Considering that for the most part only Sailorgabe and I have written any original posts of considerable length in the most popular threads lately (because we actually had a lot to say to each other about the topic), and he is not participating in this most recent string, I'm going to assume you are talking about me with your dissertation comment.

You know what ? I have to explain everything in great detail or someone will get horribly offended. Unfortunately they do anyway because well, limitations of text you see. I also have a lot to say. I know that's a big shift from the usual trend of 2-3 sentence posts and copied internet articles that usually are regarded as sage's wisdom around here.
I also don't care. If people can't handle long posts the admins should put in character limits.

Seriously, any of you all ( not directed specifically at you, NCagalum) who have a problem with the way I post or what I post just go ahead and report me to your precious admins. I'm not changing what I do just to placate the old guard.

Sac State was founded in 1947 (78 years ago), so if Sac State nastiness is twice as old as you then dividing by two would get you 39. So I think you are no older than 39. If you are older than that you're welcome for the low estimate.

Donating to keep the board is voluntary. I took that into account when I said it was free.

Oh, give me a break. Insults directed at Sac State are traditions that are at least twice as old as you. You're just now getting upset ? And don't give me any nonsense about how you thought the users of this message board were an elevated group who were above it.

This is a random free message board on the internet anybody can join. Scan the list of members. Take out the advertising bots, and more than half the people never or almost never post. The bar isn't set very high; we might as well be posting on yahoo. Yahoo article comments are much more fiery than this site ever gets. If the administrators here want to totally restrict who joins , what they say, and how they say it, they should close down this site and open a private Facebook group (free). In that way the exclusive kids club can truly exist in 2025.

69Aggie and Agalum just had a misunderstanding. It happens when all you have to go on is text and no good clues to a person's intent.

Agalum asked a fair question: how do you leave school merely assuming you have a degree ? The background info from Riveraggie hadn't been shared yet, so that's legitimate. Students, especially student-athletes, need to be checking with their academic advisors frequently; the most important time when graduation is approaching.

I didn't see any judgment on Agalum's part. I see the limitation of text playing a role in 69Aggie's assessment that it was intended as snark and therefore deserving of a scolding. And if I thought some internet rando were invoking my parents to do so I'd have some choice words too, probably much nastier words.

He used about every possible way to say "we'll be looking for more money from more people." Fundraising-speak uses lots of fluff to say very little.

If this is so do-able, why only now implement it ? Like they can just snap their fingers + there's more money. Did they previously turn away some donors whom they will now contact? Dear strategic partner, we have enough money, so we don't need yours (maybe later).

I wouldn't be surprised if there's another new player to be announced, given the amount of attrition in the primary men's sports at UCD..

I think Roberson is probably done. He wasn't a great player at Cal, and now he has two years of rust on top of not-so-great.

I think it's because you were including Marsalis Roberson in yor list, but who knows if he'll play ?

Looks like Franklin is a sophomore transfer from CC of Southern Nevada, 14 points per game per their website. Assuming this is the right Cyril Franklin Jr he's a guard about Roberson's height but only listed at 160 lbs.

Some additional thoughts:

As for UC Davis—yes, it’s a respected institution. But have you seen downtown Davis lately? It’s a ghost town. If the university wants to be a catalyst for regional vibrancy, it can’t just rely on lab work and modest sports success. It needs energy. It needs foot traffic. It needs something that draws people in beyond the walls of the classroom. A more competitive athletics program does exactly that. You can look to places like Boise, Eugene, or even Fresno to see how this works when done wellquote]

Lately ? I can't recall a time when it wasn't quiet. Perhaps it was busy around the time David Bowie was releasing his biggest hits? I also don't recall a time when Davis proclaimed, "We must make a push for regional vibrancy !" It's not in danger of being a quiet campus. It already is.

As you know, there are two Davises every year that co-exist from Fall to early Summer. One is the actual city, the permanent residents. The other is the collection of UCD students interacting with local businesses, some of which are tailored specifically to them. These Davises exist in the same space but their relationship is not necessarily harmonious

Now the permanent residents have mixed thoughts on the students. They like the money coming into town, but they could do without students' nuisance behaviors (noise, excessive drinking, stabbing people..). They also like their nice, quiet, and usually safe city, and among these permanent residents are many NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) types. The NIMBY's are the ones who make enough noise in the public meetings to keep things the way they are. If businesses that close at or before 8 is what they want, that's their decision. They have to live there all year round so they might as well be comfortable. Lack of vibrant businesses in downtown is a City of Davis problem, not a UC Davis problem.

Of course the students also bear responsibility. Their spending behaviors largely determine what businesses thrive, as you also know, and when summer comes there are lean times. If there is a large and sustained demand from the students for certain businesses or for things to be open later there are adjustments made. Unfortunately for Downtown Davis, UCD brings in the most studious of the studious types who are buried in their books at night, not out looking to have a good time. That is related to the nature of the courses, but it still isn't a UCD problem. What are they going to do, tell the professors to make their classes easier so restaurants can stay open longer ?

You picked three curious examples of illustrating sports done right improving and energizing their cities. Fresno is a pit stain, and has been one for a long time. Unless a drastic overhaul has been completed in the last 4 years that I didn't hear about (would think that would be on world news), Fresno's downtown is full of boarded-up buildings, and the area near Fresno State is sketchy too. Should I be looking in a history book for this success rather than at the present ?

By the way, for some Fresno-related fun you can go to hotels.com and look up the University Square Hotel (Formerly the Picadilly Inn). It is the closest hotel or motel to Fresno State. What's entertaining are the often humorously-worded reviews (a guest reported seeing a fetus stain. Did some previous guests perform an abortion in the room ?) and the even more ridiculous responses from the hotel. I came across this gem when I was looking for a place near Fresno State a couple of years ago, and I prefer to read a couple dozen reviews before booking. Did not book a room.

Boise State's situation compared to UCD is apples and oranges. For one thing Boise has a significantly larger population. More importantly though, Boise State isn't just the only game in town, its the only game for a large chunk of ID too. UCD students (or any residents of Davis) when bored can hop on a train to the Bay Area. In Boise there isn't even a train ! Where would one gò if there were ? You could screen "Frozen" dubbed into French at Albertson's Stadium, and 30,000 bored people would still show up to watch it.

The downtown is decent and clean, but you can't attribute any of the action to all the fleeing Californians moving in and spending ?

I haven't been to Eugene, so my source of information (the 1 person I know who lives there) may be biased. Anyhow they told me it has been going to the dogs because of the lax approach to policing. Well, it's in OR so that at least sounds right. They may have bars that use clever duck puns, but I do know they've effectively pushed their longtime minor league baseball team (over 50 years) out the door while simultaneously moaning that they can't keep them. That's not college sports, but it's not a shining example of a sports crazy town either.

Now, as for me being a “free agent fan”? Darling, if I’m a free agent, I’m LeBron in a Gunrock headband. Yes, I’ll drop in on a Hornets game. Yes, I’ll nod politely at Sac’s new uniforms like someone admiring an ex’s glow-up. But let’s not pretend I’m moving in with them. I’ll be back in Davis before curfew, probably dragging half of Sacramento with me to see what real agricultural pride cow tipping looks like.

And if I open a Davis sports bar...(Hey Dan, anytime time you want to lower sqft lease numbers!) it will be the coolest Aggie bar of all time. I might even call it the "Post-Grad."

Nobody accused you of being disloyal. Baseball at Dobbins shares about going to Washington State and Idaho games. No one bats an eyelash because that doesn't matter. The point was no one would think you were disloyal (or care) if you went and enjoyed seeing Sac State's experiment in person. It doesn't mean Davis needs to do it.

You don't have any results to work with right now. You can't see what worked and what didn't. Maybe the football players at Sac State are all egomaniacs and they don't play well. Maybe Bibby can't hack it as a college coach and Shaq does nothing but come to watch his son play a couple of times ?

Innovation is taking known information and processes and improving on them. Coming upon things randomly is just a happy accident mislabeled as innovation. Sac State is desperately putting random substances into a test tube to see what happens. This is a hail mary type of effort from them because they are in such bad shape if everything doesn't go perfectly. Let them succeed or fail first so it can be properly evaluated.

Last one then I think that's enough

Winning matters. Not because donors demand trophies or because fans crave ego boosts, but because competition at its core is about striving for excellence. Athletics isn’t a side activity—it’s a proving ground. It teaches resilience, teamwork, and ambition in ways no lecture hall can replicate. To dismiss winning as a tertiary concern in collegiate sports is to miss the point entirely. No student-athlete trains day in and day out to provide alumni with a "decent experience." They train to win. And we, as alumni and fans, owe it to them to support that mindset.

Of course winning matters to the competitors and coaches. However, they believe they are enough with the support (including coaches) they have if they rise to the occasion. They don't feel they need to be replaced or upgraded unless there's a mental health issue. Three or 10,000 people in the stands, they know what they have to do. A poor craftsman blames his tools, in this case coaches, fans, and home venue.

Marion and Bibby both just sent the message to returning players (unintentionally I'm sure), "Not only are you not enough, but I will fill a roster with players better than you in a jiffy." It's not as though a new player even outplayed and made them obsolete, just get lost. I don't see that as a positive activity to copy.

And athletics are most definitely a side activity. First and foremost they are students. Like any other students they will get out of college (and their athletic careers) what they put into them or more. Students can learn teamwork, resilience, and ambition working at McDonald's if they apply themselves-this is not exclusive to athletics. If it were all non-athletes would be losers who can't work with others, which is clearly not true. Achieving at a high level is not dependent on shiny new stadiums or celebrity coaches. If it is, then the athlete is the problem. The university places a lower priority (3rd or lower) on fans being entertained. I said as much before. Competing in athletics is a privilege, not a right. As such I do not believe they are entitled to any of the frills I mentioned simply for being athletes.

And it isn't as if they are currently being deprived now. Basketball has an NBA veteran for a coach. Baseball has new lights, scoreboard, and a team of analytics nerds to tell them how to hit less than .260 with aluminum bats. Football has what-367.5 coaches (1 guy is a part-time assistant defensive offensive coach for special teams on the road), new practice + training facilities ? Sounds like nobody's being left behind.

The like is for creativity. Well-desrved in that respect.

Apologies for only addressing 1 part of your post today, as it's late andmy responses would require extensively reiterating points we've already discussed on the related Bibby topic.

I'll take this one first:

I'm sorry I honestly don't know what any of this means. You have storage with wars or something?

To sum it up, Storage Wars was a popular A&E "reality" show in which quite a few recurring buyers (actual cast members) would compete to buy abandoned storage units in Southern CA cities at auction (more than a few times in Big West cities). Often the units were worthless, but some had rare collectibles that would later be appraised. There was frequently drama among the contestants. "Reality" is in quotations because one of the cast members was fired for saying publicly that elements of the show were fake, like that the show planted items of interest in the lockers beforehand.

Even for a fake show it was the right level of distraction when I was stuck in a hospital bed one day. There are variations in TX and Canada as well. I think a Storage Wars China would be entertaining. When the contestants would find rare items, the CCP could come confiscate it and maybe throw them in jail.

More to come..

First of all, UC Davis alumni never need a reason to make fun of Sac State, just like Sac State fans never need a reason to make crude, profanity-laden t-shirts referencing deviant activity with or without barn animals. The two schools did not sign a binding "play nice" agreement, so the Causeway Classic crowd can always count on a melange of violent drunks, sewer rats, attention junkies, and self-righteous "Well, I never !!!!!" types (mostly Aggie fans in that group).

Second, it has already been established that several posters (including myself) believe that they are engaging in reckless activities that can endanger the health of their athletic programs and possibly the school itself. Nobody's budging off that viewpoint, just as you aren't changing your mind about it being great.

UC Davis didn't get to be a renowned academic institution by being reckless. The scientific developments come about through painstaking research using established methods, not just saying, "I wonder if this experiment somebody else thought of but didn't complete will work?". The measured approach reflects in the sports programs as well. You could say they are reflective of the university they represent, not flashy but capable of providing occasional surprises. And sometimes seasons go poorly, just like experiments

It can be frustrating that the teams don't win everything, but that's not the top goal of having them, which is to improve the experience for students. The enjoyment of cranky alumni is at best a distant 3rd. We are merely invited to come onto the front porch, spend money, and be supportive. The university does not owe us championships; that is just what people who donate feel entitled to. There will always be types like Rocko DeLuca who cheer "win, win, win !" because it is in their job descriptions.

So why move to the MW? Attract more visitors who will spend money. All the Riversidians, Foolertonians, and Northridgians (or whatever they're called) are probably too busy renting storage units and abandoing them.

And speaking of Storage Wars (You can blame Fugawe09 for introducing the show to a Sac State discussion), Sac State wishes it were Renè, the 300 lb German man with a busty wife who makes a spectacle of dropping thousands at each auction and rubbing people's faces in it. Perhaps they aspire to take a "big boobs" approach to things by hiring Mike Bibby (Wonder if any Lakers ever called him Mike Booby ?) and bringing in Radio Shaq.

Renè actually is successful, so he can be an a-hole to his competitors if he wants. Until this experiment actually works Luke Wood is no better than Justin, the smug twit who thinks he'is smarter than the veteran buyers because he can unload cheap locker crap using his phone. It's nothing for UCD to copy.

And look, if you're excited about what Sac State does and you want to check it out, you don't need to frame it as "UCD needs to do this". You can go without judgment (because few people would pay any mind to it anyway), enjoy all the Sac State, UCD, whatever college games you want. You're an adult. You graduated. You are a free agent fan. Even if you got a Gunrock tattoo you are not compelled to follow UCD and UCD alone for the rest of your life. You could open your hypothetical Davis sports bar + put a dozen hornet bobbleads on the front counter if you want. No patrons will give you grief until after they've had a few, and by then they've served their purpose anyway.

And don't forget how he basically told Matt Vaughn to sweep the baseball hazing under the rug. Vaughn was a sacrificial lamb in that mess. Granted the team didn't do very well overall under him (or Rex Peters for that matter), but he didn't deserve the stigma attached to that. I don't know that Vaughn has been able to find (assuming he's even looking for it) coaching work since then, at least not at the college level.

I am well-rested. Thank you for your concern.

Well, this is garbage. UCD's going to have to shell out significantly larger sums (beyond scholarships + other current recruitment costs) just to bring in the same level of talent (or lower) it gets now.

I am in favor of student-athletes being paid if the university or a 3rd party is using them as a marketing tool (with written authorization of course). That's something I would expect as a private citizen if a company wanted to use me for marketing (YoloHW Pancake Mix-taste the Causeway !), but just paying them to play is stupid. I don't give a crap how far some doofus can throw a football; he doesn't deserve to be paid for it until a real pro team gives him a contract.

My post wasn't intended to correct you, but rather get the details straight in my head. It was an interesting story, but I remember Khari Jones being a player from further back, so I looked it up to confirm the details. If you had picked a non-QB player to discuss I probably would have been none the wiser.

Per Wikipedia Khari Jones played for UCD 1992-1993. That sounds about right because he was at some point before Daft. It says Jones was 17-2-1 for UCD.

The last season for St. Mary's was 2003. Per the UCD website they beat SMC 45-14 that season. The box score shows that Flanigan, Barragan, and Grant were the QB's, but Flanigan did most of the damage in that game. Maybe you were thinking of a different QB or a much earlier game ?

For St. Mary's the decision was driven by finances. They're a small school + with the scarcity of nearby opponents they just couldn't afford it anymore.

@fugawe09 Hey, this topic is about Sac State athletics. Sac State has nothing to do with academics, so any talk about education should be on the OT board.

Politics, politics.

Politics.

These are stupid. If UCD partners with PG&E will they have flames on their uniforms ?

Politics.

I don't think Sac State is a model UCD should be trying to emulate. Aside from the new bball gym, which they desperately need anyway, the new plan appears to consist of hiring two new coaches who won't be there long, and soaking excited potential contributors for a new football stadium. Not a great plan. Even the new bball gym in the form it will take is just settling for the minimum after they couldn't get something better done.

Sac State has a long history of fielding ok but not very good overall athletic programs, with a few above average "minor" teams per year like baseball, gymnastics, and softball. If there were a simple solution they would have figured it out already in the 30+ years of D-I competition. Luke Wood is not a magical visionary who has insight none of his predecesors ever had.

I think the new massive investments in football and basketball will eventually lead to the cancellations of some minor sports at Sac State they will no longer be able to afford, or at least improve. For example, there is no room for them to ever significantly improve the baseball field, and apparently no way to put in permanent restrooms or concessions- might as well be for a HS team. That the team is the only one (that I know of) in the WAC already make it odd. I doubt that the baseball program lasts much longer than Reggie Christiansen's current contract.

I agree. UCD shouldn't be wasting resources just to look "purdy". This is like a teenager who doesn't play basketball but needs $200 bball shoes.

If UCD truly wants to be a leader in sustainability, instead of talking out of both sides of its mouth, it should be figuring out how to turn recycling and waste products into apparel. Then maybe opponents will leave goals and hoops empty while they are wretching from the smell on the sidelines. Davis is supposed to have brilliant scientists. Put them to work on this now. No hemp is to be used.

As option 2 they could just cancel all the sports teams + use the ARC as discount student housing. Put cots out on Hamilton Court. They did something similar in "Revenge of the Nerds" after the dumb football players burned down their frat house, and it motivated the nerds to go find a nerd house to renovate with their robot friend.

If they re-made that movie today it would be way different. The central messages would probably remain: don't trust football players or cheerleaders at your fictional college. If you must interact with a cheerleader, dress up as Darth Vader.

Where was I ? Yes. Eliminate future waste by eliminating the product.

How long before they change the name to University of Davis and move the campus to the top of a hill somewhere ?

A wide receiver named Blocker ?

Politics