FARGO — Sacramento State president Luke Wood, whose insistence at pushing his school to FBS has been met with much outcry from the college football punditry complex, is urging more top FCS programs to move up as quickly as possible.
“To all other high-level FCS programs: Make the move and make the move now,” Wood said in an interview with the Big Mountain Podcast, a YouTube-based show that covers the Mountain West Conference and other college athletic happenings in the west.
The Football Bowl Subdivision is a level higher than the Football Championship Subdivision.
Wood successfully got Sacramento State into the Mid-American Conference for football only recently, paying the hefty entrance fee of $18 million to the FBS league plus the NCAA-mandated $5 million transition fee of moving up from FCS.
Sac State joined North Dakota State in moving from FCS to FBS in recent weeks after the Bison announced their football-only move to the Mountain West Conference, paying $12.5 million to the league in addition to the $5 million fee.
Wood has been getting scorched for moving the Hornets into a conference that is 2,000 miles away from Sacramento and paying such a huge price to do it, including travel for other MAC schools to California. In the podcast, the president explains the financials behind the move and goes out of his way to encourage other FCS programs to follow Sac State and NDSU.
“There are some great FCS programs that are at an FBS level already … the window is going to close. The door is going to get shut,” Wood said. “The time to go is now.
“If you’re one of those programs and you look at the benefit of what us and North Dakota State are going to experience and and you’re saying to yourself, ‘Why is my school not doing the same thing?’ It’s time to do it, it’s time to do it right now because it’s only going to get more expensive.
“Just remember, it used to be $5,000 for the transition fee. It’s now $5 million for the transition fee. The cost of doing business will only go up and there will be a time in five years where people will look back at us and North Dakota State and say, ‘Wow, they were so smart to go then and what a deal they got.’
“I can’t say that it’s not an expensive enterprise. It is. But it costs money to do good, to make money, to elevate your brand, develop your institution and say you are an FBS program.”
Mountain West Conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez talks about the new season of NDSU football in the Mountain West Conference on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, at the Sanford Health Athletic Complex in Fargo.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
MWC commissioner will not attend Trump roundtable
Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez was on the list of potential invitees to President Donald Trump’s roundtable discussion about the future of college athletics, but the league office says she will not attend.
A national report cited Nevarez having prior commitments.
The MWC office told the Insider that while Nevarez was on Trump’s original list of 35 potential invitees, it’s not certain she received an official invitation.
Trump will chair a group of sports celebrities and dignitaries who are supposed to meet Friday, March 6 to touch on some of the major issues in college sports, including governance, federal involvement, paying athletes, collective bargaining and other pressing issues.
Vice chairs are Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, and Randy Levine, the president of the New York Yankees.
Nevarez was on a list that included a wide-ranging group such as pro golfer Tiger Woods; former football coaches Nick Saban, Mack Brown and Urban Meyer; NBA commissioner Adam Silver; former Heisman Trophy winners Tim Tebow and Charlie Ward; American Conference commissioner Tom Pernetti; millionaire businessmen David Blitzer, Marc Ganis and Gerry Cardinale; former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice; college presidents and athletic directors and others.
Wyoming Cowboys head coach Craig Bohl celebrates with the trophy after beating the Toledo Rockets in the Arizona Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023 at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, Arizona.
Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports
Wyoming AD says Bison could be a rival
Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman held an hour-long town hall-style meeting via video stream last week in which he answered questions from fans. Among his takes was that new Mountain West football member NDSU could become a rival of the Cowboys.
“I’ve had conversations with Matt (Larsen), their athletic director, and we both agree there’s a lot of similarities,” Burman said. “Similar size of the institutions and the culture, especially in sports and football, is very similar. Obviously (former head coach) Craig Bohl had his fingerprint on North Dakota State and he has his fingerprint here. The head coach there, Tim Polasek, was here. (Current Wyoming head coach) Jay Sawvel coached with both those guys.
“So there’s an easy reason to think this is going to be a rivalry and I think it will become a rivalry. I will say this about NDSU, though. Wyoming fans can’t rest because NDSU fans aren’t resting. They are all-in and they are very excited about what they’re going to do and they’re investing in their program as we speak.”
Burman covered many topics in the town hall. Here are some juicy nuggets:
▶ On whether Wyoming should drop down to FCS, a popular online topic in recent months: “Absolutely not. You look at what North Dakota State just did. They paid $17 million to move up to the Mountain West Conference. Sacramento State paid $21 million, or whatever the number is, to join the MAC conference. So there is no chance, as long as I’m here, that we’re going to go down.”
▶ On why Wyoming fans would not like a move down: “Next year, as good as Montana State is — Montana State has a great coach, they have a great program there, they have a vibrant NIL program that’s really growing — their home games in nonconference football are Butler, Utah Tech and Central Connecticut State. I don’t think that’s going to work for the people who are used to seeing us play quality programs here in War Memorial Stadium.”
▶ On low student fees at Wyoming (an issue that plagues NDSU’s athletic program, too): “At a school like San Diego State, I think does $17 million in student fees (for athletics). We do $2.1 million. They have 33,000 students paying fees. Boise State, same kind of thing. Colorado State, enormous student fees. So we start the year in a negative. We catch up, but we are at a disadvantage there.”
▶ On revenue sharing with athletes at Wyoming: “Nobody is getting millions. Not even close. We have a bunch of contracts in the $10,000 range. We have a few contracts in the $50,000 range and we have a very small number of contracts that are six figures. We need to grow that base a little bit so we can have multiple kids in a sport like football that are making $25,000 a year.”
North Dakota State’s Jocelyn Schiller brings the ball up the court, defended by Oral Roberts player Preslee Hartsock on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, at the Scheels Center.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
Three area college basketball games this week the Insider will be keeping an eye on:
▶ NDSU vs. Oral Roberts or Kansas City men, Thursday, 6 p.m., Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota: The No. 1 seeded Bison men (24-7) open the Summit League tournament against the winner of the game between No. 8 seed Oral Roberts and No. 9 Kansas City. This shouldn’t be a problem for NDSU, but the semifinal game Saturday against either No. 4 South Dakota or No. 5 Omaha could be a humdinger.
▶ NDSU vs. Omaha or North Dakota women, Thursday, 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota: The top-seeded Bison women (26-3) also open their Summit League tournament against the winner of the 8/9 game. The big question for NDSU is whether point guard Jocelyn Schiller will play. She sprained an ankle in shootaround before the regular-season finale against UND on Saturday and didn’t play. Will she be healthy and effective for the tournament?
▶ Concordia vs. Wisconsin-Superior women, 8 p.m. Friday, Memorial Auditorium in Moorhead: The Cobbers (23-4) open the NCAA Division III tournament at home as they are hosting the opening two rounds of the 64-team tournament. Concordia has been highly ranked in D-III most of the season and enter the tourney ranked No. 12 in the Power Rankings Index. The Cobbers are seeking their first NCAA victory since 1995.
This, that and another thing
Despite a sizable loss to St. Thomas last week, NDSU’s men’s team is still projected to be in the NCAA tournament field by CBS Sports. The Bison are predicted to be a 14 seed and square off against third-seeded Nebraska in the first round. … All three ESPN men’s basketball bracketologists, meanwhile, have St. Thomas winning the Summit League tournament for the conference’s lone NCAA bid. … NDSU’s men’s track and field team won its 10th Summit League indoor championship in 19 years last weekend in Grand Forks. High jumper Zach McGlynn was named the field events MVP and Carter Reckelberg was named newcomer of the year. … The Bison women’s track and field team won its 17th title in 19 years at the Summit League indoor championship on Saturday in Grand Forks. Among NDSU’s many winners, junior Arienne Birch defended her high jump title, making it a perfect 5-for-5 in Summit League high jump crowns in her career. Birch cleared a season-best and meet-record 5-10.75 (1.80m) to secure her title.