A geographical nightmare: Sacramento State to the MAC

Realignment has become the new norm in college football.

From the PAC 12’s dissolution and its newfound reformation, the Big Ten now having multiple west coast teams in its conference and the looming speculation of the ACC splitting entirely, no team is safe from the constantly changing landscape of the sport.

However, we may have just seen one of the craziest cases of a conference addition. In its quest to jump from an FCS to FBS program, Sacramento State has inked a five-year, football-only agreement to join the Mid-American Conference.

This move was not cheap. Between entrance fees, agreeing to receive zero conference money distribution and paying for their own air travel for all games visiting against MAC teams, the Hornets are going to pay over $25 million to join a conference where they will undoubtedly be the smallest football school.

University President Luke Wood described how important he felt it was for Sacramento State to become an FBS program, which was proven by paying the largest cost in conference expansion history.

There are additional expenses that Sacramento State will incur in order to become FBS football-ready, mainly involving stadium renovations to properly accommodate visiting opponents.

The school is estimating that this move will generate an annual economic impact of $250 million for the Sacramento area. If this figure becomes accurate, it would more than justify the large price tag on this move.

Now, to the glaring issue with this move: travelling.

For those who are not familiar, the Mid-American Conference is mainly composed of teams in the Midwest. More specifically, only two teams (Buffalo and Ball State) are in states not named Ohio or Michigan.

So, Sacramento State will be playing four, sometimes five, away conference games per season, which means traveling across the country for almost half of the season.

The closest school in the conference to Sacramento State is Western Michigan, a whopping 2,173 miles away.

For reference, Oregon travels to Ohio State to play in Columbus on November 7. Not only will this be a big game, but it will be a tough cross-country trip for the Ducks. This is a 2,057-mile distance between the two schools, which would be the shortest trip Sacramento State would take for an in-conference road game.

This is not ideal without even taking into consideration the weather in the Midwest during the heart of the football season.

Let's look at Eastern Michigan University. In November, Ypsilanti, Michigan, sees an average temperature of around 45 degrees at noon, the usual kickoff time of a game for the Eagles. In Sacramento? Nearly 65 degrees.

Oh yeah, did I mention that Western Michigan is also a top-five FBS school in terms of annual snowfall? At 74 inches, they rank two spots and 20 inches below Buffalo, another MAC school.

In fact, of the top ten schools, four universities that see the most snow per year play football in the MAC. Can you imagine a California team travelling to play in wintery conditions multiple times per season?

Well, start to envision it, because Sacramento State has made one of the boldest, wildest FBS jumps we have ever seen.

Brendan Kern is a second-year majoring in Broadcast Journalism. To contact him, email bwk5372@psu.edu.