Sacramento State is the biggest story in college sports nobody is talking about
Sacramento State's success over the next 5-10 years will have a big impact on the future outlook of college sports.
Sacramento State’s athletic department is rather irrelevant in the long-term history of Division I college athletics. Their football program’s first season was 1954, and they’ve only had 24 winning seasons in their nearly 70-year history. Their men’s basketball program has never been invited to the NCAA Tournament. So why am I writing about Sacramento State athletics?
"A prestigious group of business, labor, and civic leaders, as well as notable alumni from Sacramento State University,” created the Sac 12, which is an “organization is dedicated to taking Sacramento State Athletics to the next level by joining the PAC-12 Athletic Conference as a FBS school,” according to their website. In other words, a bunch of rich people connected to the school want them to be better at sports.
This has been a fast-moving process, and the school has stolen college sports national headlines over the last 12 months.
Notable headlines:
Dec. 12, 2024: Adam Schefter tweets, “Sacramento State is in discussions to hire former Pro-Bowl QB Mike Vick as its new head coach,” says the school has over $50 million in NIL
Dec. 20, 2024: Sacramento State officially hires UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marrion to be its next football head coach
March 25, 2025: Sacramento State officially hires former NBA All-Star and Sacramento Kings legend Mike Bibby as its next men’s basketball head coach.
April 2, 2025: Pete Thamel tweets, Sacramento State plans to file an application with the NCAA this week to transition from FCS to FBS in football, as an independent.
April 4, 2025: Sacramento State signs Florida A&M transfer forward Shaqir O’Neal, the son of NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal.
April 25, 2025: Former 4-star high school recruit, Arizona State and Georgia QB Jaden Rashada signs with Sacramento State.
April 28, 2025: Shaquille O'Neal agrees to be Sacramento State men’s basketball’s GM.
April 29, 2025: Former high school basketball superstar Mikey Williams announces commitment to Sacramento State after stops at UCF and Memphis.
Some of the moves Sacramento State has made are very intriguing, but others are very puzzling. Claiming they had $50+ million in NIL and nearly hiring Mike Vick as their football coach came out of left field, but they made a much smarter move hiring Marrion, who is one of the quickest rising names in college football coaching.
Hiring Bibby as their next men’s basketball coach raises more questions than answers. It certainly grabs some headlines, but he’s never been a college basketball coach, and there would be dozens of better candidates.
The football program won’t make the jump to FBS until 2026, but being competitive as an independent has been a struggle for many programs like UMass, New Mexico State and UConn. The decision to change levels is another one that has a lot of risk. An invite to the new-look Pac 12 alongside schools like Boise State, Washington State and Oregon State could make sense for Sac State, but does it make sense for the Pac 12?
The basketball team hiring Shaq as its GM is another move that likely won’t do much for their program other than generating headlines. Being competitive in modern college basketball requires a lot more team-building strategy than throwing money at big recruits, but signing Shaqir O’Neal and Mikey Williams is just a money play.
Ultimately, the football team's moves of adding Marrion as head coach and Rashada as QB are a lot more intriguing, but they raise questions in their own right.
What are we supposed to make of this?
College sports have changed dramatically over the last five years, and they’ve essentially become a professional league. Sacramento State is the first school to blatantly take the route of investment out of nowhere, mirroring the situation of an oil-money European soccer club like Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) or Manchester City.
I am very skeptical that any of this will work. It’s clear that Sac State has money, but I question how successful a lot of their new pieces will be. But if they’re successful, I am fascinated to see possible ripple effects. There are a lot of schools with massive alumni bases with smaller athletic departments, for example, a school like NYU. Would we see smaller schools in big markets try to buy their way to the top? Sacramento State will be a fascinating case study that I will be keeping an eye on in the near future.