Another big thing for me: Joining the MW for football gives us a HELL OF A LOT larger exposure than playing all our games on ESPN+. Imagine how many alumni could be aware of games...

I like this post! :100:

upvote this times a million.

You would think an English major could actually spell :lol: *fixed, thank you haha

Dude complains about literally everything under the sun about cfb... and then joins a coaching stuff in the conference that actively is ruining the college football he misses.

I have hammered home the opinion that it should not be if but when about joining the MW but as an unrelated point from this whole debate: I would really much rather be debating whether we want to be perennial national championship team at the FCS level or move to the Mountain West than talking about joining the CUSA or the MAC . Actually setting ourselves up to play teams that actually make sense to play against (regionally, rivalry-wise, logistically) makes me happy. I have my own strong opinion on this topic obviously, but I love everyone here debating these realistic, logical and exciting futures that we can see happen.

Bobby Hauck goes to Illinois as the DC

praying. Hearing him say that he would basically have to be offered an insane amount to leave before winning a national championship made me happy.

I cannot believe the qb talent we bring in. Plough really is one of the best in the biz at qb development, its stunning. I am very excited for next season, especially with our schedule!

I agree a lot of teams that are still good in FCS and it will be no easy feat, but the dude who makes those rankings is actually the worst at his job. Stan seems like a nice guy but he is consistently wrong about his rankings. Sam Herder does a much better job. It almost seems like he doesn't actually watch any of the games and takes conference strength with a grain of salt.

Someone on reddit said something I think is probably true

My suspicion, and hope, is that the MWC and UC Davis did discuss NDSU's inclusion, and UC Davis approved it. But what I also hope is that UC Davis got something in return. Maybe the Ags did get fast-track approval for football inclusion. Or maybe, the Ags media term was changed from a one-sixth share increase over six years to full-share status to one-fifth share increase over five years to full-share status. Or, maybe, the Ags will get a balloon payment out of NDSU's $12M entrance fee.

I’m sure officially UC Davis was offered, my guess is there’s a handshake agreement for Davis to move up in x amount of years once it gets its facilities up to par. And it wouldn’t surprise me if relevant Davis execs knew this was gonna happen somewhat in advance and watched it develop to get a sense of cost to move.

Unrelated but im curious, what do you think NDSU's win total is the first year they move up?

Oh my goodness folks. Considering how many guys we have back, how many exciting new additions we have, and all the fcs movement this could be an exciting year.

Lets go over some of the major changes in the FCS and how they could help the ags:
1. NDSU to the Mountain West. In a move that both weakens the FCS in its very top level of competition, NDSU also opens the door that has been almost completely closed the last 10 years with NDSU dominating the subdivision. Expected to compete year 1 in the MW, NDSU leaving gives our Aggies a much clearer path to a national championship
2. Montana Madness! Montana State loses its OC that has been there the entire Vigen tenure and the Griz lose Hauck to move a position coach into the HC position. These teams both have strong foundations, but leave space for Davis to fill at the top of the Big Sky.
3. Sac State leaves the Big Sky. This has its pros and cons, but takes away a competitive and coinflip game off of the schedule.
4. Southern Utah and Utah Tech join the Big Sky. Southern Utah has had some good seasons but Utah Tech has been atrocious. Seems like an easier addition than what existed before the Sac exit.
5. University of South Dakota gets a new coach.

yeah I can understand him feeling that way, but also Umass was setup worse than davis in every single way to move to FBS. The funding was worse, smaller student body, smaller economic impact, the northeast is worse than even the west coast for football, and the stadium is TERRIBLE and continues to be worse than ours.

My wish to join the MW for football is not to say I am not excited for the upcoming season or our team as an FCS program, I just think being a MW member should eventually include football.

If I wanted to make my best guess, I would say realistically we start renovations at the stadium and basically have already agreed to move to the MW for football somewhere between 2028-2030.

uhhh I never said anything about cal I think that was someone else. I also think the mountain west and the ACC are very different conferences in level of competition. You make some great points, but I just think being in the position of being in the mountain west already instead of the big sky sets us up in a better starting position no matter what happens division wise coming soon. Also, arguably the actual travel of the mountain west is similar if not better than the big sky for us.

I agree that we need to spend money to upgrade facilities and prepare before joining the mw for football (and other sports too). NDSU though, has a stadium that is (by the ndsu fans themselves) not great other than having 18k seats. I think we would need to invest sure, and I think a 2028 or 2030 at the latest addition would make logistical sense, but I also think having all our sports move to 1 conference would be SO great.

I will say it for the 100000th time, explaining how the fcs works and how its still d1 but has a different championship but also doesnt play fbs schools normally is so confusing for anyone not super tuned in. Everyone I know thinks Davis still is in d2 (or thinks fcs is basically d2) and looking at many of the big sky (and fcs as a whole) stadiums and facilities you would think the same.

I know things dont happen overnight, but to join the mw for all other sports its already going to require stepping up, and not doing football with it just seems dumb considering football is far and away our most popular sport.

I’m not even going to argue that sac moving to the MAC makes any sense, but they already left the big sky. That is our biggest FCS game off the board. Now we are going to play in a weaker FCS, with a weaker conference and expect the hype to continue building at the same rate? I totally think if we make a FCS CHAMPIONSHIP push this year that would be awesome, but I just don’t get this joining the MW thing and then seeming to be full steam ahead in another direction in the FCS.

I am so happy to be playing more recognizable teams for every other sport. Now I would like that football football too.

+the stadium thing. Adding extra seating to a side or filling in a berm when building the new press box to meet standards of the MW doesn’t seem like the hardest thing in the world considering the stadium was built to be expanded in the first place. NDSU has a dome that can’t be expanded so meeting 18k seats could be a goal, but also we already have a nicer base stadium than some of the MW (I’m looking at Nevada having a track around the field and bleachers over it). I know people have made points of Mrak hall moving slow with these things, but it’s just weird to me to build all this momentum and STILL have this uncertainty.

yeah I’m really curious what our admins response was when the conference told us NDSU wants to join and gave us the opportunity to apply. Did we do it? Is there a plan in place where we have a deal to move in 2028 or something? I feel the transition period is not really a point of contention, the FCS is great and all but losing members like NDSU doesn’t make it a stronger conference in competition, just an easier one to win a trophy from (in which no one outside of FCS niche fandom actually understands what it means). I would be a hell of a lot happier joining the MW with NDSU then staying in the Big Sky with new members SUU and Utah Tech.

exactly.

I don't think we are, especially without doing stadium renovations. I do think we would get more people watching a uc davis vs nevada or unlv game than vs a southern utah or northern colorado. What I am saying is its just interesting pr. I stand by my opinion we should move to the mw for football once we renovate, but I do think that's more of a move by 2028-2030. The MW for every other sport I think is a good move already. My posts are more just pointing out the complicated pr of our annoying split conference affiliations (even more as we move to an FBS conference for everything but an FBS sports) and the watering down of the big sky. I agree with what others have said that moving by say 2030 gives us a window for a FCS championship (even more without NDSU lol) and allows for renovations to happen.