It has arguably been UC Davis’ best football season ever, and as a result, the Aggies’ 42-39 victory on Nov. 23 over the host Sacramento State Hornets in the 70th annual Causeway Classic seemed almost anti-climatic.

Ironically, it was a year that started with much promise for perennial Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) powerhouse Sacramento State, 3-9, with a Top-10 preseason ranking, talk of a new stadium and the hope that Sacramento could use a new facility to position a move from the FCS’ Big Sky Conference to an upper division conference such as the Pac-12.

Instead, it’s been a banner year for No. 5-ranked UC Davis under first-year head coach Tim Plough. With a 10-2 record and a playoff berth after the Classic — only the second time in school history the Aggies secured 10 wins — UCD, a fifth seed in the 24-team FCS playoffs, earned a bye in the first round and then picked up a 42-10 home game win on Dec. 7 against No. 12 Illinois State. UCD will travel to No. 4 South Dakota for the next round on Saturday, the 14th.

“What an incredible season we have had, and to be quite honest it does not make a whole lot of sense,” an emotional Plough said in a news conference after the Causeway Classic win. “I’m just so proud of the team, the staff and everyone surrounded with the program and this was, in my humble opinion, the best regular season we have ever had. And the players deserve a lot of credit for that, and I think they should be remembered for a long time for the season they put together.”

The game itself on a cloud-kissed afternoon before a crowd of 16,239, coming just hours after several days of rain drenched Northern California, was one of the most entertaining in the rivalry game’s long history, despite the disparity of the two team’s records. The underdog Hornets battled all day, with both teams scoring 36 points in the fourth quarter alone. The game wasn’t decided until a minute left to play, when UC Davis recovered Sacramento State’s onside kick.

Two weeks later, Sacramento State Coach Andy Thompson resigned after two years as head coach and will join the staff of former Hornets head coach Troy Taylor at Stanford. Thompson had been with Sacramento as a coach since 2019.

Meanwhile, Sacramento State President Luke Wood announced in September the school will use architecture firm Populous to build a new football and multi-use 25,000 stadium that will replace the current temporary stands at Hornet Stadium designed to host football, men’s and women’s soccer, as well as men’s and women’s rugby. The construction cost and funding sources of the new stadium haven’t been announced, though a web site has been set up to accept donations.

On the Friday before the game, Sky River Casino and the Wilton Rancheria tribe, which is indigenous to the Sacramento Valley, announced the casino will be an official Sacramento State partner, with an agreement worth about $250,000 through 2027, according to a school news release.

During the Causeway Classic, Sacramento wore helmets with tribal designs representing the history and culture of Wilton Rancheria. The tribe recently announced it purchased a controlling interest of the Sacramento Republic FC soccer team, with plans to build a $217 million downtown Railyards stadium.

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