(02-15-2018 04:11 PM)SactoHornetAlum Wrote:  

(02-15-2018 03:24 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(02-14-2018 01:02 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(02-14-2018 12:53 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  Probably an exit fee of around $500K. But UND showed that may not be necessary, just sufficient notice of over one year. So in theory Sac State could pull it's Olympics from the Big Sky and put them in the Big West, say in 2019 or 2020 if they gave notice this spring without incurring an exit fee.

These things are governed by conference by-laws. If you follow those, no politicking matters.

That assumes of course:

1) Sac State administration wants to be in the Big West
2) They could arrange a football home (or drop football)

Football would stay in the Big Sky. UND gave notice they would leave Football, Sac State would not. That is the only difference. The Big Sky would not drop them, as they are part of the California triangle with UC Davis and Cal Poly, both part of the Big West for Olympics. Why would they? This would get the Big Sky down to 10 Olympic schools. Which means a nice round robin in Basketball and Volleyball. It also improves the compactness of the conference.

I did not address the political will or desire of the Sac State administration. That is a separate issue from the mechanics of a move. Right now Sac State's leadership is happy in the Big Sky. I'm sure most alumni and an overwhelming percentage of students would prefer to be in the Big West. Californians (excepting JDGaucho) overwhelmingly prefer to play California schools, who are the only rivals they see or care about.

As more and more time passes, we have now become accustomed to our Big Sky brethren. In 2 more years, we will have been in the Big Sky for 25 years. I'd say that's pretty significant. It would take literally SB, Fullerton, and Long Beach, maybe Northridge; to bring back football at the FCS level for us to move to the Big West.

I think most alums feel though that would should be at a higher level. There is a perception in the Greater Sacramento area that we should be FBS, only because of our professional sports affiliations. I mean we would sell-out Hornet Stadium for tier 2 professional football: World League for the Surge in 1992, CFL's Gold Miners 1993-1995; UFL's Mountain Lions 2010. Not to the mention the Kings, River Cats and Republic FC (the latter two being minor league teams in their respective sports who sell-out). That said, we'd feel more at home in a league with San Jose State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Nevada, etc.

I think combining the two ideas would make sense, too. A league with a division made up of Sacramento State, San José State, San Diego State, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, and Cal State Long Beach would have every CSU with an enrollment over 30k. But would it make more sense as FBS or FCS?