Fresno State Athletics will join the Pac-12 in 2026, a much bigger market than its current conference, the Mountain West. This move comes with its own challenges, specifically recruiting out of the transfer portal.
Time and time again, we see big-name college athletes transfer to new schools through the portal, boosting the team’s wins by getting better players and making the school more desirable. Take Louisiana State University (LSU) football; in 2018 Joe Burrow went to the Tigers, and the team won the College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship. The following off-season, the LSU Tigers ranked No. 4 in the nation in recruiting and No. 11 for transfers.
For Fresno State to compete they would need to recruit better in the transfer portal.
To do that, it would need significant Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals, which allow schools to offer financial or other forms of compensation to athletes or allow athletes to seek out deals with companies.
The new 12-team format for the CFP allows for teams from a G5 conference like Fresno State to sneak into the postseason, maybe even get a first-round bye.
So can the Bulldogs actually compete nationally to be a top school in sports with the help of NIL?
No.
Fresno State is not in any position to be offering large sums of money to players. The university is still in debt from the Save Mart Center and there have been talks about potentially updating Valley Children’s Stadium, yet the money isn’t visibly there.
It’s already going to cost Fresno State millions of dollars to move from the Mountain West to the Pac-12 and even more to fill new Pac-12 staff positions.
The Pac-12 is also going to be a huge question mark for the Bulldogs. While there are a handful of teams that they have not faced, a lot of the teams like Boise State and San Diego State have gone up against Fresno State so it’ll be interesting to see how much actual change the Bulldogs will bring.
NIL and the transfer portal mostly affect football, which then can trickle to other sports like basketball and baseball, while also providing the university with more money as a return on the deal it made with the athlete.
Usually, when schools offer NIL deals, they also offer other things that can influence the athletes’ decisions, like the prestige of the school’s athletics or the quality of the staff. If your team can compete then you have a higher chance of landing that player.
It’s not just issues with Fresno State that would stop NIL deals from happening, it’s where Fresno State is athletically.
Frankly, Bulldog sports aren’t doing well right now. If you look at basketball, for example, they are not competitive in or out of conference play. Not to mention the betting scandal that’s plaguing the Fresno State basketball team.
If you have players betting the under on their own team in a game they play in, then you have a problem. What kind of school would market themselves as a place where athletes are valued if the athletes here don’t value themselves or the team?
Trying to sell an athlete that Fresno State athletics is the place to be is laughable and pathetic. Also, no football player from Fresno State was invited to the combine this March and there has been a lack of effort in hiring a coach.
They hired the University of Southern California’s (USC) linebackers coach. The USC defense ranked No. 58 in the country, Fresno State ranked No. 65. That’s not improvement, that’s barely progress.
Fresno State doesn’t offer much to an athlete as a school itself. It’s not the ability to compete, get media attention or even just boost draft stock. Fresno State can’t market itself to be better until it commits to be better to what it already has.
It’s pretty obvious that Fresno State administrators place a huge emphasis on prioritizing student-athletes, especially those who transfer in, and protecting them. However, I don’t think even with that mindset, the new transfer portal landscape and the rise of NIL, that the 2025 football season will bring anything new to the table for the Bulldogs.
To its credit, Fresno State has made an effort to do NIL deals with athletes already playing at the school, but it’s pretty clear that it’s unsustainable since the university is asking for donations to pay players.
The way an athlete can get an NIL deal is through corporate deals and sponsorships. A perfect example of this would be University of Colorado Boulder’s two-way starter Travis Hunter, whose NIL deals are worth $5.7 million.
Hunter’s deals include: Adidas, United Airlines, Buffalo Wild Wings, 7-Eleven, EA Sports and Celsius. Which he got within two years of transferring to Colorado from Jackson State University with his coach Deion Sanders.
Fresno State Athletics should focus on their own issues before they even think about improving their athletics. The university is in no position to compete and put themselves in more of a financial hole then they are now.
