I was starting to write my NCAA petition to try to get my year eligibility from Freshman football. I figure the poor NCAA officials need a laugh from the idea of 50-70 old years arguing that Frosh football deprived us of NIL earnings!

https://paybee.io/quickpay.html?handle=ucdfootball#campaignList

The Aggies reopen conference play in Southern California on New Year’s Day evening. UCD continues to feature four players averaging double figures: Ryann Bennett at 17.3 ppg, Nya Epps 11.9, Megan Norris at 11.8, and Avery Sussex with 11.5. Norris paces the Aggies in rebounding at 10.4 a game. Davis averages 70 ppg, while giving up 64.

CSUN sits in 6th place in the Big West, and with a win, would jump past the Aggies, at least temporarily. The Matadors average 68 ppg, and allow 64. Rita Nazario is the leading scorer (13.9), with everyone else averaging under 8 ppg. Nadia Bernard and Jite Gbmuotor both pull down 5.6 boards. Northridge plays a lot of people - Nazario averages 29 minutes per game;, but no one else plays more than 20 mpg.

Looking Ahead:
With the end of preseason play, UCD is tied for 4th place in a potentially very competitive Big West. Santa Barbara and Irvine look like the teams to beat, with another 6 - lead by the Ags - in the “on any given night” tier. Riverside, Cal Poly and The Beach look like they’ll bring up the rear, but all could pull an upset or two. IF the young Ags can consistently bring their game, they look capable of challenging UCSB and UCI.

Aside from inexperience, Davis needs to guard against relying on “big comebacks” to win games in conference. Secondly, UCD needs to do a better job against a zone defense, and against physical play, than they did in the last game vs. Northern Colorado. Finally, consistency will be super important. The bench needs to become reliable, both as individuals and as a unit; the starters, especially Norris would benefit from a little more rest. And the Big 4 - Bennett, Epps, Norris and Sussex need to show up every game. The losses and unnecessarily difficult games have come when a couple of them disappeared or couldn’t get going until late in the contest.

My wife and I will be there. It's probably her worst nightmare to know that more than one person in the world exists that enjoys talking about Davis sports. Even worse, having people in the same room other than me talking about Davis sports. We'll be taking Caltrain or Uber up from San Mateo and likely getting a hotel.

I agree. Stanford and Cal are in a tough position. They are academically elite, but their football teams no longer have USC and Washington to carry the burden of winning big time football. In all honesty, they begged the ACC to take them, but who would you rather have if you were the ACC? Notre Dame or Cal? You see ND is going to have to join a conference and that conference will either be the ACC or a new league will be created to keep the blue blood football teams separate from the rest of the "lower class of teams"...aka Cal, Stanford, Nevada, Texas Tech, etc...So what do they do? I don't know, but I'll tell you what I would do if I were in charge.

We are in a new age of college sport. It's no longer about kids going to college and playing for their school for spirit. That day is over. College sports is business...a billion dollar business. So what are the assets? Our kids. Look around at the college football across the country, what do you see? I see a ton of California kids on Texas, Ohio St, ND, Clemson, Miami, Florida, Georgia...all those "GREAT" football schools are winning with our kids. College football wants California kids but they do not want California schools to get a piece of the pie (kill the PAC). Look at the list of where the top California kids are attending school:

1. Kodi Greene, Santa Ana - Washington
2. Chris Henry, Santa Ana - Ohio St
3. Tommy Tofi, San Francisco - Oregon
4. Brandon Arrington, San Diego - Texas A&M
5. Ryder Lyons, Folsom - BYU
6. Khary Wilder, Gardena - Ohio St
7. Richard Wesley, Chatsworth - Texas
8. Davon Benjamin, Westlake Village - Oregon
9. JD Hill, Mission Viejo - Washington
10. RJ Mosley, Pittsburg - Arizona

Look at that list of the top 100 kids in California, only 20% are staying in California to attend school. Why is that? Why are our kids choosing to attend lower academic schools outside the state? It's not the academics, in most cases we are better. So what is it? I'll tell you, the NCAA and the SEC specifically have turned college football into a business. So what I say is we turn our football schools into a business as well...and we keep our assets at home....except we don't try to buy it by trying to get out of state schools to join California...instead we build our own. We invest in building a California Conference. This will take flushing the "elitism" status we have been taught to believe...aka "Cal, Stanford, UCLA, and USC are the only "real" college football schools. Gotta trash that idea.

California Conference

Cal
Stanford
UC Davis
UCLA
USC
San Diego St
Fresno St
San Jose St
Cal Poly
Sac St

We invest in building a new conference that maximizes our kids opportunities and taps into the largest football talent in the country. We use Silicon Valley and Hollywood to leverage our hand. We create our own TV network. We keep California money in California. We keep our California kids in California. By doing this the rest of the country loses its grip on taking our kids out of state. As the conference grows and money increases, we funnel that into the California schools which impacts all of us. Schools get more funding, business grows, and the overall California economy wins.

By focusing on building California schools, we create more community and natural rivalries. We have the stadiums like the Rose Bowl, Levi Stadium, LA stadium, San Diego.

Do I think this is possible? Yes, however the rest of the nation will not like this at all. They will fight hard to keep it the way it is. They will do everything possible to keep it status quo, because if this did happen, the top talent will stay home and every conference will fight us.

Just my opinon.

Awesome event, really hard to find a direct link when you look it up on google. Only things that come up are an alumni story of winemaking and instagram/facebook links to a post that talks about it. Did not find the event on the cal aggie alumni site, athletics site, etc.

The NCAA is now letting former NBA players back in the league.

Reminder, two months from now is the big fundraiser.
Saturday Feb. 28th, 2026 5 pm PT @ Local Edition SF



Location:
Local Edition (in The Hearst Building)
691 Market Street
San Francisco, CA

Right near Union Square, decent part of the City.
I'd like to note as well that the event is only about 7 blocks from the SF Ferry Building. Make it easy on yourself and park across the Bay, take the very reliable Ferry service from any number of East Bay locations and take a walk into the event. You can depart/return from Vallejo, Richmond, Oakland and Alameda and out at Harbor Bay.
https://sanfranciscobayferry.com/routes-schedules/

If you want to drive and park all the way in try the Hearst Garage at 155 Stevenson Street, Jessie Square Garage at 223 Stevenson Street options over by Transbay at Minna/Mission Street (Paramount Valet and 181 Jessie Street). ALSO, the Palace Hotel Parking Garage at 125 Stevenson is a viable option, per AgAlum, there is a special rate for all Aggies participating in the event.



Also, there's always BART

Solo tickets are $250 a pop. Couples get a $50 discount at $450/pair. You can also directly support the coaching staff by buying them a ticket to attend and help shed light on the 2026 season outlook..

https://paybee.io/quickpay.html?handle=ucdfootball&ppid=2#optionList

They are basically irrelevant - however, they can serve as building blocks for programs looking to boost up their image (see Penn State win at Yankee Stadium, or maybe Michigan outcome vs. Texas) or at least give their alumni one last hurrah for the year. The only downside being that most of the star players do not play if they're declaring for the draft - or the Portal...so the rate of return on the game is somewhat diminished.

Me personally however, I've found most of the bowl games to be entertaining, my Dad and I were invested watching the New Mexico vs. Minnesota game - Eck had those Lobos flying around the field, but the play by the Gophers to seal the win was phenomenal, we were yelling out loud "Did he catch that? Whoa! What a play, what the hell was that safety doing over the top?"

Still entertaining, that's my two cents...it's also a chance for players-to-be in the program to come out and shine when the declaring players aren't in there.

Cal and Stanford will wind up back aligned with UCLA, Arizona, ASU, Utah, Colorado, Oregon State, and Washington State for football. The real interesting thing will be the next rung down, the Fresno/Boise/SDSU types, and whether the Montana’s and Dakota’s level up to that world.

I sure hope we start hitting our 3's better as conference play gets underway in earnest.

100-44 Aggies have a slight lead.

I did write a letter to the AD asking for him to make public the NCAA decision letter in the Conners case. No response as of yet.

Awesome write up. Thanks for doing this.

The thing is, will FCS still be fine without the dakotas and montanas if they move up?
Also truthfully I see a change in FBS within 2030-2032 where the P4 will likely make a change and I can see a new G6 playoffs.
I personally would love to be FBS within the mountain west and play New Mexico, Nevada-Reno, UNLV(if they stay), San Jose state, and possibly rumored new members NDSU and Tarleton state every year.

Cal State Northridge heads into its third season under coach, Andy Newman, after setting a school record with 22 wins last season. Clearly, Coach Newman has done an excellent job of turning the Matadors around after a miserable 2022-23 season in which they went 7-25. Seemingly a victim of his own success, the coach lost four starters retaining only forward Mahmoud Fofana, plus four other lettermen. As might be expected, they do not seem to be doing as well this season.

Northridge’s record is a bit misleading as they have played a relatively weak schedule. Their only opponent of note was 11-2 Stanford, to whom they lost but played well, leading the Cardinal at the half. In conference they are 1-1 having lost to UCI and downing Cal State Bakersfield. As with Seattle, CSUN played a common opponent of the Ags in Idaho State where they lost in SoCal 82-50. That seems to bode well, but it’s dangerous making too much of such comparisons.

Fofana, an original Newman recruit, is 6’6”and brings a good balance of scoring, rebounding and defense to his game. He hits field goals at the rate of 56%, averages 6.9 rpg. and had 17 steals this season, but is no threat from 3 (20%). The only other returning player is bench guard Jordan Brinson. The rest of the roster consists of a lot of transfers including two community college transfers. Among the latter, a significant addition has been Davius Loury , who came all the way from Illinois and has earned a starting role. The 6’ 7” forward has the second highest 3-point shooting percentage on the team. Coming from even further away in Germany is center Aleks Szymczyk who does not start but brings an imposing 7’ 0” presence in his 11+ minutes per game.

The 3-guard backcourt consists of Josiah Davis at the point plus Larry Hughes II and Joshua O’Garro, who at 6’6” scores 13.8 ppg. and nearly 10 rpg, is more like a forward. The other off guard is Joisah Davis. They are, respectively transfers from Niagara, St. Louis and Texas State. Although Davis scores at a rate of over 13 ppg, he is a true point guard, distributing 6 apg., while Hughes is the leading scorer (18.4 ppg) who has made 44 out of 103 treys so far this season. It is worth noting that he was 0 for 0 at Stanford. The Matadors strength is on the boards where they yank down over 42 rpg. Compare that to the Ags 31 rpg. If this team has a weakness, it is from the foul line where only two of the regular players hits over 70% from there. The Aggies are likely to be favored, but this will not be an easy win.

"You know, I'm not so sure I want to move to the FBS anymore." I feel this way exactly and I used to be a huge fan of Cal and Pac-12 sports. I haven't watched a complete game since 2023. I much prefer the FCS.