UC Davis to sign up with MW in some sports, not football

Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Personnel WriterDec 10, 2024, 05:51 PM ET

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• Covers college football.Joined ESPN in 2014. Gone To Washington State University.UC Davis in 2026 will join the Mountain West Conference in a number of sports

, including basketball but not football, it announced Tuesday.The Aggies will continue to play football in the Football Champion Subdivision as an affiliate member of the Big Sky.”Adding UC Davis further strengthens the trajectory of the Mountain West as it continues to construct its brand name that has

shown to elevate organizations and student-athletes,”commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a declaration.” … I think UC Davis brings a wealth of positives in the continuing development of the Mountain West.” UC Davis will contend in all 16 Mountain West-sponsored sports, and it is anticipated to stay an affiliate member in the Big

West in sports such as water polo and beach volley ball.”We are grateful to the Mountain West Conference membership for this extraordinary chance and for sharing our vision of scholastic and athletics quality,”UC Davis sports director Rocko DeLuca stated in a statement.”Our school leadership, trainees, Aggie alumni, fans, the Davis community and the more comprehensive Sacramento region all acknowledge the distinct spirit of UC Davis and bring Aggie Pride with them each and every day. They have invested their time, talent and resources in supporting our growth, and the success of our fall sports is a clear reflection of those efforts.”This is the latest move for the new-look conference, which saw 5 of its long-standing members– Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State– announce earlier this year that they would delegate sign up with the Pac-12’s restoring effort starting in 2026. A transfer to the FBS level in football would not be possible without extra financial investment– a possibility DeLuca did not dismiss.The Aggies made the No. 5 seed in the FCS playoffs and will play at No. 4 South Dakota on Saturday. After losing the season opener versus Cal, Davis went 11-1 the rest of the method and ended up in 2nd location in the Huge Sky Conference, behind No. 1-ranked Montana State

.”Our intent is to continue to close the space up into the Big Sky and Missouri Valley conferences,” DeLuca informed ESPN. “Obviously, we were having a good year this year, but there’s some facilities and other things that some of those teams have on us that we got to continue to get competitive.

And if we do that, depending upon what the future accepts FBS football, you never understand what’s possible.” The UC Davis men’s basketball group reached the NCAA basketball tournament as a No. 16 seed in 2017. Its women’s basketball group reached the NCAA tournament in 2019, 2022, and 2023, losing in the preliminary on all 3 celebrations.