SIOUX FALLS — All throughout the 2025 football season, Sacramento State president Dr. Luke Wood insisted his Hornets program would be in the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2026, despite little evidence to support the claim.
Congratulations, Hornets. You got your wish. Today all of us that doubted you are eating crow.
I mean, sure, your school has to pay $18 million just to join the Mid-American Conference (MAC), plus the $5 million reclassification fee to the NCAA, but what’s $23 million to a school that faced a $30 million budget shortfall this academic year?
In all seriousness, Sac State’s agreement with the MAC reeks of desperation.
For starters, they’re apparently not even really being accepted into the conference. It’s a five-year contract, so, what, they’re interim members? Has any other school ever been invited to a conference on a temporary or interim basis?
The Hornets must pay the $18 million within that five-year window (again, in addition to the $5M to the NCAA) and $6 million is due up front.
What this really is, it appears, is an FBS tryout, and if it goes well for Sacramento they can bounce to a more geographically friendly conference (the PAC-12 or maybe the Mountain West) after their five years in MAC purgatory.
Of course, expect them to have to cough up another conference entry fee at that point — even if they want to stay in the MAC.
There’s more.
The Hornets will receive no distribution (TV) money over the five-year agreement. Wasn’t that the whole point of jumping up? To cash in on the letter ‘B’ and the TV revenue that supposedly comes rolling in with that?
Obviously the MAC is a terrible fit for the Hornets geographically. They’re in California. The MAC is made up mostly of schools in Ohio and Michigan, and it extends as far east as New York and Massachusetts. The closest school to Sacramento is Western Michigan, in Kalamazoo, at more than 2,100 miles away. UMass, the furthest east, is almost 3,000 miles away.
SDSU’s Myles Taylor celebrates a stop in the Jacks’ win over Sac State on Aug. 30, 2025.
Jenn Kenyon/Sioux Falls Live
Which made many wonder why the MAC would bring in such a far-flung school. Well, now we know why — as part of the agreement, the Hornets will pay for their opponents travel.
So not only does Sacramento have to pay for four cross-country flights for their road conference games, they’ll have to pay for four MAC opponents to come to Sacramento as well.
Why wouldn’t Ball State or Bowling Green say yes to a free trip to California?
Sure, Sac State, come on in!
So really, this is a trade. Sac State gets their foot in the FBS door. MAC teams that usually spend the fall bussing around Ohio get $18 million and all expense-paid flights to the west coast.
This is nothing like the deal North Dakota State secured to join the Mountain West. The Bison’s entry fee was a comparatively reasonable $12.5 million. They’re not paying their opponents’ travel and they receive 75 percent of a full media rights share in their first year, which bumps up to 85 percent in year two.
Sac State president Luke Wood said in a Twitter post on Monday the school would pay for the transition through guarantees (games where they would get paid to play P4 schools) and “other football revenue”, while also making a nebulous reference to an estimated — and I’m not making this up — $975 million economic impact and $675 million national broadcast value over the next five years. These are absurd figures.
Dr. Wood, if that number came from a paid consultant I would ask for my money back. You’re going to need it, after all.
So congrats, Hornets. We all laughed when you said you’d be an FBS team in 2026, and we were wrong.
North Dakota State players celebrate their nwin over Montana State after the NCAA FCS championship game at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025.
David Samson/The Forum
And to be fair, if Sac State’s move to the MAC doesn’t bankrupt the university, and they’re actually able to build this new stadium they’ve been talking about, and the team has any money leftover to spend on NIL and the other investments necessary to win at the FBS level, a move to the PAC-12 would be a pretty good outcome in the end (thought it would not at all be guaranteed to solve Sac State’s financial woes).
Good luck, Hornets.
As for what this means for the poor, unfortunate Dakota schools that are still stuck in the JV pond that is the FCS?
Well, I guess it shows that the door to FBS is always open if you’re willing to pay up.
South Dakota State and the handful of other elite programs still left in FCS would all have made more attractive additions for the MAC than Sac State. Fortunately for those institutions, the people in charge aren’t desperate enough to risk the health of their entire athletic department to take a bad deal just to be able to put the words F-B-S on the back of their helmets.
Because really, that’s what Sac State is getting here.
That, and the “exposure” of playing on ESPN on a Tuesday night. I’m not saying that isn’t worth anything, but if you think Justin Sell or Jon Schemmel are going to be tempted to risk the health and future of their athletic programs so they can play the Akron Zips on a Wednesday night on ESPN you’re not living in reality.
Will SDSU and USD, and UND, Montana and Montana State and others eventually move up? General consensus is yes, but it’s not a sure thing. Schemmel has indicated it’s inevitable. Sell has stopped short of saying that, but what he has said seems to lean in that direction.
But college football’s future is so unclear that we just don’t really know what’s going to happen. The ‘FBS split’ we keep hearing about — is that ever actually going to come to fruition?
And if it does, and the G6 teams are forced to create their own championship, what guarantee is there that they’ll want to invite any FCS teams to that party? It’s tempting, logical even, to think the elite teams (basically the ones from the Dakotas and Montana) would be seen as valuable additions by a G6 conference. But it’s not outlandish to think the G6’s might not want them, either, for any number of reasons. At the very least, it looks as though G6 conferences have recognized that demanding a King’s ransom for membership is a convenient way to increase revenue.
South Dakota State’s Jack Henry carries the ball during the Interstate Series college football game on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025 at the DakotaDome in Vermillion.
Marcus Traxler / Mitchell Republic
How bad do you want in, Jacks and Yotes? How’s $30 million apiece sound?
USD and SDSU should not allow themselves to be held hostage by an FBS conference, even if it means staying in the FCS.
The loss of the NDSU rivalry hurts, but it’s not a death knell for the FCS, and nobody is going to miss Sacramento State.
Things are going to change. We just don’t know how.
North Dakota State did it the right way, and they could, because they’re North Dakota State.
The other FCS schools are not NDSU, not even the Jackrabbits.
If that means they have to wait for more dominoes to fall, so be it.
Selling out at any cost just to get a foot in the door isn’t the answer.