Applicants to Expand PAC -12: Sacramento State Hornets – Sports Illustrated

PAC-12, which poaches five teams from Mountain West and Gonzaga from the West Coast Conference, is expected to add between one and six additional members in the coming weeks and months.

As the conference is redirecting salaries, SI’s Boise State Broncos examines schools related to PAC-12 in various reports.

We have already looked at the tigers in Memphis, North Texas mean green and rice owls and now we will be digging into a separate candidate: State Hornets Sacramento.

Location: Sacramento, California

Current Conference: Big Sky Conference (FCS)

Enrollment: 31,451

Donation: $ 92,991 million

Budget for athletics: $ 35,004,647

Football Stadium: Hornet Stadium (21,195 Capacity)

Basketball Arena: The nest (1,012 capacity)

Sacramento boasts a 2,4 million subway population, the Top-30 Market in the United States.

And unlike some of its peers, Sacramento is not overwhelmed with colleges and professional sports opportunities. The city has a Big Four Pro Franchise (Kings’s Kings) and a popular Triple baseball team in Sacramento River cats, but Hornets can potentially become a giant in northern California.

The State Athletic Director of Sacramento Mark Orp has high goals for the school. Already in September, Sacramento State announced plans for the construction of the latest football stadium with 25,000 seats. OR made a big splash in December, hiring UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion to be Hornet’s new chief coach.

There is also the SAC 12 Committee, a group of dignitaries Sacramento and remarkable graduates who seek to provide $ 75 million in zero funds. In October, the SAC 12 announced that they had already raised north from $ 50 million to be spent for a 10-year period.

The Sacramento state fell apart into a new basketball arena in October, which is expected to be completed in time for the 2025-26 season.

While Sacramento State and Sak 12 have talked about a big game, the specific details of the basic repair of the school of the school are scarce.

The choirs remain in the early stages of raising funds for a new football stadium. Nil’s claims of SAC 12 are complete unknown.

On the Sacramento State Football Playground, it has largely struggled after joining the big sky in 1996. Hornet has briefly successful under the head coach Troy Taylor (titles of the conference in 2019, 2021 and 2022), which is now in Stanford. The Sacramento state has gone in combination 11-14 in the last two years and will look to bounce with Marion at the forefront.

There is another major obstacle related to the Sacramento state: the minimum rule of NCAA for eight teams. Jumping from FCS to FBS comes with a two-year ban after the season, which would prevent the Hornets from being reported as a complete member of the PAC-12 by 2027.

If the PAC-12 adds Sacramento State, the conference will still be a football member for the 2026 season.

The Sacramento state can be an intriguing candidate for expanding PAC-12 … in 2030.

In order to get on the PAC-12 radar, Hornets must first show evidence of the concept. Get the new football facility built, make FBS jump on Mountain West or Conference USA and use the SAC 12 NIL funds to earn the field.

There is no doubt that the Sacramento state can be a sleeping giant. But Hornets have a long way to win an invitation PAC-12.

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