{"id":374814,"date":"2026-06-25T19:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T19:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/374814\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T19:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T19:46:11","slug":"sacramento-state-bowl-eligible-after-ncaa-rule-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/374814\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento State bowl eligible after NCAA rule change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sacramento State football could play in its first Division I bowl game as soon as this season.<\/p>\n

The NCAA Division I Cabinet on Wednesday voted to eliminate a transition period in which teams transitioning to the Football Bowl Subdivision from the lower-level Football Conference Subdivision were not eligible for bowl games for two seasons, Sac State\u2019s football program confirmed in posts on social media<\/a>. Multiple news reports<\/a> confirmed the NCAA news as well.<\/p>\n

That means the Hornets, who will play their first season in the Mid-American Conference<\/a> as a football-only member this season, could make their bowl debut if they perform well in their first season. To be eligible for a bowl, an FBS teams must go at least .500 (generally 6-6, overall).<\/p>\n

\u201cSacramento State did not make the move to FBS simply to participate\u2014we made it to compete,\u201d Sacramento State President Luke Wood said in a post on social media<\/a>. \u201c#varsitymindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rule change also applies to North Dakota State, an FCS powerhouse that is joining the Mountain West conference this coming season. The Hornets will host North Dakota State on Sept. 19 at Hornet Stadium, and the rule change means that game could have significant postseason implications for each team. The Sac State-North Dakota State matchup will be televised on ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Sacramento Sacramento State football coach Alonzo Carter calls out his defensive players during spring football drills on Thursday, March 19. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Sac State had been a member of the Big Sky Conference from 1996 through last season, finishing with winning records 11 times. The program is coming to the MAC after one of the most successful stretches in team history, in which it won three Big Sky championships over four seasons from 2019 to 2022, including a dominant 12-1 campaign in 2022 that included an 8-0 record in Big Sky play.<\/p>\n

The move to the MAC will cost the school about $24 million over the next five years, according to previous Bee reporting, including a $5 million fee to NCAA and about $x in entrance fees to the MAC.<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s non-football sports will move to the Big West Conference<\/a> this season.<\/p>\n

Before the rule change, 2022 Sun Belt East Division champion James Madison University was the most recent team kept from a bowl game due to the transition period rules, sparking controversy around the rule. Others, like Missouri State and Delaware in 2025 and James Madison in 2023, received waivers to compete because there weren\u2019t enough qualified teams to fill the bowl games.<\/p>\n

The Hornets kick off their season and MAC play with an Aug. 29 game against Eastern Michigan, with the Hornets seeing their first action under new head coach Alonzo Carter.<\/p>\n

\"New New Sacramento State football coach Alonzo Carter, framed by Big Sky championship trophies from previous seasons, acknowledges his late mother during an introductory press conference on Thursday, Dec. 18. Carter is the university’s 14th head football coach. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com
\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Sean Campbell<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Sean Campbell is a 2025 and 2026 summer reporting intern covering sports and news at The Sacramento Bee. Campbell is studying journalism at USC and serves as a news editor at the student-run Daily Trojan. He previously covered sports for the Davis Enterprise.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sacramento State football could play in its first Division I bowl game as soon as this season. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-374814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374814","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=374814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}