They will be ineligible if they get approved for FBS next week. They will be all dressed up with no place to go.

What is negative about saying a guy, after he used up his eligibility left to see if he could play professionally?

Sports Illustrated Big Sky prediction.

1. Montana State
T2. Montana
T2. Northern Arizona
4. Sacramento State
5. UC Davis
6. Idaho
7. Weber State
8. Eastern Washington
9. Idaho State
10. Cal Poly
11. Portland State
12. Northern Colorado

* Sacramento State will be removed if the Hornets receive approval to transition to the FBS level later this month

https://www.si.com/college/fcs/big-sky/2025-big-sky-football-preview-fcs

Comment: Davis weakens it case by not posting a roster, they return more contributors than listed if we believe what we have heard ( five starters on the O-line for example, not the four SI lists)

This story sounds more accurate. Left school to pursue opportunity in CFL, so didn’t finish probably needed another quarter.
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-student-graduates-after-more-47-years

There is a lot of bad reporting, so who knows?
But this does raise an interesting point, which is that there is no longer a rule that gives FBS a depth advantage. What besides losing the FCS label do teams get for moving to a lesser FBS conference aside from the chance to play in the Idaho potato bowl instead of the FCS playoff? The name doesn’t define the thing,

i read multiple sources that the 85 scholarship limit is gone, just the roster limit remains, conferences can set lower limits, as the SEC is keeping it at 83 in 2025. Big Sky keeping scholarships to 63.

Hero Sports: “ Athletic departments, FBS or FCS, that opt into the settlement will have a football roster limit of 105 players. With no scholarship limits, an FBS team could offer 105 scholarships if a conference doesn’t set a cap. Or, theoretically, an FBS school could have 95 players on scholarship and 10 walk-ons if they couldn’t fund all 105.”

NCSA:
“D1 FBS football programs will be allowed to offer up to 105 scholarships, up from the current limit of 85.
D1 FBS football programs will have a maximum roster limit of 105.
D1 FBS football, once a headcount sport, will now be classified as an equivalency sport. This change allows programs to offer a combination of partial and full scholarships to recruits”

So far Sac hasn’t spent hardly anything, but they are shortly going to have to pay the million dollar Big Sky exit fee, and fund the 105 scholarships they seem to be offering, plus the matching women’s scholarships, pay visiting teams, plus upgrade their facilities. I’m anticipating a few lawsuits over NIL money promised. At some point the Music Man has to produce a band.

They are going to be able to have 105 scholarships in 2026 if their FBS move is approved, where as the FCS teams they compare themselves to have lower scholarship limits, Big Sky is 63, so that is 42 more scholarships for Sac.

Will they be FCS when this class signs or not? They want to claim to be the best in something they aren’t a part of.

Marion will stay because Sac State is the top of the ladder. I mean look at the storied history, the rich alums, the stadium.

Rocko Deluca said in his interview about two months ago on the mountain west podcast that they would opt in but not until their existing rosters attrited as they had made commitments to those athletes. I can find nothing later than that, if they signed it they haven’t published it. Perhaps the withdrawn football roster is related to the roster size, anyone notice how many athletes were on the removed roster?

If it wasn’t Grant House it would have been someone else.

A judge shouldn’t be making major impact decisions that “are a net negative for the majority of society”, The judge allowed a class action suit that included in the class athletes who have dramatically different interests in the outcome, a few are major beneficiaries, more will be net losers, like many of the “olympic” sports athletes. And society wasn’t a party in the suit at all.

I’m looking forward to the Mercer game, its going to be a good test. Don’t know if i need to subscribe to ESPN to do so.
Mercer had an outstanding team last year, particularly on defense, where they led the nation in sacks and were very tough to run against. They lost most of the defensive stars to transfer or graduation, but they return a standiut sophomore defensive end. They had a QB who started the last half of the season, who transferred to Oklahoma, after spring practice, but their early season starter was out with injury, threw for over 1000 yards and can run. They have veteran running backs, including a 230# guy. Their head coach played O-line at Ohio State, is the son and grandson of football coaches, and has a staff most of whom have been with him for awhile, and they’ve had great success at D2 before moving to Mercer last year and making the quarter finals. They put in a whole new offense last year, so may be more polished this year.. They emphasize being physical. Davis will have a largely rebuilt defense, with possibly just the Connor twins as returning starters, i expect the Davis defense to be good, with more pass rush, but probably not as stout against the run, but they’ll only have summer camp to integrate key players on defense.

Sure lower division college courses may be a good predictor of college performance with courses that are taught at the pace and material of the courses at UC.
High school courses are taught at about half speed, and are not graded uniformly, so are not a good predictor, of whether someone can keep up.In addition because everyone applying has high grades, the admissions office is picking between students with a 3.8 and a 4.4. That difference doesn’t mean ine knows more than the other. The subjective nature of admissions lead to admission on non academic factors. I saw an interview with a well spoken Asian kid with a 4.3 GPA and 1500 plus SAT, who was turned down at Davis, UCSD, Berkeley UCLA and others.

Much more colorful than Bob.
Bog Salad Annie’s tailgate at Bog Biggs Field,

Yes Mirabella is done, he hasn’t been on either the Spring or 2025 roster, although he might have another year based on Covid. But he ended the season not starting and then came back in the starting lineup when Main got hurt if my memory serves.
Simonson, Rodriguez, Collier, Main, Nava was the best line.
They will have competition this year but a veteran line is a good place to start.

I went back and listened to Zaire Colliers press availability after end of spring practice and he says all five offensive linemen return.

A player sued the NCAA over them limiting his eligibility by counting non NCAA years. He won. The NCAA then, while they figure out what they are going to do going forward, gave another year to all former JC or NAIA athletes who would have had their eligibility expire last year.

Good to listen to the podcast again.
On the podcast, Scott Gordon said four of the five offensive linemen are back, who isn’t? Mirabella, started games, but Simonson, Rodriquez, Collier, Main and Nava started at the end of the season before Main was injured and they’ve all been reported to be returning, Simonson wasn’t on the spring roster but was on the 2025 roster when they had it posted.
Defense has experienced transfers coming in, but I’m curious who did well among the guys who were there.
Two highly regarded new freshmen corners and the All American 2 year college graduate from Tufts were competing with guys already on the team. Most of the transfer DBs played some type of safety at their old school, so the corners there this Spring may win the job,

Hero Sports is previewimg the top teams in the media poll, UC Davis is #11 ranked team in the media poll. and Hero Sports has previewed the top 3 so far, NDSU, Montana State and South Dakota State.
One element of the preview is listing the guys that had all conference recognition, including guys transferring in from other conferences.
NDSU and MSU have five, SDSU has 3 returning all conference players
Davis compares favorably with nine.
This is my list for Davis, any error is mine,

Defense five
Derrell Porter. DL Dartmouth. honorable mention
Jacob Psyk DL Harvard. 1st team
Khalani Riddick DB SEMO 1st team
Porter Connors LB. Davis. 2nd team
Rex Connors S. Davis. 1st team

Offense three
Winston Williams. TE. Davis 1st team
Eli Simonson OT Davis. 2nd team
Ernesto Nava OT Davis. honorable mention

Specialist one
Hunter Ridley. K. Davis. 2nd team

Here is a placekicker whose commitment was reposted by Trey Shimabakuro..

https://x.com/isaacmancera_/status/1928995922249195560