The Washington State Cougars have added the UC Davis Aggies to their 2028 football schedule, FBSchedules.com has learned. A copy of the football game contract with Washington State University was obtained from the University of California, Davis, via a state public records request.
Washington State will host UC Davis at Gesa Field at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Wash., on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2028. The Cougars will pay the Aggies a $575,000 guarantee for playing the game, according to the copy of the contract.
Washington State and UC Davis have never met on the gridiron.
UC Davis is a member of the Big Sky Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The Aggies have made an appearance in the FCS Playoff three time, most recently in 2024 when they advanced to the quarterfinals.
Washington State now has three non-conference games scheduled for the 2028 season. After opening the season against UC Davis, the Cougars will travel to Lawrence, Kan., to take on the Kansas Jayhawks on Sept. 9.
The Cougars will also square off with the in-state rival Washington Huskies in the Apple Cup in Seattle, Wash., although a date for that game has not yet been announced.
Other FCS opponents scheduled to make an appearance in Pullman in the future include Idaho (2025, 2027, and 2029), Duquesne (2026), and Eastern Washington (2030).
Washington State is the first scheduled non-conference opponent for UC Davis in 2028.
UC Davis now has five future games scheduled against Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponents. In addition to Washington State in 2028, the Aggies will visit Washington in 2025, SMU in 2026, and UCLA in 2027 and 2029.
FOOTBALL SCHEDULES
Depending on when UC Davis decides to jump ship to FBS, I’d suggest a game at Davis in 2033
UCD might even be in the Pac12 by then :)
@Keeper
Academically, UC Davis would fit in with this, but they don’t have a stadium that fits in this class. Aggie Stadium has less than 11K capacity and I doubt that any of the other sports, basketball in particular, draw as well any of the PAC 8 1/2.
They really need to stick with the deal they have with the Mountain West for now and be happy with that.
Maybe even join Sac State, add in Cal Poly, Utah Tech, Southern Utah and Northern Colorado and form a football league. Maybe even add in Southern Oregon and Central Washington.
Sure, they can expand the stadium, but getting up to the capacities that would be on par with Boise, CSU, Fresno, even Texas State? That’s going to take some time when they aren’t even half the capacity of Montana.
my comment was lame attempted sarcasm.
Every time one of these games is announced, somebody has to suggest that the FCS team should move to FBS? Why? Why must we keep doing this. Let FCS remain strong and viable.
If these schools had it to do over again, would they have moved up tp FBS?
-Georgia Southern
-Massachusetts
-Connecticut
-Charlotte
You tell me, other than the money (and is UMass makinhg any).
The reason why it was brought up here is because UC Davis is moving to the Mountain West for all sports EXCEPT football next year, which makes some people think that they will eventually move up to FBS in the early 2030s.
@John
I think in the case off those four, I can answer a resounding yes in all cases.
Massachusetts and Connecticut I feel were ready to get to some rivalries, like Syracuse, that didn’t exist and have never materialized. Listen to how these fan bases talk though, particularly Connecticut, who feels that if they move to the ACC (as if they want that football team) in all sports they will be suddenly transformed into an immediate playoff team.
Charlotte started there program very vocally saying they were only in FBS for their required time slot and had their destination set in their FCS conference.
I was on Georgia Southern’s posting page back in 2000 when they met Montana in the I-AA championship because I was at Fort Stewart at the time, less than an hour away from Statesboro. Those fans were talking cash $#!t then about two things. Their Adrian Peterson, who played for the Bears, was going to be a hall of fame NFL player and they were destined for moving up to I-A.
Now, if you followed them after that, they had a down slide in the program and then came back somewhat and made the playoffs with North Dakota State (their first appearance) in 2010 and lost to Delaware in the semifinals. Lost the next year in the semifinals to NDSU and after their limbo year in 2013, moved up in 2014. They were all on board with that and they still say they can out recruit Georgia Tech, even though they are, in my opinion, losing the recruiting war to Georgia State now.
The big one I think is missing off your list is Kennesaw State, who I still maintain was not a competitive FCS team, they were just in a very weak conference for their entire stay at that level.
I am not going to let John Furgele comments with FBS teams playing FCS teams bother me John is title to his opinion as always.
Again, I have zero issues with Northwestern hosting North Dakota, Illinois hosting SE Missouri & Syracuse hosting Monmouth.