Author’s Note: I’ve been absent from the writing game for a while. But now I’m back. Let’s catch up on some headlines.
Hello, new friends
Welcome to the Mid-American Conference, Sacramento State?
I guess?
Of all the news items I wasn’t expecting to return to write about, I suppose Sacramento State being a character within the MAC’s orbit was never truly a thought for me until, well, Sacramento State and its gung-ho leadership decided that it was going to be a character.
As the MAC has been forced to hold a mirror up to its face time and time again through rounds of expansion and non-expansion, it was able to maintain an image for many across the nation. A smaller, non-elite FBS league in the Midwest with six schools in Ohio, three in Michigan, and one in each of Indiana, Illinois, and New York. Central Florida (it’s true) and UMass had brief stints, and Marshall has a rich, old history in the MAC. But 12 schools, for the most part, have populated and defined the league for over two decades.
Some were here from the very beginning (Ohio in 1946, Miami and Western Michigan in 1947), and others hopped on in the early 50’s (Toledo, Kent State, Bowling Green), early 70’s (CMU, EMU Ball State, Northern Illinois), and some, finally, in the 90’s (Akron, NIU again, Buffalo). But these 12 schools, over the last two-plus decades — during a time when the sport’s fandom grew more and more through the early days of satellite television and the internet — stuck together for a really long time, and the MAC became a serious fandom for those watching up close and in the cold, or it became a pet fandom for college football fans watching from miles and miles away.
Time zones away.
Though, the MAC, after decades of knowing its neighbors all too well, wasn’t a perfect setup. It’s had a longtime relationship with ESPN, but that hasn’t come without its major annoyances. Playing some league games in November on a Tuesday or Wednesday can be great entertainment for home viewers, but they’re not exactly convenient for everybody in (or not in) attendance.
It’s not really a situation team with money, a la your Michigans and Ohio States, ever need to deal with.
The TV schedule can be a crappy grind, the money flowing through the conference will never feel like it’s enough to keep up with the Joneses, and, after dominoes after dominoes of SEC and Big Ten expansions kept falling, the MAC failed to expand to Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in 2021. The league ended up adding UMass as a full-time player for 2025, but now Northern Illinois is out to be a Mountain West school for football and going to the Horizon League for everything else.
Because if the money’s right, there’s no need to be local anymore.
So Sacramento State said it’ll pay $18M to come play against for the MAC, and another $5M to the NCAA to make the FBS jump.
This, after the Mountain West accepted NIU, added North freaking Dakota State, and said ‘no’ to Sac State’s offer.
This, a year after the NCAA told Sac State ‘no’ to being an FBS independent in 2025.
This, after a group was ready to help fund Sac State’s rosters with NIL money — on the condition that their school was to join the Pac-12.
Sac State president Luke Wood simply didn’t accept no along the way though, did he?
As Sac State was included on the MAC schedule for 2026, he said he hopes more FCS-level schools ‘make the transition.’
Sure, said the MAC. Let’s be a national product for a few years.
Because Sac State thinks it’ll help move exactly how much money?
$975 million? In American dollars? What?
I don’t mean to sound glib, or like I know something that they don’t. But, uh, okay I guess?
I say this with affection: we’re talking about the MAC still, right?
Maybe a Carrot & Definitely a Really Long and Heavy Stick
Sac State has big and rich dreams for itself, and who am I to say it shouldn’t have wild aspirations? To use myself for example, I started a business where I do journalism through this sort of coverage that you’re reading right now because one time I convinced myself that this sort of venture could be at least a little bit profitable, even if I’m not immediately swimming in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck.
Not yet.
Sac State thinks that it could make difference-making money one day, even if that means it’ll be living in the red for a little bit.
Look at how expensive this move is:
$5 million to the NCAA just to make the FCS-to-FBS leap.
$18 million total as an entrance fee to join the MAC, and it’s split into five installments: $6M on April 30, 2026, and $3M on each December 15 from 2027 through 2030.
Annual affiliate member fees of $75,000, plus a 4% increase with each passing year, to the MAC.
Annual bowl fees to the MAC (this year, it’s $130,000).
The financial responsibilities for “all air charter costs necessary” for MAC teams’ travels, “to and from (Sac State) for all football games.”
Screenshot of Sac State-MAC MOU (via Sacramento Bee)
Call them signs or call them lies that we keep telling ourselves to keep going: what did Sac State see in the world that convinced them that they absolutely needed to make this kind of choice? Where’s the difference-making money Sac State’s hoping to win?
I’ll tell you where the money isn’t.
The money isn’t going to come from the MAC’s current broadcasting rights. According to a memorandum of understanding signed by the school’s and MAC’s leaders, Sac State’s going to forego all TV broadcasting revenue the league receives.
Real money’s not going to be made through bowl games. The NCAA has a really stupid rule that denies Sac State from playing in a bowl game (or a MAC championship) until after a two-year transition period is completed for FCS-to-FBS teams. Because a $5 million fee paid up-front isn’t enough.
So where are the moneybags Sac State’s hoping to grab?
One, the College Football Playoff. Having a highwire-sized point of entry into the playoff is their new reality. Will Sacramento State be featured in a CFP? That’s not what we’re talking about right now, because talking is free. The reality is that there is now a theoretical ramp to take into the CFP if Sac State gets hot one year.
Now let’s say one day this ramp gets used. Sac State is indeed hot, and makes it to the CFP. The CFP pays the conferences for schools making it into the playoff, and then additional money for advancing. The MAC has decided that Sacramento State can have a “CFP participation fee” instead of the whole bag.
Screenshot of Sac State-MAC MOU (via Sacramento Bee)
And two, media impact. This, if I’m being honest, is where I throw my hands up in the air and say I have no idea what’s going on with this. I’m a brain-dead journalist with the financial literacy of a toaster, but this sounds like one of those phrases that are better presented with a magic wand in your hand. Or maybe it’s just because Sac State’s use of its impact is just that goofy.
CBS Sports reported on the confusion:
Russell Wright, CEO of Collegiate Consulting, told CBS Sports the top-line takeaway of a $975 million economic impact over five years is a mischaracterization of the study they provided to the school, and he was unaware Wood and the school would extrapolate his findings over five years. It is unclear to Wright where the $675 million national broadcast valuation number comes from.
"I don't think that's right. That's not anywhere in our report, so I 100% question that," Wright said.
Wright was also unclear as to how the school arrived at the "game day economic revenue rises to $46 million" claim. …
CBS Sports obtained a copy of the study, which assesses the economic impact of FCS football over the last three-and-half years for the school with "conservative estimates" based on data from previous years. The annual economic impact averaged $62 million per year. Collegiate Consulting was initially retained by Sacramento State in January to look backwards to produce a study on current economic impact. The school later came back and asked for an FBS projection and communicated to Wright that talks with the MAC were heating up.
In a separate FBS projection column, annual economic impact skyrockets to $194,417,500. That jump is primarily due to a 119% projected increase in external revenue -- such as tickets, game guarantees and parking -- and a 1,312% increase of broadcast exposure impact from $8.3 million in fiscal year 2025-26 to $120 million when the Hornets go FBS. Rounded up to $195 million -- a number Orr has used in interviews, including one with CBS Sports -- the total annual economic impact multiplied by five -- the length of Sac State's agreement with the MAC -- is apparently how the school arrived at the takeaway that "Athletic economic impact increases to $975 million" during its time in the MAC.
The Los Angeles Times spoke with Victor Matheson, a current-day professor and past president of the North American Association of Sports Economists, who said Sac State’s confusing itself with all these valuation charts.
If someone sees Sacramento State on TV, that’s exposure. If someone then buys a ticket to a Sacramento State game, or enrolls at Sacramento State, that’s economic impact.
“We expect the exposure would generate revenue through corporate partners and ticket sales and merchandise, all those types of things,” Sacramento State athletic director Mark Orr said, “from national audiences seeing Sacramento State on their television.”
Said Matheson: “They’re conflating appearing on TV and losing 52-7 to Bowling Green with a targeted ad designed to actually bring people to Sacramento to spend money and spend tuition dollars. They are conflating just being on TV with actual advertising.”
Della Monica said today’s sophisticated metrics allow for economic impact to be traced to its source rather than broadly estimated in advance — for instance, if you bought a ticket based on a TV promotion that required a click to redeem.
Isn’t a televised football game in itself a three-hour advertisement for the school? Yes, but …
“We saw you on ESPN, and now we want to sponsor you?” Della Monica said. “That isn’t how sports sponsorships work.”
Will Mid-American Conference member Sac State football be such an attention grabber between now and 2030 that some high school kids from Michigan or Ohio will end up considering going to Sac State for undergrad? I don’t know. It’s probably skibidi Sac State to them anyway.
Will the Sac State quarterbacks over these next five years end up on commercials for State Farm or Dr. Pepper? They’d certainly be the first MAC guys to land that sort of publicity.
Will Sac State football on TV even turn some heads? Because if Sac State vs. Toledo or Sac State at Central Michigan ends up getting a million pairs of eyeballs on it, that’d be huge for a league that, as CBS found, had roughly 191,000 viewers per midweek MACtion game in 2025.
For the MAC, I get how this is a weird look. I understand some of the reasons why the MAC sees this as low-to-no risk.
I also see this as a sort of gut check for MAC schools. Great, an $18M check is coming in from California, and it wants to play some football in this league for a handful of leagues. Then? Big shrug! Because guess what? $18M won’t feel like it’s enough. Texas Tech bought a $25M roster last year to get into last year’s playoff; James Madison’s roster was closer to $16M. The MAC will stay in the rat race for as long as they’re allowed to (or able to) hang on. One day, some of these schools will have to suffer the grave consequence of “falling” all the way down to the deep depths of Division-I FCS football because they committed the grave sin of not spending like their counterparts — near and far — had.
But Sac State won’t be caught not trying to stay ahead.
Sac State wanted to move up and into the Mountain West with North Dakota State, and the latter school is the one with all of the pedigree and hardware from the FCS ranks. Football-wise, NDSU had the goods to level-up whenever it wanted to. Sac State’s path was always going to come as a little bit of a surprise.
Not that Sac State’s a bad football school: it holds a 44.4% all-time win percentage, won seven conference championships (1964, 1966, 1986, 1995, 2019, 2021, 2022), and has a 149-86 record since 2010. But Sac State moving up isn’t the same as NDSU’s 10 national titles at the FCS level (after five D2 championships between and three small college national titles).
This sport has been Looney Tunes ever since the Big Ten went national with the addition of four former Pac-12 schools, there’s no denying it. I’m not sure if Sacramento State to the MAC is the future the football gods at Fox and Disney wanted to have happen, but it’s certainly an outcome.