The FCS fans over on the anygivensaturday forum have the Aggies at #24 in their preseason poll:

#3 Montana
#4 Montana State
#6 Sac State
#11 EWU
#20 Weber State
#24 Aggies

https://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?308229-AGS-Poll-Results-Wk-0-2022-SEASON

The Ags are not ranked in the Athlon Sports Preseason Top 25:

#3 Montana
#4 Montana State
#6 Sac State
#13 Weber State
#15 EWU

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/athlon-sports-preseason-fcs-top-25-2022

Lots of BSC teams in the Hero Sports poll:

#3 Montana State
#4 Montana
#8 Sac State
#21 Weber State
#22 EWU
#25 Aggies

Do you recall what other non-conference games were on the schedule before they took it down?

The Big 10 is considering 7 more schools:

College football realignment is in the air again after USC and UCLA decided to join the Big Ten in 2024, and now it appears the conference might not be done yet.

The league has identified seven more schools as a target for potential expansion, according to a report from the Action Network.

Those schools: Notre Dame, Oregon, Washington, Stanford, Cal, Miami, and Florida State, per the report.

https://www.si.com/fannation/college/cfb-hq/ncaa-football/college-football-realignment-big-ten-seven-schools-expansion

12/1 Pacific @ UCD

The Aggies can currently add up to 5 more non-conference games to their schedule. I'll continue to update the schedule shown in the above post when I hear about additional games.

There will be for sure but this is all I can find so far.

Here's what we know so far:

11/7 @ California
11/9 Cal Maritime
11/12 @ Loyola Marymount
11/18 Arkansas State
11/22 Sacramento State @ The Golden 1 Center
11/26-28 TBA @ Milwaukee, vs Southeast Missouri State, vs Boston University
12/1 Pacific
12/13 Holy Names
12/17 @ Eastern Washington
12/21 @ UCLA
12/29 @ Hawaii
1/5 Irvine
1/7 Bakersfield
1/11 @ CSUN
1/14 Fullerton
1/16 @ San Diego
1/19 Riverside
1/21 Cal Poly
1/26 @ Bakersfield
128 @ Long Beach
2/2 Hawaii
2/9 @ Riverside
2/11 @ Santa Barbara
2/15 CSUN
2/18 @ Irvine
2/20 San Diego
2/23 @ Fullerton
2/25 @ Cal Poly
3/2 Santa Barbara
3/4 Long Beach

Wow...this is awesome. Chima has been chasing his dream and maybe he just caught it. I may have to go to a few Kings games if he sticks.

True, so we can only imagine how often things like this play out at schools who are all in for big-time athletics. These super conferences that are currently emerging are all about money and have little to do with academics. Some players are or will be making multi-millions from their NIL and the athletic facilities and budgets at some of the Power Conference schools rival those of NFL teams. Do we really believe that many of these schools really require their athletes to be good students? It's not likely.

That's a great article about Ryan Lang's long slide into and out of drag addiction. His father set the stage for Ryan’s eventual addiction by creating an obsessively driven and punitive, training environment for his son as he was growing up where his self-worth was based solely on his athletic performance.

I was also struck by the following paragraph detailing how his failed drug test at Northwestern was handled. It appears to me that the administration and his coaches essentially gave him a slap on the wrist and then turned their backs on his problem so he could continue to compete.

The first time I failed a drug test, I had initially passed the pee test. It was in the summer and I was taking summer class. It was strange because [the administration] called me in the next day to take a hair sample test. I failed for marijuana, MDMA, and cocaine. This was in 2005. My consequence was (and I wasn't the only one) suspension for 20 percent of the season, and a week or two off from practice. It was only for the first couple of tournaments. I never failed a drug test again. How did I never fail again? Because I wasn't drug tested again. I never changed my habits."

Unfortunately, at the highest levels of athletic performance, "winning at all costs" too often becomes the primary objective regardless of the negative consequences to the athletes.

That would be devastating for Washington.

Bob Dunning thinks the time is right for the Aggies to be invited to the PAC12:

Would the Pac-12 swap UCLA for UC Davis? In normal times, no. But these are not normal times. Substituting one UC for another sounds like an even deal to me, especially since there’s no other UC campus that even sponsors football, other than Cal.

Other geographically logical candidates include San Diego State, Fresno State and Boise State, all of which could compete immediately with Pac-12 schools. But no one can bring that UC prestige and credibility to the table but UC Davis.

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/bob-dunning-usc-ucla-leaving-pac-12-is-giant-jolt/

Well, I like that we at least offering some 3 star athletes who have quite a few FBS offers but, unfortunately, we're 0 for 5 so far. I sure would like to see of few of these athletes take a more serious look at the benefits of being an Aggie and what Hawk is building here.

From the Seattle Times:

Starting close to home, the University of Washington — specifically, athletic director Jen Cohen and university President Ana Mari Cauce — is now facing a stark decision, one being mirrored in Eugene, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Tempe, Boulder and perhaps Palo Alto and Berkeley. Namely, do the Huskies do everything in their power to maneuver their way into joining the Trojans and Bruins in the exodus to the Big Ten? Or do they stay with what essentially now becomes a mid-major Pac-12 conference?

It seems virtually certain that Oregon, which has the loftiest of aspirations for its football program, will not be satisfied with a Pac-12 that doesn’t contain USC and UCLA and will now see its already plummeting reputation tarnished even more. They almost have to leave now, right? And there were already reports Thursday that the Big Ten could target Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State to form a super conference.

It’s a dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest environment that has left schools scrambling to maintain their relevance in a collegiate world already uprooted by the Name, Image and Likeness revolution and transfer portal upheaval. As one Twitter wag noted on Thursday, this is a case of entire programs entering the transfer portal — and not for the first time in this new Wild, Wild West era of collegiate sports.

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/uw-husky-football/uw-faces-stark-decision-in-usc-ucla-fallout-leave-pac-12-or-be-content-in-declining-conference/

No way would we be in the conversation for moving to the PAC-12. I expect the PAC-12 will quickly be looking to find other already established major programs such as those mentioned below:

Is expansion necessary or could the Pac-12 remain at 10 for a while? If expansion is a must, the conference could look to programs like Boise State, BYU, Houston, Oklahoma State, or Kansas to bolster the membership.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/usc-ucla-big-ten-whats-next-pac-12-big-12-college-football-expansion-realignment