{"id":181739,"date":"2026-02-17T18:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181739\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T18:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:08:07","slug":"sacramento-state-joins-mid-american-conference-as-football-only-member-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181739\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento State joins Mid-American Conference as football-only member"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mid-American Conference teams will be logging more travel miles in the future. <\/p>\n

The Midwest-based conference announced <\/a>the addition of Sacramento State as a football-only affiliate member on Monday. The FCS school will officially join on July 1 for a five-year term.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s exciting announcement is about strengthening our competitive profile and creating value for the membership,\u201d said MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were presented with an opportunity to add an institution with demonstrated success in football, a record of investment and commitment to the continued growth of the institution and community. Sacramento State is ready and poised for this next step. I welcome the Hornets to the Mid-American Conference and expect they will become a competitive and contributing member to the long history and legacy of one of the oldest Division I conferences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MAC includes Central Michigan, Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan, but now will have schools from Northern California to UMass on the East Coast. <\/a><\/p>\n

Sacramento State will make the jump to FBS from FCS, joining after longtime MAC member Northern Illinois left the league for the Mountain West Conference. <\/a><\/p>\n

Located in California\u2019s capital well outside most of the league\u2019s footprint in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, Sac State\u2019s membership will lead to a significantly longer road trip for some schools each year. <\/p>\n

But from a football standpoint, the Hornets bring proven pedigree at the FCS level. The program has won seven conference titles, including three consecutive Big Sky championships from 2019-2022. During that time, the Hornets made four NCAA FCS Playoff appearances and held a top 25 ranking for 50 weeks.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1947, it has an enrollment of nearly 31,000. Sacramento State President Luke Wood called the move a \u201chistoric moment\u201d and \u201ca bold leap into the future\u201d that is \u201cbigger than football.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a special day for Sacramento State. I am ecstatic for our football student-athletes, coaches, and staff who work so hard to represent our university,\u201d said Sacramento State Director of Athletics Mark Orr. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur student athletes will now have the opportunity to showcase their talent on the highest level of college football in front of national audiences.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sacramento State\u2019s non-football sports will be in the Big West, which it joins in 2026-27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mid-American Conference teams will be logging more travel miles in the future. The Midwest-based conference announced the addition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[39237,121,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-181739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-isptsw","9":"tag-sacramento","10":"tag-sacramento-headlines","11":"tag-sacramento-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181739","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=181739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}