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OT: UMass looks at their jump to big time

srru86

srru86

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Jul 25, 2001
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Boston Globe
UMass has little to show after leaping into big-time football
Sometimes when we are felling sorry for ourselves it is easy to bemoan some of the missed opportunities the University/program has had in the past. But these guys really take the cake for never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity. I have a certain sympathy for them but more so relief that we are leaving these sorts of problems in the rear view mirror.

Some interesting bits:
Gambit of playing in Gillette does not pay off. Actually better attendance at smaller 17,000 seat on campus facility.
Even when playing BC could only muster 30,479. Which is 200 more than BC's on campus average.

 
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You can NOT build a program for the long term with a stadium 2 hours away from campus. If there weren't willing to pay for an upgrade the campus stadium to seat even as few as 30,000 they were doomed to fail.

Talk about trying to do things on the cheap. Their only hope is to find a whale like Nike to provide the funding necessary.
 
They should cut their losses and go back.

The American doesn't want them. They didn't want to be all in the MAC. CAA is good football if they'd take UMass back. New England really can't support 3 FBS teams.
 
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mdk01 said:
You can NOT build a program for the long term with a stadium 2 hours away from campus. If there weren't willing to pay for an upgrade the campus stadium to seat even as few as 30,000 they were doomed to fail.

Talk about trying to do things on the cheap. Their only hope is to find a whale like Nike to provide the funding necessary.
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Maybe Massachusetts based New Balance could adopt them.
 
Why did UMass split from the MAC? How could they possibly expect to survive as an independent, especially playing half their home games 2 hours from campus.

(By the way, the article is wrong saying that UMass has the longest home game commute. That prize goes to the 250 mile commute for Syracuse home games at MetLife Stadium.)
 
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Upstream said:
Why did UMass split from the MAC? How could they possibly expect to survive as an independent, especially playing half their home games 2 hours from campus.

(By the way, the article is wrong saying that UMass has the longest home game commute. That prize goes to the 250 mile commute for Syracuse home games at MetLife Stadium.)
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I believe because the MAC may have said join for all sports or leave
 
When the MAC can dictate terms to you, you really don't have any power. Would the A-10 basketball conference take them back?
 
megadrone said:
They should cut their losses and go back.

The American doesn't want them. They didn't want to be all in the MAC. CAA is good football if they'd take UMass back. New England really can't support 3 FBS teams.
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So should Uconn frankly. Go back to D1AA, play BB in the Big East.
 
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Upstream said:
(By the way, the article is wrong saying that UMass has the longest home game commute. That prize goes to the 250 mile commute for Syracuse home games at MetLife Stadium.)
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Ah, yes, I too could not help but think back on Dr. Gross's Traveling Road Show.
 
Umass and even Uconn really shouldn't be playing FBS football, I don't know how much money they have to lose before they figure this out.

Boston College is the biggest CFB name in New England and even they stink and can barely complete.

Northeast Football is being carried by PA and NJ.

NY is just hanging on for old time stake at this point, ie Army, Cuse, Buffalo.
 
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mdk01 said:
You can NOT build a program for the long term with a stadium 2 hours away from campus. If there weren't willing to pay for an upgrade the campus stadium to seat even as few as 30,000 they were doomed to fail.

Talk about trying to do things on the cheap. Their only hope is to find a whale like Nike to provide the funding necessary.
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Kind of similar to RU's decree that we're going to play Big boy football back in 1984 when RU hired Dick Anderson. Remember we played in a stadium that held 31,000. Not until 1994 did we start playing in a bigger stadium. Basically all RU did was change the schedule and say we're big time now. Little money was poured into the program back then, as they waited for donor money to pay for everything but never invested in it themselves.
 
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Scarlet_Scourge said:
Umass and even Uconn really shouldn't be playing FBS football, I don't know how much money they have to lose before they figure this out.

Boston College is the biggest CFB name in New England and even they stink and can barely complete.

Northeast Football is being carried by PA and NJ.

NY is just hanging on for old time stake at this point, ie Army, Cuse, Buffalo.
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I agree...
SUNYs decision 40 years ago to stay "little league" in sports. Instead of being BIG LEAGUE/D-1 like say CAL....
has cost them dearly. Everyone has heard of UCLA and CAL......and virtually no one cares about Buffalo or Albany
 
mikefla said:
UMass never crosses my mind...except for rarely in LAX
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They had a pipeline from Sewhanaka and Nassau CC back when I played that put them in the Top 10. Decent turnout from the student body for games as well.
 
koleszar said:
Kind of similar to RU's decree that we're going to play Big boy football back in 1984 when RU hired Dick Anderson. Remember we played in a stadium that held 31,000. Not until 1994 did we start playing in a bigger stadium. Basically all RU did was change the schedule and say we're big time now. Little money was poured into the program back then, as they waited for donor money to pay for everything but never invested in it themselves.
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Huge difference. UMass has no talent locally. Major differentiator. No support from Boston. Located in western mass and no support here.
 
NorthernKnight said:
Huge difference. UMass has no talent locally. Major differentiator. No support from Boston. Located in western mass and no support here.
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Were you in the stands during the Anderson or Graber era's. Because the way I remember it I had plenty of leg and arm room to spread out amongst the empty seats around me. We didn't even come close to selling out a 31,000 seat stadium back in the day. So we didn't have the support either from the locals back then.
 
We can laugh all we want, but Rutgers has quite a few issues in its new "big-time" conference.
 
RUJohnny99 said:
Instead of dropping down, they should get two of their old CAA buddies to upgrade, add UConn, Temple, Buffalo, Army & Navy and resurrect the old Yankee Conference as an FBS conference equivalent to the MAC or SunBelt.
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The AAC wants no part of UMass and why would Temple, UConn, and Navy leave the top G5 conference and downgrade to a MAC or Sunbelt level. They will eventually have to drop football or go back down to the FCS.
 
UMass' problem is that they are located in Western Mass, in an area with a relatively small local population. The problem isn't a lack of local talent. There are a number of teams which have imported talent succeesfully. The problem is that no one lives there. Because of that, no one is around to support the team. That's why their on campus stadium is so small.

Credit Robert Kraft for providing Gillette Stadium free of charge. The plan was to move the team to the population base (metro Boston), where much of the alumni is also located. At the same time, they were supposed to be enhancing the on campus stadium with hopes that their few years in Foxborough would prompt new fans to travel back to Amherst to watch the games. But, you need a winning team and leadership with vision for any of this to work. And, thus far, it hasn't worked. No support from administration, too much criticism and in-fighting from just about everybody, and pieces like is from the media.
 
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[QUOTE="New England really can't support 3 FBS teams.[/QUOTE]

It can't even support 1 in any meaningful way...
 
Upstream said:
Why did UMass split from the MAC? How could they possibly expect to survive as an independent, especially playing half their home games 2 hours from campus.

(By the way, the article is wrong saying that UMass has the longest home game commute. That prize goes to the 250 mile commute for Syracuse home games at MetLife Stadium.)
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They signed a 4-year deal to play football in the MAC with the agreement that after 2 years they either had to choose to move all of their sports teams to the MAC or leave after the 4 years concluded. I think they should try to move their football team to the Sun Belt, which currently has 11 teams and has football-only teams such as Idaho and New Mexico State.
 
koleszar said:
Were you in the stands during the Anderson or Graber era's. Because the way I remember it I had plenty of leg and arm room to spread out amongst the empty seats around me. We didn't even come close to selling out a 31,000 seat stadium back in the day. So we didn't have the support either from the locals back then.
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Almost Every game...and I also have lived in western mass for the last 30 years.
 
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sherrane said:
They signed a 4-year deal to play football in the MAC with the agreement that after 2 years they either had to choose to move all of their sports teams to the MAC or leave after the 4 years concluded. I think they should try to move their football team to the Sun Belt, which currently has 11 teams and has football-only teams such as Idaho and New Mexico State.
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Why not just join the MAC for all sports? They know that football drives the bus; that's why they upgraded to FBS football.
 
NorthernKnight said:
Almost Every game...and I also have lived in western mass for the last 30 years.
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Then you and I sat through some pretty bleak times back in the day. I really thought Graber was turning it around after that 92 squad went 7-4 and back to back winning seasons. I thought we had finally arrived. Boy was I mistaken.
 
NickyNewark51 said:
Didn't their FB team just recently leave the MAC after a short stay..
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UMASS was in the MAC for FBall only on and interim basis for a few years (A10 for everything else). The MAC said all or nothing after a few years and kicked them out. UMASS wants to stay in the A10 for Bball so now their FBall is f'd unless the AAC wants them.

Plain and simple: UMASS was regarded for going up in FBall. Should have staid at 1aa with UNH while BBall got to play in the A10.
 
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sherrane said:
They signed a 4-year deal to play football in the MAC with the agreement that after 2 years they either had to choose to move all of their sports teams to the MAC or leave after the 4 years concluded. I think they should try to move their football team to the Sun Belt, which currently has 11 teams and has football-only teams such as Idaho and New Mexico State.
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The Sun Belt invited Coastal Carolina to be team number 12. Unless Idaho or NMSU leave, the Sun Belt is "full."
 
UMass should play all of their games on campus and not at Gillette......

UMass will now be an indy and I believe their schedule is filled until 2020 or something like that and they've scheduled several SEC schools, etc - so I'm sure they'll be getting paid quite handsomely......

UMass needs to hire a young aggressive coach who can build up the program like Schiano did with RU as they're hoping for an AAC invite sometime down the road.....
 
BigEastPhil said:
UMass should play all of their games on campus and not at Gillette......

UMass will now be an indy and I believe their schedule is filled until 2020 or something like that and they've scheduled several SEC schools, etc - so I'm sure they'll be getting paid quite handsomely......

UMass needs to hire a young aggressive coach who can build up the program like Schiano did with RU as they're hoping for an AAC invite sometime down the road.....
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Nothing is saving UMASS football (in terms of of doing anything Div 1). No talent in state. Deep in New England where no one cares about college football.

In the abyss.
 
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