Pac-12 fallout: Could UC Davis or Sacramento State jump conferences? It’s not that easy
Realignment talk is everywhere in college sports after UCLA and USC’s stunning announcements that they will leave the Pac-12 in 2024 for the Big Ten, where a massive television package will reap tens of millions for each program.
The move had a downstream ripple effect: questions about Sacramento State and UC Davis. Will the Hornets and Aggies stay put in the Big Sky Conference? Do they have options? Are the programs itching to move?
Football talks and resonates at all levels. At the highest classification in NCAA football, the FBS, money doesn’t just talk, it screams from the highest mountain tops. In football, Sacramento State and UCD play a notch down from the FBS level, in FCS play. They’ve been there since the early 1990s, when they bumped up after decades at the Division II ranks, only with a fraction of the revenue.
The quick and short answer is clear: UCD and Sacramento State aren’t going anywhere right now. Athletic directors Rocko DeLuca of the Aggies and Mark Orr of the Hornets both said in recent interviews they aren’t on the move.
The schools are football members of the Big Sky Conference, the best FCS conference in the country. It’s been good living of late for the rival programs, with both teams relevant in the national rankings. UCD won a share of the Big Sky Conference title in 2018; Sacramento State claimed the last two conference championships outright. Both are in the preseason national rankings this summer.
Both programs in the coming seasons have schedules dotted with FBS programs, including UCD opening this season at Cal and Sacramento State opening at Stanford in 2023. Those games serve a double purpose for UCD and Sacramento State: An opportunity to size yourself up against an FBS program while also taking home a hefty check for the efforts, sometimes in excess of $500,000.
But UCD and Sacramento State have more than competed against FBS programs over the years, including UCD beating Stanford in 2005, San Jose State in 2018 and Tulsa last season. Sacramento State in 2011 beat Oregon State and Colorado and gave Cal a game last season despite being 24-point underdogs. This doesn’t mean the local colleges are fit for the FBS. Those are sample-size outings.
DeLuca and Orr said they are pleased playing in the Big Sky and having some of their games televised on ESPN. There is no talk of either football program jumping ship. And no, just because one UC school — UCLA — is leaving the Pac-12, it does not mean another in UCD will jump right in. It doesn’t work that way. It takes years to even move up a level, from FCS to FBS, the land of USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Alabama and Ohio State.
FBS attendance rule
Also this: FCS schools pondering a move to FBS have to average 15,000 in attendance for home games. The NCAA used to require Division I programs to have a minimum seating capacity of 30,000 in order to switch to the FBS. That mandate was dropped in 2004. Sacramento State seats 21,000 and UC Davis 10,743. UCD sells out often. Sacramento State does when the Aggies come to visit for the annual Causeway Classic. The Hornets averaged about 7,000 tickets sold in 2021 otherwise.
The Aggies and Hornets are light years away from considering the FBS, and vice-versa. Sacramento State and UC Davis are a natural fit at the FCS level, and until they have to turn fans away each week, it’ll remain that way.
As athletic directors, DeLuca and Orr have heard plenty of chatter about the college football upheaval.
“I’ve gotten a handful of texts and coaches about (UCLA and USC moving out of the Pac-12),” DeLuca, the UC Davis AD, said. “There’s been no official outreach on our behalf with conference affiliations, but obviously, news of UCLA and USC has created a lot of interest. We’re proud members of the Big West (in most sports) and the Big Sky (for football). We feel we still have a lot of work to do. Our football program is in good shape and we want to increase our profile. We’re focused on being the best we can be in the FBS in football, and we’ve set (home football) attendance record. With the shifting sands of the landscape of college sports, we’re content to sit and watch from the cheap seats and see what happens.”
Orr, Sacramento State’s AD, is a Cal guy. He played defensive back for the Bears in the mid-1990s, so he took the UCLA-USC news as a jolt because he’s a traditionalist. As for any suggestion that Sacramento State might ponder another football conference for a change of scenery or pace? Not happening.
The Pac-12 likely will have other schools splintering off. Boise State, San Jose State, San Diego State and Fresno State are FBS schools who are natural fits to move into what’s left of the Pac-12. There hasn’t been this much projected change in college football since 1978, with the creation of Division I and Division I-AA — later renamed the FBS and Football Championship Subdivision.
“I’ll miss the Cal-USC, Cal-UCLA games,” Orr said. “We’ve got to come to grips that college football at this level has changed. As for us here at Sac State, we’re very happy in the Big Sky. It’s a great fit for us. We’re in a great place. FCS is outstanding football, and it’s fun football. We’ve been in the Big Sky for more than 25 years and we have no intentions of leaving. We love it here. We’re very, very happy with it. We’re in a great place, but we have more work to do to build this, but we’re stable.”