Sac State Homecoming vs. Ohio: getting there from Davis

Sac State host Ohio at Hornet Stadium on Saturday, October 17. The athletics schedule tags it Homecoming / Parent & Family Weekend, with fireworks after the game (Sac State Athletics).

From Davis this is the short one. No festival shuttle, no four-mile walk, no levee.

The catch is stranger: the kickoff time still reads TBA on that schedule. Almost everything about a Homecoming Saturday is pinned to a time nobody has published yet.

Everything on campus is measured from kickoff

Not from a clock. From a time you do not know yet.

Parking Lots 7 and 8 open four hours before kickoff, tailgating is not allowed before they open, and all tailgating ends 30 minutes before kickoff (Sac State Athletics). The Hornet Walk comes down the centre lane of Lot 8 two hours before kickoff (same page). The Homecoming Festival, also in Lot 8, is listed at "3-hours before kick-off" (Sacramento State).

One fixed time does exist on that page: the Family Tailgate in Lot 8 runs 4–7pm (same page). Read it as a hint about the shape of the day, not as a kickoff time.

One warning about that page. It heads the football listing "Saturday, October 18" while its own section heading says Saturday, October 17. October 18 is a Sunday. Trust athletics.

Driving down: one car, one space, one permit

Campus parking is not free. A daily permit is $10 and a two-hour permit is $5, from the machines — $5 and $1 bills, Visa and Mastercard — or through PayByPhone, which adds $0.35 (Sacramento State). Parking for disabled patrons is in Parking Structure III, with wheelchair access through Gate 3 (Sac State Athletics).

A car takes one space and one permit whether one person is in it or four. On the Saturday alumni, families and students all arrive at once, that is the argument for going together.

The train, then one bus

This is the good option, and it is better than people from Davis expect.

Capitol Corridor's weekend westbound table schedules Sacramento back into Davis at sixteen minutes (Capitol Corridor). Saturday is the thinner day, though: the weekend tables list eleven trains each way where the weekday tables list fifteen (same page).

From Sacramento Valley Station, SacRT's Route 30 (J Street) runs straight to the CSUS Admin Bldg — Sac State's own transit page sends students the other way down it, to the station (Sacramento State). On Saturdays the 30 runs every half hour, first out of the station at 7:01am and last at 9:01pm (SacRT).

Now the times that decide your night. As published today, the last Saturday Route 30 off campus leaves at 8:30pm and reaches Sacramento Valley Station at 8:51pm (same page). The last Saturday westbound train to Davis leaves at 8:53pm (Capitol Corridor).

Two minutes. Treat that as a coincidence, not a connection, and check both again the week of the game.

The station is near campus, not on it

The Gold Line's University/65th Street is the closest light rail station to Sac State, and it is a connection rather than a front door: Sac State routes people between the station and campus on SacRT buses 26, 82 and 87 (Sacramento State). On a Saturday the Gold Line starts every 30 minutes, tightens to every 15 through the middle of the day, and goes back to every 30 in the evening (SacRT).

Two things that do not run on a Saturday

The Causeway Connection, the direct bus between Davis and Sacramento, publishes "NO Saturday Service" (SacRT).

The free Hornet Shuttle around the Sac State campus operates Monday to Friday only, and needs a Sac State OneCard to ride (Sacramento State).

Neither is a knock on the bus. It is a knock on the calendar: the Saturday timetable is the thin one, and it stops earlier than the weekday one you are used to.

Or go with someone who is already going

Cars will drive Davis to Sac State that Saturday and drive back afterwards, most with empty seats both ways.

That is what TAGO is for: a carpool for students. Sign in with your .edu email, say where you are going, and see who else is going the same way. No fleet and no dispatcher — students with a car and students without one, sharing the cost of a trip that was happening anyway.

Two things that matter when kickoff is TBA:

The way back is planned with the way out. For events and places the return leg is part of the same plan, agreed before you leave rather than in Lot 8 after the fireworks.

Your share has a ceiling. What a rider contributes can never exceed the IRS standard mileage rate for the day of the trip — a legal cap on cost-sharing, enforced in the code behind every trip rather than promised in an ad. Past the first eight miles the per-mile rate eases down. How ride costs split walks through it.

Nobody can tell you a car will be there. It depends on who is going that day, which is why posting early beats searching late. The Sac State Homecoming on TAGO page shows how many people are going; routes and names stay private until you sign in with your .edu.

Five things to sort this week

1. Watch for the kickoff time. It moves the lots, the Festival, the Hornet Walk and your ride home at once.
2. When it lands, hold it against 8:30pm — the last Saturday Route 30 off campus — and against 8:53pm, the last Saturday train to Davis.
3. If the game runs past either, put a car in the plan. A decision for this week, not for the car park.
4. Bags: clear, up to 12" x 12" x 6", or a clutch up to 4.5" x 6.5" (Sac State Athletics). Anything else "must be returned to your vehicle" — a problem if you arrived without one.
5. Agree the meeting point before kickoff. Lot 8 empties into the same lanes, in the dark, after fireworks.