Sacramento State is looking to join the Pac-12 or Mountain West Conference

she brokee the story yesterday and uh we here in Sacramento perked our ears up and then you know you being the voice of sack State and me being just you know a guy of Sacramento right we we started calling people and doing all that but I would say this the bad news is our next guest gave us a lot of work to do in the afternoon Jason don't appreciate it on the other hand uh it's a it's a potentially wonderful story for the city and we wanted to bring on the person and give her credit for breaking the news from front office Sports she's a sports business reporter also reports on college sports as well so I'm sure she's been quite busy yes over the last year or two Amanda christovich Amanda my name is Dave this is Jason Ross good morning to you thanks for joining us yeah thank you so much for having me uh you just honestly We're Not Gonna of course ask you where what and who because you got sources and good for you and uh but but here uh you know we have two major college programs sack State and ucy Davis and we say major that's major to us from a national point of view you know they're not Alabama or Clemson or Florida State or whoever but small towns always uh small schools you know you want to grow and it seems like there's an opportunity perhaps for sax state to grow here yeah I mean look I think that um you know obviously what I reported yesterday was that sort of the local community The Business Leaders the local politicians are planning to sort of rally around Sac State and create this push to you know get the com or get the the school a an invitation um from you know one of the two FBS conferences that it might make sense the Mountain West or the Pack 12 um they have a pretty sort of lengthy process that they would have to go through to get to the FBS level but it starts with getting an invitation from um you know from a conference in your higher division so um and I do want to just say like I'm from Los Angeles I'm a California Native so um you know it was personally exciting for me too you know adding another city in California to FBS football would be pretty cool it would be am man I'm thinking of you know when we're all younger if you're there's that cool party in high school it's like how do I get invited do I wear my best outfit do I hang out with the the cool kids how so how does these leaders in Sacramento one um try to impress those decision makers and and get that invite well I think it's it's two things the first thing is um sources and the second is PR um right and I'm not naive I I imagine you know I did my due diligence but I imagine that you know it's not like folks didn't want this story to get out after they saw the moves that the Pack 12 made the Pack 12 made yesterday um you know the new stadium a new football stadium um the you know resources that the university already has the student body um the local Sacramento Market the media Market obviously the city has um put a lot of resources into growing its Sports Port portfolio in the last few years so I think that you know is something they're going to tout um you know but like there is a lot of money that is going to have to go into this right um there's a whole n approval process um you know I would have folks look at James Madison University they um made this jump I believe two years ago now I don't know time is a flat circle on my beat um but you know and they were able to do it and they've been successful so I think you know that could potentially be a blueprint um you know and and then it's also just sort of literally like the pr like hyping yourself up in the media you know um couting the existing things that you already have that could fit into you know a Mountain West for example and proving to the members that you know and the university presidents in these conferences because those are the people who make those decisions right proving to these University pree presidents that you know your school has something to offer Manda christovich front office Sports joining us because it is a dance it really is we were talking earlier uh given details of the the outside group outside of the University uh that they're going to announce today made up of uh politicians and local uh movers and shakers that they're forming a a blue ribbon committee if you will to try to really push this thing but it's one of those where it's like well we can't ask for the invite because we're we're we're basically married right now to the conference but it's this weird dance these schools have to do like you were talking about to get in let people know you want to get in but you don't really want to get in you're you're committed right now right I I mean look I think it's one thing if you're talking about the power conference level the FBS level you're already there and you're moving from one conference to another which you know obviously it's really not even power four versus everybody else it's like two super conferences and everybody else so I think there's more bad blood there I I would be just personally very surprised if there was bad blood you know coming from a conference that is FCS like you have to understand that of course everybody that has the opportunity to move up a level is going to want to that doesn't necessarily mean they should you know there are long-term Financial consequences that have to be you know looked into and there's a lot of planning and modeling but like yeah I like to me it's like come on like you can't you can't be mad at a school for wanting to you know go up a division right um that that's not personal and and man in this case there there are potentially two options it feels like Pack 12 is shooting for the moon Mountain West maybe more realistic I I don't know if either one is but where do you think this group of of Sacramento leaders ultimately would like this to go if in fact it is going in favor of the Hornet to the Pack 12 or the Mountain West I mean I'm sure they you know they would like the Pack 12 because of the history especially in California but like I would definitely suggest that the mountain is more a more viable option for them a more you know I mean I think like that definitely makes more sense um obviously the Pack 12 I spoke with the commissioner yesterday like when I asked her if like the goal is to become a Power conference again she kind of laughs and she's like yeah it's like weird like it's a weird term in our current landscape like what exactly does it mean right but it's a bigger leap to go to like a maybe former power conference than a a group of five group of six now conference um you know but again the competition is going to be Steep and Sack state is starting from you know they're not starting from a position of strength unfortunately because they're not you know already in the FBS division doing you know the things that FBS programs are doing so they're really going to have to make a push but like the push that it sounds like they're going to be making is exactly what they would theoretically need to do to be able to jump to that next level and Amanda with the way the landscape is and look Jason's the voice of sax State he's a huge college football fan I'm a lifelong FSU fan we both love college football and both adore the pageantry and history and everything that goes with it but with with everything moving around and Stanford and UCLA being you know in a conference they have no business being in FSU trying to get into the SEC God knows what things are going to look like in two years has the idea of a conference lost a little luster and could could that maybe be presenting an opportunity for sax state that would would have been Unthinkable you know five years ago I mean I definitely think the second part of your question is correct right like this is probably an opportunity that was Unthinkable 5 years ago I'm not sure it's because the concept of a conference is no longer you know of Interest I think if anything people are really really upset about what has happened um you know to the college sports landscape I would just say like in the last year um you know the the folks at the Pack 12 were like Overjoyed with how excited people seemed about the fact that the conference was going to be able to survive um you know even with a different blueprint so I you know and and talk about the ACC going to court the Pack 12 trying to rebuild like these conferences are not going to go down without a fight right and um and by the way neither is the Mountain West uh like they have 111 million dollar coming their way from this uh between exit fees and the Pack 12 scheduling partnership um Gloria navarez is an excellent commissioner like the conferences themselves are are not going to go down without a fight so I don't know that it's going to be as quick of a transition as maybe we originally thought sort of like that AFC NFC version of college football right like the SEC in Big 10 I don't know like it's like everyone's getting a little scrappy you know yeah right Amanda too I want to ask you about those two conferences then so really the Pack 12 if they add the four or will'll add the four they're at six they need at least they want at least two more teams uh you mentioned if saak State's interested and Mountain West would be a more logical place for them as a goal but there would be competition so Mountain West losing four powerful programs uh do they who are they looking to add who might the competition be there and who do you think the Pack 12 may be looking to add well I can tell you who well let's start with the Pack 12 I can tell you who the Pack 12 is not looking to add or they're not going to be able to which is Stanford and Cal there were so many rumors flying yesterday about that and I was able to confirm that those schools signed on to a contract called the grant of rights um with the ACC which I'm sure is an FSU Ben you're you're familiar with that um it's basically the uh the contract binding all of the schools together for the duration of the media deal so like Stanford and Cal have to go to court just like FSU and Clemson are if they want to leave the AC but I don't even think they would want to because they've like turned up their nose at you know the footprint of the the or even like the concept of like Boise State in the Pack 12 like they've turned up their nose at that for a really long time um it's hard for me to answer that question because the the footprints of the Pack 12 and Mountain West are now like a lot more similar than they than they were before if that makes sense I mean obviously The Logical question is where does UNLV fit into all of this um we were all very surprised that they were not part of the move as a fifth school to the Pack 12 um you know that could be because of like you know the fact that these universities have Boards of Regents with all of the state schools in the state like part of that right so like remember however upset um all of the Cal people were when like UCLA mov to the Big 10 similar things in in Nevada right so so that's a question um it it'll be interesting to see whether there can be some sort of negotiation to get UNLV into the Pack 12 um that you know that's what I'm looking at but I've seen a lot like I'm wondering about North Dakota State also if you want to talk about FCS to FBS I'm wondering about you know a lot of people are talking about um New Mexico for example um you know there are a lot of these big sort of State schools that I think would fit in either of these conferences and we just have to sort of see where the chips fall all right at a as an Amanda christovich c r i s t o v i c and then another h on the end just for fun that's how you can get her on Twitter and I do strongly suggest you follow her for all uh not just sack state news but uh I was going through Twitter yesterday today and all kinds of fun stuff so uh we appreciate the good work you do and we appreciate you on short notice making some time for us this morning Amanda thank you yeah thank you so much for having me all right you take it all right we we'll have lots more on that um