Sacramento State paying $23M to move to FBS, join MAC

CatManTrue said:

$5M to the NCAA, $18M to the MAC to become a football-only member replacing NIU as they join the Mountain West.

Apparently becoming the UMess of the West is appealing to college applicants these days?

Those Tuesday night games are already paying for themselves!

MAC adds Sacramento State as football-only member in 2026

The MAC presidents have voted to add FCS Sacramento State into the league as a football-only member starting in 2026.

www.espn.com

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AdamOnFirst said:

This deal is beyond weird.



Rumors about that some bigwig had pledged $50 Mil over 10 years if Sac St could get a rebuilt Pac invite - so maybe they got the required rolled down to the MAC or this is a gambit for that - and that local businesses are obsessed with getting more sports in NorCal and maybe are bankrolling this whole thing? Still, it's so weird. I reiterate they haven't even been GOOD. And they need to spend many millions on facility upgrades because they've had little investment, to say nothing of now needed an extra 30-50 scholarships to fund and some modest NIL.

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WestCoastWildcat said:

Sacramento State has been an opponent of my other school UC San Diego in other sports like basketball (UCSD has climbed from D3 to D1 over the years but has no football program.) It’s just part of the space race in collegiate athletics to spend money to make money and utilize sports to raise publicity and alumni donations and draw alumni back to campus. Agree it’s a substantial amount but donors, alumni and students seem to be pushing their administration to move up in sports in spite of the cost.

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CatManTrue said:

The Kings are awful with little hope of turning things around soon.

Sacramento’s Pat Ryan is likely behind this.

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techtim72 said:

I suspect don't don't forget the California state government and local businesses either. That's the capitol and likely everyone wants a place to go on Saturday afternoons.

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JustGary said:

This is the specific way they validated the move to the MAC:

“A study commissioned by the university projected that transitioning to FBS will generate an economic impact of approximately $975 million for the Greater Sacramento region over five years.”

This is probably using some quasi-economic assumptions that make it sound better than it is. The hope is to fill their non-MAC schedule with games from Cal, Stanford, and Fresno State to get more attention to their school hoping for better student enrollment because they are on ESPN and playing against the big boys. Eventually they want to join the Pac12 to create regional rivals that will travel to Sacramento for games. They’re using the rise of Fresno State as an example of what is possible and the “ability to reach the CFP” as the carrot. It’s about as grandiose as possible.

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