Sacramento State’s waiver request to the governing body NCAA to move up in football classification has been denied, but the efforts to reach the Football Bowl Subdivision, otherwise known as the FBS, are far from over, school President Luke Wood said.

The NCAA Division I council on Wednesday formally voted to deny the Hornets attempt to move up from the Football Championship Subdivision — or the FCS — to the FBS, a level of play that includes bowl games and lucrative television contracts. The NCAA decision comes as no real surprise, as the FBS Oversight Committee last week recommended that the Division I Council not approve Sacramento State’s waiver, and the council historically does not go against the oversight committee.

Wood in previous conversations with The Sacramento Bee said Sacramento State is a good fit for the FBS, pointing out that Sacramento is the largest metropolitan and TV market in the country that does not have an FBS football program (decades-long rival UC Davis in nearby Yolo County is also an FCS member).

Wood in a post to X on Wednesday wrote, “Sacramento State has met every meaningful benchmark for FBS membership, and we believe our university, our students, and the entire Sacramento region deserve major college football. We’re full steam ahead and we still plan to be playing FBS football in 2026.”

Sacramento State will depart the Big Sky Conference after nearly 30 years at the end of the upcoming academic year to compete in the Big West Conference in all sports except football, the Big West announced last week.

Sacramento State won or shared Big Sky football championships in 2019, 2021 and 2022 under coach Troy Taylor, the first in program history, and the Hornets reached the FCS playoffs in 2023 under coach Andy Thompson.

Sacramento State is now coached by first-year man Brennan Marion, who has said previously, “The FBS is where we want to be and where we can be a success.”

The Big West has Southern California schools that offered football before cutbacks over the decades.

Wood could not be immediately reached by The Bee for comment.

Why was Sac State’s waiver denied? >> The NCAA denied Sacramento State’s football move because of a “bona fide invitation” rule, which stipulates that schools receive an official offer from an FBS conference before any attempt to reclassify.

Sacramento State in its waiver request mentioned that Liberty University of Virginia in 2017 presented a similar waiver to move up from the FCS to the FBS was accepted. The school competed as an FBS independent for five seasons before joining Conference USA.

But the Oversight Committee said Sacramento State’s effort was not a mirror situation to that of Liberty University.

In its denial recommendation, the Oversight Committee wrote, “Although a waiver of the bona fide invitation requirement was granted in 2017, that decision was made in a different era, under a different set of facts and rules. The Division I membership adopted the current legislation to affirm the importance of the nature and purpose of the subdivision reclassification process, choosing to place that decision-making authority with the council.”

Had Sacramento State been approved to move up to the FBS, the Hornets football team would have been ineligible for the postseason this season, but in their final season in the Big Sky, the Hornets are FCS playoff-eligible. With more than 50 players signed through the transfer portal, Sacramento State figures to be a conference championship and national title contender.