The Big Sky still has a 63 scholarship maximum, partials can be divided among up to a total of 105.
I don’t see how Sac can bring in that amount of players and not exceed the 63 scholarships, divided or not.

They can run off an equivalent number

When interviewed on the Big Mountain podcast, Rocco said that UCD was going to honor its commitment to all athletes currently on rosters next year. They would opt in the following year.

That was before the judge in the House case indicated that she wanted athletes currently on rosters grandfathered in. The NCAA and the major conferences (the defendants) are not in favor of that, but the alternative is going to trial before the same judge.

Article from today's Sac Bee by Joe Davidson:

Sac State football signs 50 via transfer portal, most in nation. Who’s coming?

Brennan Marion vowed to upgrade the football roster at Sacramento State when he became head coach in December.

He wasn’t kidding, and he isn’t finished.

In the whirlwind nature that has become college athletics, Marion has gone to the transfer portal to rework the existing Hornets roster. Because scholarships are only a year-to-year binding deal, change is allowed and does happen at this level.

On top of securing the top recruiting class in the FCS during the signing period, Marion has brought in a national-leading 50 players through the portal. Some players were starters from higher-level FBS programs and were four-star recruits in high school. Some played for some of the top college programs in the country, or were at least on the roster.

At FCS-level Sacramento State, Marion is offering players in the portal an opportunity to compete for a starting job, to be part of the rolling momentum of a program that seeks entry into the FBS and could well be a preseason Top 10 team in the FCS this fall.

Mostly, Marion is offering players a chance to experience his motto of “One great year can change your life,” something he embraced growing up in Pennsylvania before coaching took him across the country.

“That’s what we say, and now I have players who come up to me now and say that line,” Marion said. “We can turn your career around here, even if we just have you for one year, because one year can change your life. We did the same thing when I was (the offensive coordinator) at UNLV the last couple of years. We brought in 30-plus guys and reached the conference championship game both times."

‘We’ve flipped our roster’

Before the portal became a crucial part of college football in 2018, programs largely built their rosters or retooled through high school recruiting. Now the portal affords programs a chance for a quick fix with significant upgrades for players who have already been vetted, so to speak, in the college game.

It can come across as cut-throat, welcoming in scores of new players to take the roster spots of those already in place. But such is the nature of the game now. New coaches bring in their people, be it coaches or players.

“Some may wonder, ‘What are you doing, flipping the roster like that?’” Marion said. “From our perspective, we want to bring in the best players we can. We’re getting mainly FBS transfers, guys who played some at their previous schools but want a fresh start. We’ve upgraded our roster. We’ve flipped our roster.”

Sacramento State has floated the idea that NIL — name, image and likeness — funding can swell up to $50 million in coming years, especially if the football program’s recent waiver to the NCAA to move up in classification as an independent is approved.

What Marion can assure is a chance to be part of a football movement in the only top 20 media market in the country that does not have an FBS program. Sacramento State won Big Sky Conference championships in 2019, 2021 and 2022 and reached the FCS playoffs in 2023 before sliding to last place in the Big Sky last fall amid injuries and late-game losses.

College football teams are allowed to carry 105 players. Marion can’t keep all of the hold-over players and still bring in new players because the roster would be too large, certainly.

So Marion has encouraged existing players to jump into the transfer portal, and he has endorsed them with glowing comments on social media.

Marion has helped outgoing players land

“Anyone who has been under my tutelage, whether it’s been years or weeks or months, I want them to succeed in life and in their careers, in any field they want, and I’ll help them transfer,” Marion said. “We want them to get offers. That’s our job. When you keep it pure, it’s really just helping the kids. If a player here went through a plan and a process and did it every day, I’ll help them for the rest of their life. The guys who have remained here want to show that they belong.”

Entering the weekend, Marion said he has 65 players in place. In the summer, he will have as many as 50 more additions, meaning more coming and going.

“I still have a few more surprises coming,” Marion said.

Recruiting still comes down to people skills, Marion said. A player can be wowed by the potential of a program, the future, but there has to be a connection between coaches and players for it to work.

“I’ve always been a player’s coach,” Marion said. “That used to get frowned upon - a player’s coach. But a player’s coach, those are the guys who are winning and adapting to the changing college climate.” The Hornets want players who fit in Marion’s wide-open “Go-Go” offense and they want stoppers on defense because college teams score in bunches.

Who are some of the new Hornets?

In recent weeks, Sacramento State has signed out of the portal the following:

▪ Jaden Rashada, a 5-star quarterback recruit out of Pittsburg High in the Bay Area. He attended Arizona State and Georgia.

▪ Oscar Moore, a safety who played in 23 games over two seasons at UTEP and was a 3-star recruit in high school in Texas.

▪ Savion Red, a running back who rushed for 687 yards and eight touchdowns for Nevada in 2024 who originally signed with the Texas Longhorns as a star prep player from the state.

▪ Sam Adams II, a running back who played in 31 games with the Washington Huskies and was the No. 3 prospect in the state coming out of high school, according to 24/7, a national recruiting site.

▪ Malik Tullis, a defensive lineman who played two seasons at Eastern Michigan and was a 3-star recruit in Georgia.

▪ Gavin Thomson, a receiver who attended Pittsburg and UNLV, where he played for Marion in 2024.

▪ Melvin Swindle II, a defensive lineman who played in 35 games at Eastern Michigan over three seasons and was a 3-star recruit from Michigan.

▪ Dylan Hampsten, a defensive lineman who played in 13 games for San Jose State in 2024.

▪ Warren Smith Jr., a 3-star cornerback recruit from the Bay Area who played at Washington State in 2024.

▪ Diesel Gordon, a defensive back who was a 3-star recruit in Texas, played at Washington in 2023 and at Butler Community College in Kansas last season.

▪ Deven Wright, an edge rusher who played at Boise State and Texas State.

▪ Jordan Herman, a 6-foot-8, 335-pound offensive lineman who played for Florida in 2022 and 2023 and for Charlotte in 2024.

Overloaded on talent? Can a roster have too much talent? Is there such a thing? Can everyone fighting for the same spots cause friction?

“It’s funny to me, at previous stops for me, the thing was filling up rooms with the best players to create the best competition,” Marion said. “Some say recruiting rankings don’t matter. It actually does matter how much talent you have. You want to have the best people you can get in the building, in the room.

“With (the Texas Longhorns), when I was coaching there, everything was about recruiting rankings, having the top recruiting class, getting the top guys, everyone in the room a starter or stars. At UNLV, we had a lot of talent, because that’s the goal. Everyone wants to nr a starter, so you want that competition.”

Marion added, “It’s my greatest challenge as a coach here. I love it. It’s fun. It’s what can make us unique and special. We have a chance to be really good in the summer, and it’ll be exciting to see what we can do.”

https://www.sacbee.com/sports/college/article305501421.html

“At FCS-level Sacramento State, Marion is offering players in the portal an opportunity to compete for a starting job, to be part of the rolling momentum of a program that seeks entry into the FBS and could well be a preseason Top 10 team in the FCS this fall“

Glosses over the fact that they’ll be an “FCS” team with an asterisk , ineligible for the playoffs, and possibly not in compliance with Big Sky scholarship limits. They should be listed as an independent this year. Players joining a team to play for nothing, no playoffs, no conference championship, and no listing in many FCS rankings, like Delaware last year.

I don’t think the players or the coach particularly care about playoffs or championships. They are assembling 100 guys looking for a last best stop to build or rehab their personal brand and highlight reel to hopefully get noticed by a pro league or P4 school that may be a better ticket to a pro career. In essence they are playing for themselves, not Sac State. The upside for Marion is to demonstrate ability to engineer an immediate turnaround because he is already auditioning for his next gig. Assuming he doesn’t flame out, he’s one or two year max at Sac. When a P4 school next fires a coach, immediate turnaround at any cost is the service they will be looking to buy. What Wood is betting the farm on, is can all of these mercenaries with their own motivations be leveraged as a coherent team long enough to make Sac look like a viable FBS contender. My guess is that everyone involved has a max 1-2 year horizon. And perhaps Marion is just an early adopter of the new world order. It’s kind of a Silicon Valley approach - move fast, break things, ignore messes and consider humans as commodity resources instead of individuals.

cynical …….. but spot on.

It is amazing what a college athletic program can accomplish when they are not concerned with…you know…college.

They didn’t come to Sac for the education.
They didn’t come for the chance to be in the playoffs
They didn’t come to be on a ranked team.
Most don’t have a shot to play pro and will realize that when they don’t start at sac or if they do don’t standout..
Not many have biographies that show they are self motivated, while a few seem to be un-amenable to discipline.
I imagine come mid-October most will be thinking what am i doing here?

If sac is spending a lot of $ on these players one has to question whether that $ would be better spent when they start playing FBS schedule, something that is easier said than done without a conference affiliation.