essentially in the same situation FCS faces, being perceived as minor league. Sac may be trying to crash a party that has moved on.

Might be good for Sac to make a national impression in the playoffs. Assuming they don’t have too many scholarships for the Big Sky.

Those teams didn’t need a waiver, because they had a conference invite.

NAU returns a QB, whereas most Big Sky teams don’t, They made the playoffs.
Not following them but NAU seems to have lost more than they gained via transfer. I think Davis is one of the few that gained more than lost.

At least 3 FCS conferences, the CAA, Southland, and OVC-Big South have elected to not have conference rules limiting scholarships, meaning that schools opting into the House settlement can offer as many as 105 scholarships.
“The CAA and OVC-Big South also did not set a cap. The Big Sky and SoCon kept the football equivalency scholarship cap at 63 for 2025. The MVFC is deciding next week.”

https://herosports.com/fcs-southland-football-scholarship-cap-house-settlement-bzbz/

Davis has two of the top 25 FCS football tight ends, according to Hero Sports. Former Davis tight end Gale is also on the list, at 21.Gale graduated from Davis in the fall before transferring.

24. Ian Simpson, UC Davis
2. Winston Williams, UC Davis

https://herosports.com/fcs-football-top-returning-2025-tight-ends-bzbz/