Sac State to FBS could cost plenty but investment worth it ‘1,000%’, Luke Wood says
Sacramento State would consider paying $10 million-plus as an immediate entry fee to move up to the highest NCAA football classification as early as this coming fall season, Luke Wood said Saturday.
An alum of Sac State, Wood has since becoming the university’s president in summer 2023 aggressively pursued moving the Hornets from the Football Championship Division (FCS) to the higher-level Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
But it’s not an easy process, nor is it cheap.
Wood reiterated in a Saturday phone interview with The Sacramento Bee that “we plan to play in the FBS in 2026,” though he declined to get into specifics of what conferences he has looked into, how mutual that interest is or how much it would cost or if he has agreed to any particular dollar amount.
Wood would not confirm that if it would be a $10 million sum to move up, as first reported Friday by Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, but did say moving up would be a good investment and that the FBS would “be great for our school and Sacramento.”
Before the 2025 season, the NCAA denied Sac State’s request for a waiver to move up to the FBS. A conference that Sac State has explored joining is the Mid-American Conference.
The MAC is what it sounds like — a conference rooted mostly in the middle part of the country. Ten of the 12 MAC football programs are from Michigan and Ohio, with schools also in Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York. A California team would add a West Coast flavor for the MAC, which often plays weekday games in an effort to shed more television exposure on those FBS programs.
Wood said his football program would invite any challenges, logistically or otherwise.
“That would be 1,000% a goal,” Wood said of joining an FBS conference sooner than later, including the idea of competing in midweek games.
2026 status, schedule still in the works
Sac State has not released its 2026 football schedule but expects to by March. If Sac State does not secure an FBS arrangement for this fall, Wood said the Hornets will play as an FCS independent with the long-term goal still set for the FBS. An independent team does not have a conference affiliation.
Sac State founded its football program in 1954 and was a Division II member from 1973 to 1992. The Hornets before the 1993 season moved to the FCS, then known as Division I-AA.
Sac State joined the Big Sky Conference in 1996, and the Hornets have produced their finest seasons since 2019. This included coach Troy Taylor leading the Hornets to three Big Sky championships from 2019-2022. Taylor’s successor, Andy Thompson, led the Hornets back to the FCS playoffs in his lone season as head coach in 2023.
Brennan Marion in his single season with the Hornets in 2025 guided the team to a seven-win season, the program falling just short of reaching the FCS playoffs for the fifth time in seven seasons.
Sac State in December hired Alonzo Carter as head coach. Carter and his staff have added more than 40 players through the transfer portal and in signing incoming freshmen.
Sac State before last season informed the Big Sky that it would end its 29-year affiliation with one of the elite FCS conferences in the country to pursue the FBS or become an FCS independent. Last June, the university announced that it would join the California-dominated Big West for all sports except football starting this summer.
The Big West does not field any football programs, though Big West members Long Beach State, Fullerton, Santa Barbara, Northridge, Riverside and others offered the sport before cutbacks tied to finances.
Sac State will schedule up to 12 games in 2026, Hornets athletic director Mark Orr confirmed to The Bee on Saturday night, adding that “our goal remains the same — to become an FBS program.”
Season schedules are generally posted by March at the latest, Orr said.
Wood said Sac State expects to have more clarity on its football status in the coming weeks.
No Causeway Classic in near future
A familiar Sac State opponent will not be on the 2026 schedule or anytime soon.
The end of the Big Sky partnership also meant the end of the Causeway Classic with rival UC Davis.
UCD was not willing to cancel contracts with opponents in 2026 or 2027 in an effort to extend the series with Sac State, which started in 1954.
This story was originally published February 8, 2026 at 5:00 AM.