Sacramento State President Luke Wood sits down with Front Office Sports to dissect the Hornets’ jump to FBS and the MAC. Here are his most notable takeaways…

➤ Where will the funding to pay the entry fees come from? “This is not coming from student fees. It's not coming from tuition, not coming from our state general fund. Football is paying for football. So game guarantees, corporate sponsorships, and also some other things that we've been able to put into place. Now, most people may not realize this because this is not normal in most places, but up until two weeks ago, our program, our football program, our athletic department did not have access to any revenue from merchandising, any revenue from pouring rights, any revenue from food and beverage, any revenue from parking. It's been owned by a third party and we've been able to pull all that away. So between that, corporate sponsorships and gain guarantees, we're confident that we'll be able to do this and that this is a wise investment for our university.”

➤ On what the move means for Sac State’s other programs, which will move to the Big West: “The Big West, we're excited about that. … We want to stay in the Big West. We think that's a great landing spot for us. And we've been investing in basketball, as you mentioned. We got [HC] Mike Bibby, we got [GM Shaquille O’Neal]. … I could go on down the line of all the amazing players that we have. And here's what the translation has been, because we moved into a new facility this year. In the first four basketball games of this season, just the first four home games, we generated more revenue than the last three seasons combined. We feel like the unique market niche for Sacramento State is having our sports in the Big West, having football in the MAC, and we'll be one of the few athletic departments in the country that actually generates revenue rather than bleeds revenue.” (link)