Interesting to read that Ole Miss is still recruiting McDonald despite his verbal. This is a great coup and pick up for Sac, but they need to continue to recruit this kid until December.
I am a huge skeptic about what Sac is trying to do with FBS, but even I must admit they are getting some positive results in the short-term.

Same Brewster whose Gophers lost twice to Junior Varsity teams from North Dakota State?

The comment about “not making the travel work” is absolutely ridiculous.

I have to think this is not a surprise to Woods or the Sac administration. If they were truly blind sided by this, they either bought into their own hype, were too naive to run a D1 athletics program, just plain stupid, or all of the above. If they were serious about FBS, from the start this was a hastily contrived and poorly executed plan. Just track the narrative:
PAC 12 membership gave way to FBS independent which gave way to FCS independent in a Olympic sport conference their rivals just upgraded from.
New stadium gave way to renovated stadium which gave way to renovated bathrooms.
These “facilities renovations” are small capital projects for a mid-sized college and calling them “phases” is just showmanship. I do not think Dr. Woods is stupid, but I do think this was never a serious plan.
All this may very well get them an FCS championship with players and a coach who were brought in on promises of an FBS transition and new facilities. That is if they can keep their “student athletes” out of trouble. I could sit here and say I wish Sac the best and hope they find their footing, but it would be a lie. In order to gain attention, they sold their plan on smoke & mirrors and outright lies. This allowed them to attract a group of highly athletic players as hired guns, disregarding and standards of academics and integrity.

They are taking the 4-3-2-1 approach to recruiting:
4 previous colleges
3 star rating
2.0 GPA
1 felony conviction

*Before you get all over me about GPA: I know. It’s a joke.

If the waiver is denied, are they above the scholarship limit for FCS and Big Sky?

And yet Sac thinks they can go the other way.

I agree about the need to improve the program. My point is that while Sac is making a lot of noise, it may just be noise.

A well known Bay Area QB’s kid played football at my son’s high school. When we did not start, he transferred to another high school. Apples do not always land at the base of the tree.
If I am correct, Shaq’s kid average less that 7 ppg more than I did last year.

It is amazing what a college athletic program can accomplish when they are not concerned with…you know…college.

Same as football: Sac is very likely to surpass us in performance on the field/court (Not courtroom.) in the short-term by prioritizing flash and form. How this works is if they can generate enough revenue to do actual facilities upgrades to create a sustained recruiting and donor base. Have gone through the recruiting process recently with my kids, facilities are huge factors in decisions. Sac’s facilities suck compared to most FCS/mid-majors and it takes big money and time to address that.

Sac was FCS (I-AA) and UCD was D2 when I was there. Even though they were a step up divisionally, the result was usually the same: Happy Aggies and sad Hornets.
Remember they had a solid 12+ year head start on us moving to FCS.

They need to, but will not, bring back some restrictions on transferring. At least in the past we pretended that players were actual students, but now the NCAA does not even attempt to hide it.
Playing at two schools I can understand, but 3, 4, or 5?

What a joke.
Win all the games you want because next year they mean nothing.
Seriously, zero integrity.

Stadium naming rights idea:
Chico’s Bail Bonds Field

They have signed a kid suspended and cut by Pitt, a kid kicked out of one school for drug trafficking then another for criminal mischief, and now a player who was kicked out of MSU on weapons charges while already suspended for a violent attack in the tunnel. I am all for second chanced, but not third or forth chances. These are pretty serious transgressions. There is a reason they fell to Sac: Everyone else decided that the level of talent was not worth the discipline headaches. Again ,I will gladly lose the next 10 causeways if this is the type of “student-athlete” we need to bring in to compete with Sac.

is “almost” a W- or an L+?

It is very clear where character and integrity rank in Sac’s recruiting priorities.
Seems like they are recruit at the same locations at Wagner Group.
As cool as it would be to play FBS, I would rather win at FCS with Ivy League transfers than do wha Sac is doing.

UNLV recently recommitted to MW and declined PAC 12 bid because of this.

I think at the moment MW has a better media contract because of markets it is in: Bay Area, Las Vegas, Chicago (Football), Phoenix (non-football)… The only major market in new PAC 12-ish will be San Diego, with the Bay Area for basketball if St. Mary’s joins.that said who knows were this goes.