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Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 9:04 am
by stevemaz
Conference wise, the AAC is going to be vastly different in a few years as the Big 12 raids it after at least Texas and Oklahoma leave. This will open the door for a football only alliance or new conference

Temple (back to A10)
Navy
Army
UMass (to Big east, yes I said it)
UConn (Big east)
Liberty (a 10)
East Carolina (a 10)

Other new conference candidates: Buffalo, ODU, a second Mac, then VCU, Rhody, Dayton for all other sports..

you get the picture, the deck will be reshuffled in a few years once Texas decides what it will do, keeping in my mind going Indy in Football is an option for them (keeping alliance with Big 12 In other sports like ND in ACC).

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 12:55 pm
by dennisdent
Arkansas just fired their coach after a season and 3/4. Gonna owe them a ton.

Sadly, if Dumb as a Door Bell is fired next season, it will cost too. I think CM made 900K in his payout... There are UMass donors who will payout the money but it sucks that Bell will make so much money for so such a bad job.

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 4:31 pm
by FightMass19
I still think that as FCS football continues to make less sense financially, more schools will be looking to make the move up. With that being said, UMass should be pushing to bring back a new (and improved) Yankee Conference as either a FBS football-only or an all-sports conference. In a perfect world, my 8 charter members would be:

- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Holy Cross
- James Madison
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- New Hampshire
- Rhode Island

Yes, only 2 of the 8 charter members play at the FBS level currently. However, I truly believe bringing regional rivalries back to the gridiron on a weekly basis will help revitalize college football in New England. Although it would never be a nationally prominent conference, it would be a perfect fit for many of these schools - with the occasional one or two schools being good enough to compete nationally every couple of years. The fall in New England is truly second to none and bringing a New-England heavy football conference at the FBS level would be an incredible product, even if it isn't the "big time" of the ACC or B1G.

Okay, time to wake up and get back to reality :lol:

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 5:16 pm
by McKinney
I understand the NCAA is pretty lax with the 15,000 attendance rule, but y'all I don't see how they'd grant waivers to three schools with football stadiums well below 15k in capacity. (UNH 11k, Maine 10k, URI 6.5k) In addition to those three, while Holy Cross meets the capacity requirements I don't think they'd be ready from a press box perspective (but they probably have the money to address this).

To my knowledge, none of those schools have expressed any intent on transitioning to FBS.

UMass' transition to FBS cost over $52M in capital expenditures ($34.5M on the FPC and press box, $17.5M on the video board, ADA, and bubble). And UMass hasn't even addressed the capacity of the stadium itself. Are these schools that have smaller enrollments, smaller endowments, fewer alumni, smaller state budgets, etc. ready to make that kind of commitment?

As I said I'd far rather some of our old FCS foes to move up to FBS than UMass move down to FCS, but I don't think it's going to be easy.

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2019 3:10 pm
by FightMass19
McKinney wrote: Sun Nov 10, 2019 5:16 pm I understand the NCAA is pretty lax with the 15,000 attendance rule, but y'all I don't see how they'd grant waivers to three schools with football stadiums well below 15k in capacity. (UNH 11k, Maine 10k, URI 6.5k) In addition to those three, while Holy Cross meets the capacity requirements I don't think they'd be ready from a press box perspective (but they probably have the money to address this).

To my knowledge, none of those schools have expressed any intent on transitioning to FBS.
Fair point. Perhaps a more realistic start to a football-only Yankee conference would be:

- Connecticut
- Massachusetts
- Buffalo (maybe they'd leave the MAC for a conference that potentially makes more sense regionally, as well as being amongst more peer institutions)
- James Madison (former Yankee Conference member & seems to be poised to make the move to FBS)
- Delaware (similar position to JMU)
- Holy Cross (has the tradition & history, and likely has the capital to make necessary improvements to bring stadium up to FBS standards)

I'm not sure what the rules are wrt starting a new FBS conference (how many charter members you need, if you can bring an FCS school in as a charter member, etc). Regardless, I'm in fantasy land atm but this is a fun train of thought to go down.

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2019 3:26 pm
by InnervisionsUMASS
The NCAA might not exist in 10 years if the big conferences do what we all suspect them to.

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 3:43 pm
by eldonabe
stevemaz wrote: Sun Nov 10, 2019 9:04 am Conference wise, the AAC is going to be vastly different in a few years as the Big 12 raids it after at least Texas and Oklahoma leave. This will open the door for a football only alliance or new conference

Temple (back to A10)
Navy
Army
UMass (to Big east, yes I said it)
UConn (Big east)
Liberty (a 10)
East Carolina (a 10)

Other new conference candidates: Buffalo, ODU, a second Mac, then VCU, Rhody, Dayton for all other sports..

you get the picture, the deck will be reshuffled in a few years once Texas decides what it will do, keeping in my mind going Indy in Football is an option for them (keeping alliance with Big 12 In other sports like ND in ACC).
Will you just stop...... :roll: :roll: :roll:

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 3:45 pm
by eldonabe
stevemaz wrote: Sun Nov 10, 2019 9:04 am Conference wise, the AAC is going to be vastly different in a few years as the Big 12 raids it after at least Texas and Oklahoma leave. This will open the door for a football only alliance or new conference

Temple (back to A10)
Navy
Army
UMass (to Big east, yes I said it)
UConn (Big east)
Liberty (a 10)
East Carolina (a 10)

Other new conference candidates: Buffalo, ODU, a second Mac, then VCU, Rhody, Dayton for all other sports..

you get the picture, the deck will be reshuffled in a few years once Texas decides what it will do, keeping in my mind going Indy in Football is an option for them (keeping alliance with Big 12 In other sports like ND in ACC).

You do realize that getting one prediction right out of 100 doesn't make you Kreskin - right?

Blind Squirrel finds nut.....

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 3:51 pm
by InnervisionsUMASS

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 3:52 pm
by InnervisionsUMASS
stevemaz wrote: Sun Nov 10, 2019 9:04 am Conference wise,....

You're the best! Never stop being you.

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 4:00 pm
by 78
^
While I wish the article wasn’t written, and I don’t like his tone, overall, it’s an honest and accurate assessment of the current situation. I don’t support dropping the FBS effort today, but I can see why many people would.

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 6:45 pm
by minutefanjsf
78 wrote: Tue Nov 12, 2019 4:00 pm ^
While I wish the article wasn’t written, and I don’t like his tone, overall, it’s an honest and accurate assessment of the current situation. I don’t support dropping the FBS effort today, but I can see why many people would.
It’s not an honest assessment. It is a biased article trying to dismantle the program. It conflates all the worst things that have happened and superimposes those over the current shitshow. It states that we should not be in FBS by comparing us to Holy Cross. Yes this season sucks. Yes, we have not won many games since the move up. Does the article mention the close games vs Temple, Mississippi State, Colorado, Tennessee, etc? No. The first two years we sucked and were not competitive. Then we competed, but didn’t win enough and had the bottom drop out due to horrific recruiting this year. For a couple of years we were the sweetheart pick to go bowling. So, this season sucks and Molnar sucked and Whipple was maddening while losing close games we could’ve won. I’m not saying we are not a bottom feeder, in fact this year the bottom feeder, but that does not mean we should fold up the tent.

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 6:47 pm
by econalum
Meehan passed the buck. Gutless.

That said, the article reflects my previously posted concerns.

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 7:15 pm
by photoman
Not sure how you can say this wasn't a brutally honest assessment. This was the most mishandled "move up" any of us have ever seen. I've grown tired of hearing how well get some great recruits because they'll be offered playing time. Blah blah blah....

Re: FIRE WALT BELL!

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 7:29 pm
by minutefanjsf
photoman wrote: Tue Nov 12, 2019 7:15 pm Not sure how you can say this wasn't a brutally honest assessment. This was the most mishandled "move up" any of us have ever seen. I've grown tired of hearing how well get some great recruits because they'll be offered playing time. Blah blah blah....
So you think we should move back down? That is the assessment being made in the article. I Don’t agree with that. Yes the move was botched, but it was and is the right move.