Sacramento St. announces plans for a new stadium that could help the school make a move to FBS

Sacramento State announced plans to construct a new football stadium as supporters of the university in California's capital city hope to help the program make the jump to the highest level of college football.

The school announced plans Thursday for the multisport facility that would be designed to host the school's football, men's and women's soccer and men's and women's rugby teams. The stadium could also be used for other sporting events, concerts and graduations.

The stadium would be constructed at the site of the current Hornet Stadium, which was built in 1969 and can now hold about 21,195 fans with temporary stands.

The school hired architecture firm Populous to design the stadium, which will accommodate a minimum of 25,000 attendees and feature a horseshoe design including student sections, premium seating and boxes. Renderings will be released in the coming weeks.

“Today marks a significant milestone for Sacramento State,” school President Luke Wood said. “The construction of this new, multi-use stadium will take our athletic game experiences to a new level. The stadium will benefit multiple sports teams including football, soccer and rugby. The feasibility study completed in 2023 shows we not only need the improvements, but we have so much more we can offer our campus and community with a new stadium.”

The announcement comes as an outside group called SAC 12 is attempting to elevate the school from the FCS level to the FBS level of college football with an invitation to the Pac-12 or Mountain West conferences.

Both conferences are in need of new schools to reach the minimum level of eight programs after the two holdover schools from the original Pac-12 — Oregon State and Washington State — recently announced plans to add San Diego State, Fresno State, Boise State, Colorado State and Utah State from the Mountain West.

The Mountain West currently has San Jose State, UNLV, Nevada, Wyoming, Air Force and New Mexico as full-time members and Hawaii for football only.

Sacramento State currently plays in the Big Sky conference at the FCS level. The Hornets won seven conference championships last season and have made the FCS playoffs in football the last three seasons.

Sacramento State has 21 athletic teams, including men’s football, men’s baseball, men's and women’s basketball, cross country, golf, rowing, soccer, tennis, and track and field and women’s gymnastics, beach volleyball, volleyball and softball.

Sacramento is the country's 20th-largest media market and would be the second biggest in the new Pac-12, trailing only Denver. The school has more than 30,000 students as the fourth-largest university in the Cal State system.

The SAC 12 executive committee is trying to get business leaders in the region to contribute to help Sacramento State make the step up to FBS.

"With the continued momentum from the university’s commitment, business leaders looking to invest in the region, understanding the tremendous economic impact this will have on the market, need to step up and join us in supporting this effort,” SAC 12 co-chair Josh Wood said. “The stadium is a huge step forward, and if followed by significant NIL support and funding for additional facilities and conference realignment, we will make Hornet athletes Pac-12 athletes.”

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Josh Dubow, The Associated Press