State of the Progam

Get ready for some MACtion
jpatsfan
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Re: State of the Progam

Post by jpatsfan » Tue Nov 14, 2017 3:21 pm

McKinney wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 2:10 pm
jpatsfan wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 12:05 pm I continue to hope that someday we could see a Northeast or new Eastern base FBS conference. UMass and UNH drew 35K at Gillette as FCS schools.
I agree, I wouldn't mind joining the CAA for a few years if they upgraded to FBS. Hindsight is 20/20, but I wonder where we'd be if we left A10 for Big East with Rutgers and West Virginia in '95.

However, don't take the 35k at Gillette at face value. They got that number for the novelty of playing at Gillette. The previous matchup to the one at Gillette drew 13,108, the one prior to that (at UNH) was 6,231.
Not leaving for the Big East was a terrible mistake, assuming of course we were invited. We blew it in 1999 when Conference USA wanted us.

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Re: State of the Progam

Post by McKinney » Tue Nov 14, 2017 3:47 pm

jpatsfan wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 3:21 pm
McKinney wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 2:10 pm
jpatsfan wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 12:05 pm I continue to hope that someday we could see a Northeast or new Eastern base FBS conference. UMass and UNH drew 35K at Gillette as FCS schools.
I agree, I wouldn't mind joining the CAA for a few years if they upgraded to FBS. Hindsight is 20/20, but I wonder where we'd be if we left A10 for Big East with Rutgers and West Virginia in '95.

However, don't take the 35k at Gillette at face value. They got that number for the novelty of playing at Gillette. The previous matchup to the one at Gillette drew 13,108, the one prior to that (at UNH) was 6,231.
Not leaving for the Big East was a terrible mistake, assuming of course we were invited. We blew it in 1999 when Conference USA wanted us.
I don't know if an invite was extended. But of course at the time we were a hot commodity in basketball, so I'm not sure why they WOULDN'T want us.

Very true about '99, would have been playing with most of the current members of AAC. Maybe even catch a break like Louisville end up in the ACC. At the very least, a move then would have allowed us to negotiate sharing a stadium with UConn or maybe get the Patriots to build a new stadium elsewhere (as they had talked about).

But the past is the past, the focus now is to get to a state where we have opportunities like those again (and actually capitalize on them).
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Re: State of the Progam

Post by DrG » Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:27 pm

There was never even any possibility of a Big East invite in the 90's. The Big East expansion was for football reasons only (setting the stage for the eventual breakup with the basketball schools), and Rutgers and West Virginia were established IA (now FBS) programs while we were still IAA. Whether we were late to the game is certainly debatable, but I don't recall any serious talk of being invited to any IA conference at the time. To be honest, the time to move up was in the 60's and early 70's when we were a football powerhouse, but world events and other issues intervened.

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Re: State of the Progam

Post by InnervisionsUMASS » Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:55 pm

Maybe it's just me, but the team does seem to be generally playing better, and really has been since the Temple game. I just feel better about things now that I did after the first 3 games of the season. I'm not suggesting they should keep Whipple or not, but the eyeball test says to me they are playing better and improving.


Of course, I say this now and they'll lay an egg against BYU, or worse, FIU....
Stop waiting for UMass to do something big and help UMass do something big. - Shades

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Re: State of the Progam

Post by minutefanjsf » Tue Nov 14, 2017 7:11 pm

DrG wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:27 pm There was never even any possibility of a Big East invite in the 90's. The Big East expansion was for football reasons only (setting the stage for the eventual breakup with the basketball schools), and Rutgers and West Virginia were established IA (now FBS) programs while we were still IAA. Whether we were late to the game is certainly debatable, but I don't recall any serious talk of being invited to any IA conference at the time. To be honest, the time to move up was in the 60's and early 70's when we were a football powerhouse, but world events and other issues intervened.
There was serious talk about it, but our administration dropped the ball in the late 90’s. When UConn moved up there was talk of us moving with them. It may have been one sided, not sure, but the rumors were there, especially since we had just won the IAA championship. It was actually basketball that was holding us back at that point after the Camby/Calipari incident and Bruiser ball not panning out.

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Re: State of the Progam

Post by rayers » Wed Nov 15, 2017 12:07 am

With all due respect, some of the posts above are way off with no basis in truth. The Big East never was close to inviting us. Lots of other posts are equally interesting but really not true. I hope we can get into a conference for football that includes other sports but it won’t happen until we win more.

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Re: State of the Progam

Post by stevemaz » Wed Nov 15, 2017 7:17 am

I would rather be independent than being a part of the MAC, CUSA or Sun Belt. I have no idea if the AAC would consider adding two teams right now. I wonder if there is any chance the Army/Navy game could be moved to turkey day weekend? Then the AAC adds Army and UMass..

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Re: State of the Progam

Post by McKinney » Wed Nov 15, 2017 8:16 am

stevemaz wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2017 7:17 am I would rather be independent than being a part of the MAC, CUSA or Sun Belt.
Agreed. I have zero interest in joining either of those conferences. Other than money/stability, the biggest part of being in a conference is playing against your peers and rivals. MAC, CUSA, and Sun Belt largely do not do that for us. The only G5 conference that would is the AAC, or an FBS version of CAA. CAA won't ever happen though because of the infrastructure required, take out JMU and Delaware and the average stadium capacity is just north of 10,000. That won't fly.

IDK how long independence is viable, but until we're forced into a conference, I like how we're doing things.
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Re: State of the Progam

Post by DrG » Wed Nov 15, 2017 12:21 pm

stevemaz wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2017 7:17 am I wonder if there is any chance the Army/Navy game could be moved to turkey day weekend?
There's a better chance that Thanksgiving gets moved to December.

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Re: State of the Progam

Post by Billybuck » Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:27 pm

you have a stadium that is falling apart. most high schools where i am from have better stadiums. even so...it is filled with like 7,000 people. high school plays in front of more people that umass does. the program is what...12-60 since 2012? amherst is not easy to get too. its an area...for the most part...could care less about football...or sports in general...that is a general statement but i have worked at many college town universities and this is not 1 of them. what is the attraction of umass football to any conference? Money?

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Re: State of the Progam

Post by MJatUM » Wed Nov 15, 2017 3:21 pm

Billybuck wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:27 pm you have a stadium that is falling apart. most high schools where i am from have better stadiums. even so...it is filled with like 7,000 people. high school plays in front of more people that umass does. the program is what...12-60 since 2012? amherst is not easy to get too. its an area...for the most part...could care less about football...or sports in general...that is a general statement but i have worked at many college town universities and this is not 1 of them. what is the attraction of umass football to any conference? Money?
Hey Billy, welcome to the forum. Read a few pages back on my advice for Jack I think you will find it answers this question for you as well.

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Re: State of the Progam

Post by McKinney » Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:29 pm

Billybuck wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:27 pm you have a stadium that is falling apart. most high schools where i am from have better stadiums. even so...it is filled with like 7,000 people. high school plays in front of more people that umass does. the program is what...12-60 since 2012? amherst is not easy to get too. its an area...for the most part...could care less about football...or sports in general...that is a general statement but i have worked at many college town universities and this is not 1 of them. what is the attraction of umass football to any conference? Money?
You've worked at many "college town universities"? Certainly not in their English departments. :lol: Image

The University of Massachusetts is a Top 100, Carnegie R1 university and is one of 49 state flagship universities. That's something only 2 of G5 conferences can claim (AAC with UConn and MW with Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Hawaii), 3 if you include Buffalo in the MAC (although SUNY legally does not have a flagship). It brings a system-wide alumni base of over half a million, with about half of those coming from Amherst. The majority of alumni live in #9 TV Market (Boston). Its teams have historically reached high accomplishments, like reaching the Final Four in basketball or 3 FCS Championship games in football. Reaching the National Championship semifinals in the highest division of college basketball is something that has not been accomplished by more than 80% of the nearly 500 schools that have played D1 basketball in the past 100+ years. Our facilities include one of the largest college hockey arenas in North America (IIRC #2 behind Wisconsin), and we sold it out not too long ago. Perhaps the best reason a conference should take us on is our potential. Being in a wealthy state with a mainly service-based economy puts a lot of emphasis on higher education, the importance of the University of Massachusetts will only increase in the coming years and over the next half-century.

You'd have to be crazy to think that our alumni don't care about sports. Again don't think Amherst, because most that go to games (or would if given a reason to) are coming out from Greater Boston. Boston is known as one of the best sports towns in the WORLD. Largely this is in the context of professional sports, but that's mainly because they haven't been given a college team to support long-term since the early 20th century with Harvard and glimmers with BC football in the '80s and UMass basketball in the '90s. At those times, getting a ticket was next to impossible. New Englanders aren't so much apathetic to sports as they are fair weather fans.

I'll give you that McGuirk stadium is crap, but I for one have been in favor of demolishing it (converting it into an IPF) and instead using Gillette full time (until we can build/regularly fill a proper 30-40k seat on-campus stadium).
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Re: State of the Progam

Post by Jack » Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:51 pm

MJatUM wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2017 3:21 pm Hey Billy, welcome to the forum. Read a few pages back on my advice for Jack I think you will find it answers this question for you as well.
Good afternoon MJ, Here''s the problem w/you advising anybody on anything: you're a clueless imbecile who made a moronic comment about 1 week determining the future of the program. Anybody who is as dumb as you are truly has no business advising anybody about anything. So wrap your little fist around that superstar.

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Re: State of the Progam

Post by Berkman » Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:54 pm

^ ^
Evidently you have a ton of money that it would take to demolish the present stadium and build the new one you suggest which I doubt. I doubt that that will ever happen. Instead I expect that sometime in the future, probably five years from now, a plan will be announced to renovate and enlarge the stadium. Until then we will just have to accept what we have.

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Re: State of the Progam

Post by McKinney » Wed Nov 15, 2017 5:14 pm

Berkman wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:54 pm ^ ^
Evidently you have a ton of money that it would take to demolish the present stadium and build the new one you suggest which I doubt. I doubt that that will ever happen. Instead I expect that sometime in the future, probably five years from now, a plan will be announced to renovate and enlarge the stadium. Until then we will just have to accept what we have.
Yeah I got $200M just burning a hole in my pocket. :wink: Well I guess more of the point was just stop using McGuirk as I don't see the point in using it in it's current state (uncomfortable, lowest attendance in FBS era, not ADA compliant, etc.), I suppose I don't care whether or not they demolish it. Although didn't all the expansion plans call for demolishing at least one side of the stadium anyway?

More generally, several of the older buildings here on campus are having to be demolished (like Bartlett I think) because it ends up being cheaper to just build something new than to renovate something SO out of code. A few are being saved of course as well, like South College.
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