They've also had a TE, Luke Galer, decommit and pick Washington State. That was pre FBS denial though.

Sac has had 4 three star recruits decommit since 6/25 according to 247sports and a 5th without stars but with multiple offers.
https://247sports.com/college/sacramento-state/Season/2026-Football/Decommits/

holy smokes!

the other question ….how long with this process last? There will be appeals regardless the outcome. This seems like a multi year process to my admittedly non-legal mind.

Its like.....take your time and do it right vs. ram it through with hyperbole and half-truths and spend tons of money while pissing everyone off.....
I bet Sac and Davis arrive in the FBS at roughly the same time (within a couple years) with completely different paths/expenses.

Davis doesn't do chaos...for better or worse, we shall see.

Sac may be chasing their tail, they may end up FBS, just in time for college football to divide into new tiers with new names, and the certainty is that Sac won’t be top tier, The top conferences want to split off, leaving the lessor conference, likely including the Mountain West and the Pac12, as the new “JVs”.

Yep. Entirely possible the FBS isn't what we think it will be in less than 10 years. "FBS-A" and "FBS-AA" would be hilarious.

Imagine Sac going through all this to end up in "FBS-AA".....talk about chasing tails.....

FAS, FBS, FCS.

to paraphrase the French, we don't make waves, we quietly buy it when publicity is unfavorable

Canzano: Will the Pac-12 stop at Texas State or keep going?

"The Pac-12 has now pivoted its focus to adding a football-only member, sources tell JohnCanzano.com . Adding a ninth football-playing member would create an eight-game conference football schedule, relieving the burden of finding one more non-conference game. It would also add tonnage and value to the Pac-12’s TV deal.

"Who are the candidates? Is the University of Memphis still a target? How about another Texas-based football member? UTSA? Rice University? Someone else?

"Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould said on Wednesday that her conference is asking itself some other questions..."

Sac State ... or UC Davis... would add the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto TV market ...

Now that North Dakota State and other MVFC teams can have 105 scholarships while SEC teams have limited themselves to 83, the FBS / FCS distinction is ridiculous.

@SochorField you seem to have struck a nerve over on the Sac forum :lol:

They eat their own over on the Sac forum and they have a few members who do not like any "outsiders" to post anything on their forum. SochorField was actually able to make a few neutral posts about Sac before someone called him "a douchebag" and told him "to get the f... off their board."

That is exactly what is happening. The PAC 12 brand is really just the MWC plus a couple of stray animals. The MWC looks like the old WAC with some randoms. Neither of these conferences are particularly appealing to casual football fans in the Sac market. Plus, in five years the media deals wind down and it’s back to the drawing board.

Oh, I'm well aware. I lurk around on most of the active forums for the Big Sky and theirs is the most openly hostile and like you said, not just to fans of other teams.

No, the FCS does not have 105 full scholarships, it's still 63.
From Sam Herder:

FCS schools that opt-in to the House settlement can go above the 63 scholarship limit and it won’t impact playoff eligibility. However, an FCS conference can set a cap on number of football scholarships. Even if the Big Sky, for example, set the cap at 63, a team that opts in can spread their 63 scholarships over 105 players instead of the current 63 scholarships spread over 85 players. (FCS can offer partial scholarships.) So opting in gives you better flexibility to get more players scholarship $. A team could also hypothetically offer a number of “non-scholarship” players an in-house NIL deal that pays their tuition, so they could creatively go over the scholarship minimum anyway even if a conference set a cap. FCS schools that opt in could create a good competitive advantage, but mid-major athletic departments don’t just have extra $ laying around to throw a ton of more scholarship $ to players, so it’d take some fundraising help

Not getting into the FBS doesn't seem to be affecting Marion's ability to continue to bring in some of the top talent in the nation. This kid had over 20 FBS offers including schools like Alabama, Auburn, Miami, Florida State, Penn State, Colorado and Tennessee among others. Marion's recruiting must have those programs dumbfounded by what they are seeing.

An FCS conference can set a limit and some do. The Big Sky limit is 63.
Last week the Missouri Valley Football Conference, just decided not to set a cap, joining these listed from google AI:
CAA: The CAA has mandated that all member institutions opt-in to the new NCAA rules, effectively removing the scholarship cap.
NEC: The Northeast Conference has also opted into the new rules, allowing for up to 105 scholarships, mirroring the new NCAA roster limit.
Southland: The Southland Conference will not enforce a football scholarship cap, allowing its members to distribute scholarships as they choose within the 105-player roster limit.
Here is why, also from google AI
NCAA Changes: The NCAA has eliminated the previous scholarship caps for most Division 1 sports, including football, and implemented roster limits instead.
House Settlement: The House vs. NCAA settlement, which includes provisions for revenue sharing and the changes to scholarship limits, is prompting these changes.
Conference Autonomy: While the NCAA has made these changes, individual conferences, like the MVFC, have the ability to set their own rules and scholarship caps.

For purposes of athletics, what is a “scholarship”? Tuition, while certainly not inexpensive, is the lesser compared to housing, fees, insurance, etc. and many California residents already qualify for discounted or free tuition based on income, with the non-tuition costs frequently being the larger challenge for an ordinary student. Do athletic scholarships include cash allowance for all the non-tuition costs like housing, fees, books, etc? And let’s say a particular recruit was already eligible for discounted tuition based on income, would the athletic scholarship count as whole or partial in that case? Said another way, could a partial athletic scholarship stack with other kinds of scholarships or financial aid to equal full cost of attendance?

Full athletic scholarships cover tuition, fees, books, housing, meals and probably etc.
I don’t think it matters if the student gets discounted tuition, because the amount of tuition varies in other ways as well, like in state or out of state. Partial and full scholarships can be augmented with NIL money and revenue sharing, to meet or exceed the cost of attendance.
But the scholarship count issue is becoming moot, as the NCAA now has roster size limits in place of scholarship counts, and I suspect conferences don’t audit scholarships, which as you indicate are complicated and debatable. I think the NCAA got rid of scholarship counts just because what is
a scholarship is undefinable when mixed with other payments.

What!!!?? Holy crap....that is unbelievable. They are def playing the SACST athletic school angle. More than that, they are using the minority angle to bring in black coaches for black students. Really smart. This is really interesting.

Before all these players sign, the schools are going to have to put in writing everything that is promised. Since the payouts will be directly from the schools for schools that opt into the House settlement, it follows that what these kids are being offered by public schools
will be public info. That will be interesting.

From Facebook:

Sac State Enters Agreement With Chinese University

Under the leadership of President Luke Wood, Sac State has announced that it’s entered into an agreement with a Chinese university controlled by the Communist government that also includes a School of Marxism. Meanwhile tuition for American students at Sac State are increasing. In other words California tax payer money is now being used to help strengthen a communist government’s universities while simultaneously increasing the financial burden on Sac State students to just be able to afford to go to school. Make it make sense.

“Today, Sac State signed a memorandum of understanding with Guangxi University in China - an exciting first step toward creating student and faculty exchange programs between the two universities." ...

The comments are interesting.

https://www.facebook.com/100063754704993/posts/pfbid0386sgT68pMaEU4UWmMxqnbbruxbj26gZ9tMV7sqJM2SjZeMPQdBky7iTrWSVkEmr5l/?mibextid=CDWPTG

I haven’t seen any other sources report this and the picture is definitely not Luke Wood. That said, part of the chicken and egg Wood strategy is use football to market to out-of-state students and use those out-of-state fees to subsidize football program until it turns its imaginary multimillion dollar profits by itself. I don’t think football would be a big draw to Chinese students, but I’m sure he would like to attract full fare international students however possible. In fairness, this is not really a new strategy. UC and other research universities have been selling access to the CCP for a long time because they are willing to pay full price. I just think historically CSU has had less content of interest to the CCP.

Marion is a heck of a recruiter that is for sure. It's hard to argue with what he personally has been able to do at Sac so far, though I wouldn't want the number of players with criminal records coming into the program I support. He hasn't been the problem at this circus.

Being able to convince a 4 star player to come to Sac State of all places is exactly why Marion won't be with the Hornets for long. If he has success on the field this year a program that has more money than Sac is going to come knocking and looking at his track record with employment, history says he'll jump ship.

I’m aware of a single Sac State player, Diesel Gordon facing a criminal charge and his case was treated like a nothing burger by the court. Tell me if there are others.
Gordon was charged with assault and reckless driving related to he and another Washington football players assaulting a bicyclist This was several years ago, He has since olayed at a community college.. i’m not saying he’s a fine citizen.
“ He pleaded guilty to assault and his reckless driving charge was dismissed. His sentence was deferred for two years - it will be dismissed if he has no new criminal violations in that time frame. He had to pay a small court fee and served 24 hours of community service.”

with SEC schools set to pay roughly $15M (estimates I’ve been reading) to their football players AND trying to suppress the NIL system, what’s the incentive to NOT sign with one of the 2-3 major conferences. The lure of FBS independent football? Weird

Even if Sac has a rough season, I wouldn’t be surprised if a P4 team hires Marion as a well-paid assistant coach and then lets him take charge of recruiting. With the limited TV exposure and Sac’s facilities, I’m baffled at how he’s managing to attract these recruits.