Reports cast doubt on 5-year, $975M figure Sac State is touting in football move
As Sacramento State prepares to blitz onto a bigger stage, a flag has already been tossed onto the field.
The Sac State football program’s move to the FBS and Mid-American Conference has stirred debate this week as national sports outlets analyze the financials behind the deal, as well as comments by university leadership and the methodology used to forecast the move’s estimated economic impact.
Sacramento State campus and athletics leaders have touted one eye-catching figure: nearly $1 billion in total “economic impact” over the next five years.
University President Luke Wood, who has called the football program’s elevation “disruptive marketing,” stoked debate with a post on X stating that the move would bring an estimated impact of $975 million — including $675 million in projected national broadcast value — over the initial five-year agreement the school made with the MAC.
Earlier this week, CBS Sports reported that Collegiate Consulting, which was hired by the university to help analyze the move, said the $975 million figure used by Wood mischaracterized the firm’s report and that it was unclear — even after CBS Sports reached out to Collegiate Consulting for clarity — how the $675 million figure for broadcast value had been derived.
But on Tuesday, Collegiate Consulting reversed course, posting a congratulatory note to Wood and athletic director Mark Orr on X in which the firm added: “We stand by the study projecting a $194M Year One economic impact/valuation for their initial MAC FB season in Fall 2026, with the potential for five-year projections approaching $972M (194.4 X 5).”
The back-and-forth sparked debate on social media, with Sacramento State supporters railing against the CBS Sports report and questioning the credibility of Collegiate Consulting, while the value of the firm’s projections remained up for debate.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times published a commentary by Bill Shaikin quoting independent experts responding to the projected numbers, diving into the concept of advertising value equivalency. The performance of AVE was described by one expert in the story as “absolutely outdated.”
Experts also cast doubt on whether nationally televised games would translate into increased corporate sponsorship revenue for Sacramento State’s football program.
The takeaway from that story, headlined “For Sacramento State, visions of football glory clouded in fuzzy math,” was that the projections are difficult to define, theoretical and largely unquantifiable.
Sacramento State has not yet publicly released the full study conducted by Collegiate Consulting. University officials did not respond to The Sacramento Bee’s requests for the document.
What is Collegiate Consulting?
One measurable fact is the firm’s involvement in recent transitions from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision.
According to NCAA.com, Sacramento State is the most recent of eight universities since 2022 that have moved or will move in 2026 from the FCS level to the FBS level. Of those eight schools, Collegiate Consulting boasts that it has “assisted” six in their transition: Missouri State, Sam Houston State, Jacksonville State and Kennesaw State in recent years plus North Dakota State and Sacramento State, so far, in 2026.
Collegiate Consulting, its website says, is an Atlanta-based consulting firm that specializes in “strengthening institutional sports programs ... including provided services such as feasibility and benchmarking reports and coaching and administrative searches.”
“How can we help your institution reach its goals?” reads a query at the bottom of the firm’s website.
Founded in 2005 by its managing director Russell Wright, Collegiate Consulting says online that it has worked with “more than 750 institutions, conferences and associations” over the past two decades.
“Within its consulting business, Collegiate Consulting has become a leader in institutional reclassification, assisting 18 institutions with their move to Division II and 20 institutions who reclassified to Division I since our founding,” a portion of Wright’s bio page says.
The FCS and FBS are the two subdivisions of NCAA Division I football. The leap from FCS to FBS became far more consequential in fall 2023, when the NCAA increased the transition fee 1,000-fold — from $5,000 to $5 million.
Sacramento State is paying that $5 million fee to the NCAA on top of $18 million in entry fees to the MAC. Sac State officials said the university will pay $6 million of the $18 million this year, and the rest over the remainder of the five-year entry period. CBS Sports reported that the university “will forgo all revenue distribution from the MAC” including TV revenue, for those five years.
Sac State, more than 2,000 miles away from the nearest MAC school, also agreed to cover travel costs for opposing teams, which Orr estimated at between $150,000 and $200,000 per game.
This story was originally published February 25, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
