As Rocko stated, some of them went way over the line and their behavior is shameful. Flooding social media with uniformed and inflammatory comments in order to rile up the equestrian community throughout California and even the throughout the whole country goes beyond the pale. It is similar behavior you might expect from a of a bunch of privileged, spoiled brats. Unfortunately, it appears to have served the purpose of making the larger equestrian community feel extremely upset and now they are piling on as well with angry comments and false assertions.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2029044841210156
https://www.facebook.com/reel/868962296035923

Now talking about general athletic stuff, do we know if the MW ever plans to add water polo?

Wow...that's some rough stuff. What a nightmare for Rocko and the Athletics Department.

People are crazy. Parents, even at the collegiate (and professional level) have lost their minds. Keep Rocko and his family in your prayers.

An inevitability at this point :chin: :starstruck:

Chancellor May with MW presidents.

I mean at this point we all should know by now that Davis is going to move football up to D1. Of course they aren’t going to announce they plan on doing it until they do it.

My conclusion is this is more of a financial thing. As AD DeLuca has already stated, the university wants to be able to capitalize on the revenue from moving up to the D1 level. Hence why they are building premium seating an a club. I wouldn’t be surprised if they also built premium seating on the opposite sideline as well.

I personally don't like the idea of foregoing media rights income just to slap on the MW or FBS label. Seems rash. It's a big source of revenue for these programs (millions of $$ per yr) which puts new FCS to FBS programs at an immediate disadvantage. I think the UCD brand is worth more than that. Keep fielding suitors and negotiating and building the brand. A better opp might come along more mutually beneficial between program-conference. Even the NDSU deal seems one-sided in benefit of the conference. Not to mentions SAC

I haven’t heard anyone say Davis would forgo media rights. Where did you see that?

Davis is already a member of mountain west and getting media rights, just not for football at the moment as they are not a member.

yeah we already get media rights (which was part of the genius IMO of moving Olympic sports first).

Interesting. How does revenue from the current partial membership of the MWC stack up vs. the Big West? TBD?

i'm not sure about the media payouts, but the MWC has traditionally sent more than 1 team to the NCAA basketball tournament. all schools share equally. last year, they sent 6 so a payout of roughly $12M compared to the BWC's $2M. of course, with the schools that have left, they won't get 6 next season!

I would also like to note with the new MW app, schools get revenue based on subscriptions. So if you subscribe for UC Davis sports, Davis gets paid off that.

Just one last season. Four the year prior.

Do the math on the MWC network. Money loser for the schools and the fans.

They’re both negative numbers. The MWC used all of its cash to keep Air Force and UNLV in the league. There won’t be meaningful conference distributions under this model.

Where did you see that there is a reported negative number? Where did you see there would be no meaningful conference distribution? Please link me to reports on this.

Davis gets a 1/6 media deal payout in 2026 and is increased every year and gets a full media deal payout in 2032. https://nevadasportsnet.com/news/reporters/details-from-uc-davis-heavily-redacted-membership-agreement-to-join-the-mountain-west

The current MW media deal expires in 2032. According to our projections of joining FBS in 2029, that would leave 3 years of play until the new media deal. (And I will once again reiterate that once Davis joins the FBS, they will be a FULL Mountain West Member, not a football affiliate like NIU and NDSU).

In regards to the MW spending all its money, there is settlement between the PAC 12 and the MW regarding exit and poaching fees owed to the mountain west. https://apnews.com/article/pac-12-mountain-west-lawsuits-a06f727ea50847ec9e0dca0b6502e008

dang….must have read a dated article!

That's kind of what I'm hinting at. Is a 5m minimum pmt (just to reclassify as FBS) plus all the other expenses really worth it? The MWC isn't what it used to be. I'd be shooting for the PAC, but taking a little more time to get there, if it were me.

long term wise, yes, getting into the FBS before major conference realignment is worth it.

this this this. FCS is gonna be basically relegated even further in the future imo. Staying FCS or going FBS for me at this point is more of a debate of what eventually will be like playing d2 vs d1 (even if the group of 6 ends up being sorta like a new FCs to a certain extent).

I'm with you. Bank some of the money we'll need for the jump, then invest the rest into what we have and what we're building.

All Davis to FBS deniers, please answer the following questions with sources.
1. What is our current FOOTBALL media rights distribution vs what we can expect from the mountain west.

2. Please explain how moving football, which is the biggest revenue producer in college sports (Football and men’s basketball subsidize the other sports with their revenue), to a higher division, which would then increase our media payout, increase the level of competition and brand name competition (which would increase ticket sales and tv viewership) would hurt the school. KNOWING that increased media payout from football would boost the athletic budget.

Also knowing that being in FBS would boost the brand recognition and get more out of state tuition, again, making more money. Here is an interview with AD DeLuca speaking on this. https://youtu.be/t3fbSpb_WJc?is=Hq78LWbgQhsRb4Kg

3. Please explain why we would pay and exit fee from the mountain west to join the PAC 12 when we JUST joined the mountain west. That literally does not make sense. REMINDER, Davis is a NON FOOTBALL member of the mountain west. Meaning we are already a member of the conference, just not for football. We CANNOT join the pac 12 for football and remain in the mountain west for all other sports.

4. Please show what 20 year football revenue projections would be for moving to FBS vs staying in FCS. I find is EXTREMELY unlikely staying in FCS will provide a better economic outlook than moving to the FBS

Also I won’t be surprised if in 15+ years Davis tried to move to P4. I’d like to remind everyone UC Davis is an affiliate member of the Big 12 in some sports (that aren’t included in the MW)

You're only looking at one side of the ledger. How many millions in debt is Bay Area titan Cal in debt? Cal's FB HC makes $6 M per year, basketball HC $3 Million per, football GM over $1 Million per. Cal is in the Bay area, near Silicon Valley, while Sac is still an ag / government area. You seem to avoid the fact that most college Division I programs lose lots of money. Cal subsidized, UCLA swimming in debt. We already have more students applying than anyone can accomodate, while St. Mary's College may be in trouble. Let's say five years down the line our HC in basketball wins a few tourney games, he'll want to cash in.

We'll have a clearer picture in 3-5 years. Cal, UCLA, Stanford not happy flying East. We've had the good fortune of one particularly generous alum helping fund several large projects. Just 1.5 years ago Athletics couldn't figure out how to give away Playoff tickets or publicize the game. That isn't a money issue.

I’m not a fbs denier to use your description, but one that believes we need to have the resources to be competitive at that level. So my answer is another question. What are the average expenses of MW football participants (coaches salaries, NIL, travel, food for the players, etc) vs the anticipated revenue from the MW? At the moment, we’re way below the resources that the top fcs schools have. I don’t want to see us being a tune up fight for the heavy hitters. We’re going to need big time resources to be competitive at that level. In pizza terms, Woodstocks is great but we need Dominos.

Good point.

And on the pizza front…what I would do for a Roundtable Pizza in Colorado. Little Leagues e memories….

Cal Athletics: $165.4 million expenses vs $153 million in revenue. The department operates with an annual deficit of around $24.3 million.

The Bears receive institutional support totaling roughly $68 million to $75+ million annually. (This includes stadium renovation costs. Right now they are just paying interest. A few years down the road when they start paying principal, costs explode.)

UCLA Athletics' yearly operational shortfall sits near $40+ million per year, with the campus chipping in $30 million per year.

You are thinking about it the right way. The budget number for MWC football is $20m. A full share of MWC media rights is 3.5m.