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Here's something to spice up Causeway week. The Oregonian's Portland State football blog has checked in with a suggestion that Sacramento State is looking to leave the Big Sky Conference for combination of memberships in the Great West for football and the Big West in everything else. It's not a new rumor, and one that makes sense given how much trouble the Hornets have drumming up interest in their sports programs. Cal State Northridge and UC Riverside are probably bigger draws than Portland State and Northern Arizona.

When it comes to joining the Big West, Sac State is missing only a reasonable Division I basketball venue. Hornet Gym seats about 1,300 fans, which simply isn't large enough. A lot of people at UC Davis thought Sac State's old dorm-and-arena plan was a play by the administration to jump to the Big West. But then school officials decided to take that money and invest it in new offices for the football team. It did put to rest those rumors that Sac State was about to drop football. The Big West would like to expand to 10 teams for ease of scheduling. From what I've been told the preference would be to take a school from Northern California in order to increase the league's state-wide presence. Sac State would make a lot of sense. My guess is that the Great West's expansion likely will occur in the middle of the country. North Dakota and South Dakota are fairly locked into making the move, meaning a five-team league when the Dakota States leave for the Gateway. Nebraska-Omaha is discussing a jump as well.

I'd want to ask Sac State AD Terry Wanless about this during the Causeway weekend, but he's in Indianapolis as part of the Division I-AA playoff committee.