Negotiations between officials from Sacramento State and the Mid-American Conference have intensified over an expansion agreement that is now nearing a vote from the league’s presidents.
In deep discussion with the California-based FCS school for more than a week now, MAC executives are reaching the point of a final decision on a move that would bring a windfall to current member schools. Sacramento State’s entry fee is expected to be more than $15 million.
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Multiple sources with knowledge of the potential agreement spoke to Yahoo Sports under condition of anonymity. Officials at Sacramento State declined to comment. Those in the MAC also declined comment, citing a standard policy of not discussing expansion.
Sacramento State is in the midst of an aggressive effort to join an FBS conference, as detailed last week in a Yahoo Sports story. Over the last several months, university executives have proposed a multi-million-dollar offer to multiple leagues in a move to elevate its football program from FCS, including forgoing a portion or all of conference distributions.
While many FBS leagues have rebuffed the proposal, such as the Mountain West and the Pac-12, MAC officials began exploring the possibility in an endeavor that has now reached more serious negotiations. The idea has been socialized with high-ranking administrators across the conference, and a decision by league presidents is expected in the coming days.
If a deal is struck, Sacramento State would represent the second such FCS-to-FBS move this month, following the Mountain West’s acquisition of North Dakota State last week — also a pricey decision. NDSU is paying $12.5 million to the Mountain West and another $5 million in a standard FBS entry fee.
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The Bison continued the recent trend of buying into a conference. Memphis proposed a $200 million entry fee into the Big 12 last summer before the league decided against further expansion. Two years ago, SMU, Cal and Stanford agreed to forgo a portion of conference distribution as an incentive for an ACC invitation.
For months now, Sacramento State executives — athletic director Mark Orr and university president Luke Wood — have made it publicly known that they want to elevate to FBS in football. In fact, the school’s waiver to play as an FBS independent this season was denied last summer. A waiver is necessary for those seeking to move from FCS to FBS without an invitation into a conference.
The school’s athletic department transitions this year from the Big Sky to the Big West, which does not sponsor football. The shift puts the Hornets football program in an awkward position of competing in FCS as an independent. The program has scheduled seven football games for 2026 so far, with six of those FCS opponents.
The MAC has yet to release its 2026 conference football schedule. The league loses Northern Illinois this coming year and added UMass last year to remain at 12 member schools. The conference also has upcoming negotiations with ESPN for its new television deal.
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Under the plan, Sacramento State’s other sports would remain with the Big West — a model, as it turns out, similar to Northern Illinois, which left the MAC to play only football in the Mountain West with most other sports in the Horizon.
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At a time of financial stress for universities — most notably the low-budget schools in the MAC — Sacramento State’s proposal is attractive and lucrative.
Part of the California State System with an enrollment of about 30,000 students, Sac State is located in a burgeoning metropolis of more than 2 million people that is ranked 20th nationally among television markets, according to the latest Nielsen ratings.
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Led by a non-traditionalist president intent on competing in major college football, the university’s athletic department has made significant investments for athletic promotion. Renovations are planned for its football stadium to reach FBS standards and plans for a new stadium have been in the works. The university hired as its men’s basketball coach Mike Bibby, a 14-year NBA veteran, and announced Shaquille O’Neal as the program’s voluntary general manager.
In football, the team is led by coach Alonzo Carter, a first-year coach who’s won multiple recruiting and coach-of-the-year awards over a 27-year career. Carter replaced Brennan Marion, a long-time power conference assistant who left for a position on Deion Sanders’ staff at Colorado. Marion earned more than $1 million in salary in his one year at the school, dwarfing many of his counterparts in FCS.
His roster featured several power conference transfers as the program’s NIL-related funding was believed to be on par with many programs in the lower reaches of FBS. The school has a recent history of dominant football success. In three years under Troy Taylor, the program won three consecutive Big Sky championships and advanced to the FCS quarterfinals in 2022 with a 12-1 record. However, before 2019, their last conference title was 1995 as a member of the American West Conference, then 1-AA.
