McFeely: Sacramento State is crazy ... or crazy like a fox
School president pushes Hornets to FBS without a conference, in hopes of someday landing invitation.
Sacramento State President Luke Wood.
Sacramento State Athletics photo
Opinion by
Mike McFeely
Today at 1:03 PM
FARGO — Sacramento State President Luke Wood is either nuts or the smartest man involved in college football. In some instances both things could be true. Not this time.
The stakes for Sac State's football program are too high.
If Wood's crazy idea works, the Hornets will be flying high.
If it doesn't, they'll be squashed on the windshield of college football.
For sure, those of us who've strongly advocated for North Dakota State to make a move to the Football Bowl Subdivision will be watching closely and wondering.
And perhaps wishing.
As promised by Wood for months, Sacramento State last week filed an application with the NCAA to make the transition from the Football Championship Subdivision to the higher-level FBS.
The application will go to the FBS Oversight Committee and then to the Division I Council. It is expected, though not guaranteed, those groups will approve Sac State's application.
If that happens, the Hornets would officially begin moving from the FCS Big Sky Conference to the FBS.
Hooray?
The terrifying twist is that Sac State would enter FBS as an independent. It has not received an invitation to a conference, despite open campaigning by Wood to join the rebuilt Pac-12, and so has decided to unmoor from the safety of FCS and hope the FBS wind blows properly.
This is not just a gamble, it is essentially exposing the football program to destruction.
Unless you are Notre Dame, and Sac State is assuredly not, playing an independent schedule is brutal bordering on impossible. You're scheduling 12 nonconference games a year. Or at least trying. Good luck.
Wood's play and the reason he's willing to take such a massive risk is that by merely being FBS, he hopes that makes Sac State appealing to FBS conferences. Specifically the Pac-12 and Mountain West, the latter of which has said it's not interested in dipping into FCS for additions.
You remember the Mountain West, Bison fans? That's the league at which NDSU was longingly looking when rumblings began almost five years in north Fargo that some in the athletic department were searching for a way to FBS.
It became more real last year when a national report said the Mountain West was "considering" NDSU as an expansion option.
Our reporting confirmed NDSU was in the expansion discussion for the Mountain West but "not on the front burner." A source in the league told us the office of Commissioner Gloria Nevarez viewed NDSU as the best addition and believed the Bison could become the new Boise State after that school bolts to the Pac-12, but presidents were scared off by NDSU's FCS label and insisted on adding an FBS school.
Sacramento State Hornets quarterback Kaiden Bennett (1) is sacked by Montana State defensive end Brody Grebe (10) in the second half of a 2023 game at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, California.
Sara Nevis/TNS
Northern Illinois of the Mid-American Conference officially got a football-only invitation in January.
In an interview with a Nevada-based media outlet in March, Nevarez confirmed what we'd been hearing.
"FCS has some amazing programs, ones that could come in immediately and be middle of the league, if not higher, and be competitive. The issue for us right now is that it's a two-year waiting period, and there's significant political headwinds about expanding the membership of FBS. Not adding FCS. More about, 'Hey, how many schools do we have in the FBS, and do we need more?'" Nevarez said. "And so our concern was even if we committed to an FCS now that would be a great match and contribute, in two years if the rules change and they couldn't be a member anymore, our options were available to us to stay FBS and that's where we wanted to stay today. Does that change in the future? Maybe. But in this environment we just didn't know."
So if FBS leagues are not going to invite FCS schools, what is the best option for an FCS school wanting to move up?
To take a leap of faith and go FBS independent, of course, and then hope the change of one letter makes you attractive to an FBS conference.
And maybe it will.
Some would say it's crazy. If Sac State flounders in FBS for more than a few years, it'll be the death knell of the football program.
But if the Hornets get an invite to the Mountain West (most likely) or Pac-12 (longshot), Wood will be crazy like a fox. He'll have pushed his FCS school into FBS in an unusual and extremely risky manner.
All while NDSU remains in an ever-diminishing FCS.
Not that going FBS independent is a smart move for the Bison. There's too much risk and hope at play.
Maybe it's time to start whispering sweet nothings to Conference USA, in hopes of getting a phone call. Anybody want to restart the Sam Houston rivalry?
