{"id":179304,"date":"2026-02-15T18:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T18:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/179304\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T18:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T18:36:13","slug":"mac-sacramento-state-reach-college-football-partnership-with-a-lot-of-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/179304\/","title":{"rendered":"MAC, Sacramento State reach college football partnership with a lot of questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/ncaa-football\/news\/mac-sacramento-state-college-football-partnership-questions\/29f35c881ef74deccc748c37?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:MAC, Sacramento State reach college football partnership with a lot of questions;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">MAC, Sacramento State reach college football partnership with a lot of questions<\/a> originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Sporting News;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Preferred Source by clicking here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Mid-American Conference had mostly stayed out of conference realignment.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The MAC started to shift when UMass came aboard, though, and now the biggest change the conference has ever seen has arrived: Sacramento State.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, as in the capital of California, Sacramento. Exactly the city you think of when you think of &#8220;Mid-American.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ChrisVannini\/status\/2023020444853682530?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:According to The Athletic&#039;s Chris Vannini;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">According to The Athletic&#8217;s Chris Vannini<\/a>, Sac State will be joining as a football-only member in time for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>Sacramento State had been playing at the FCS level but made clear it wanted to move up to FBS, and now it has a home in the MAC.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Northern Illinois is leaving the MAC, so this at least balances out the football from a scheduling perspective.<\/p>\n<p>In a conference without a ton of huge road trips, Sacramento State certainly adds a different dimension to MACtion.<\/p>\n<p>What schools are in MAC football with Sacramento State?<\/p>\n<p>The MAC football teams in 2026 will look like this:<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;ll be fascinating to see how the MAC incorporates Sacramento State into its usual second-half, week-night schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Asking Akron to play in California on a Wednesday night is a lot different than asking Akron to play in Toledo on a Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;ll certainly create some changes and a lot of novelty, at least for a year. We&#8217;ll see how long this lasts.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/ncaa-football\/north-carolina\/news\/unc-bill-belichick-qb-transfer-threw-38-tds-only-2-ints\/6869c5359649d23bb1c8dd97\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Bill Belichick adds an FCS star quarterback;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Bill Belichick adds an FCS star quarterback<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MAC, Sacramento State reach college football partnership with a lot of questions originally appeared on The Sporting News.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[13391,48138,84183,121,123,122,5481,85208],"class_list":["post-179304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-conference-realignment","tag-mac-football","tag-mid-american-conference","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sacramento-state","tag-the-athletic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}