The football future poll

[shizzle787]

Let me preface by saying I am a UConn fan so I really don't care what you guys do. However, I noticed you do not have a poll for your (Steve's) MAC discussion. I will mention I put a poll on the Boneyard regarding UConn's conference affiliation for football (independent vs. MAC/CUSA football-only). Independence is winning 60/40 right now.

In your case, I see three realistic options: stay the course, join CUSA for all sports, or join the MAC for all sports. UConn is not joining the MAC or C-USA football-only so those are not options for you guys either. So without further ado: the poll.

I allowed re-voting as some people could be swayed one way or another.

[TheInsider]

Why wouldn't UConn join C-USA or the MAC for football only? Staying indy is a bad option. I've lurked over on the boneyard and I see many posts saying that you guys should schedule 5 or 6 H/H with P4 schools and then a couple G5 schools. Hate to break it to you but that ain't happening. If it actually did you would be looking at 3 win season after 3 win season. For UMass I would join either the MAC or CUSA for all sports.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

I'd prefer an option for "Any Football Conference."

[Steve81]

Number 1 for me is to get out of the A10, it is not the future for UMass Athletics. All programs have left the A10 and some have made multiple stops as Charlotte. While favoring the MAC for years, since it was close and there were some good teams there and could build rivals. While looking at the two conferences side by side, it's CUSA.

• Which has better basketball
  Which has better east coast presence
  Which has a growing demographic, growth
  Which has more engaged fans
  Which has better rival potential
  Which has more reasonable travel

Giving all an equal weight give CUSA a score of 4 and the MAC a 2.

Can add a few more:

• Which has better places to travel/visit
  Which has better academics

[shizzle787]

Why wouldn't UConn join C-USA or the MAC for football only? Staying indy is a bad option. I've lurked over on the boneyard and I see many posts saying that you guys should schedule 5 or 6 H/H with P4 schools and then a couple G5 schools. Hate to break it to you but that ain't happening. If it actually did you would be looking at 3 win season after 3 win season. For UMass I would join either the MAC or CUSA for all sports.

It actually is though. In 2026, we have 5 P4 H/H series scheduled. In 2027, it is 4 (so far). Next year it is 4 (3 + Syracuse neutral game). In 2025, it is 3 H/H plus a pay day game at Ohio State. With Army likely no longer being on our schedule, it takes away an all but guaranteed game but opens up another potential slot for a P4 H/H series.

[ZooMass84]

Let me preface by saying I am a UConn fan so I really don't care what you guys do. However, I noticed you do not have a poll for your (Steve's) MAC discussion. I will mention I put a poll on the Boneyard regarding UConn's conference affiliation for football (independent vs. MAC/CUSA football-only). Independence is winning 60/40 right now.

In your case, I see three realistic options: stay the course, join CUSA for all sports, or join the MAC for all sports. UConn is not joining the MAC or C-USA football-only so those are not options for you guys either. So without further ado: the poll.

I allowed re-voting as some people could be swayed one way or another.

see you all the time on CSNBBS

[Rolling Ridge]

I'd prefer an option for "Any Football Conference."

This!

I can't vote for MAC over CUSA, or vice versa, or for some other conference, because I don't know all the ins-and-outs of the deals, impact on travel, blah, blah, blah. I leave that up to the AD, and while I know some will disagree with me, I actually trust him to make the best decision for the University.

I absolutely do want us to get into a conference, sooner than later, or land a long-term, sustainable, football-only affiliation, but I'm not close enough to it, nor do I feel any posters on this board are close enough to it, to know the full impact of a decision of this magnitude. So, I leave it to the AD and to the administration, but I fully advocate for finding a conference. In the conversations I've had with Ryan, he agrees completely, but the devil is in the details, and having been in his spot many times, I defer to his more complete knowledge of the situation and trust he has UMass' best interests at heart.

[eldonabe]

Turn EVERYTHING into a club sport except Hockey.

OR - Get rid of Bamford and do something / anything.

[TheInsider]

^^^ option 2 should have happened a while ago

[LS71]

The options offered are too limiting. My vote is ‘none of the above’.

[eldonabe]

The options offered are too limiting. My vote is ‘none of the above’.

I actually agree with this 100%


Everyone seems to still be dancing around the obvious problem - NOBODY wants Umass.

We can (ad nauseum) state where we would all "like" the school to go, but I still never ever hear any conference officials mention Umass as a possibility to add into their conference.

Our board is little more than an echo-chamber.



Bamford has to go. Until then - we are stuck in Athletic purgatory.

[Steve81]

Believe/hope that our AD has had enough input over the 8 years, especially since mid Sept with MWC commissioner Gloria Nevarez, NCAA President Charlie Baker, and more recently Army going to the AAC, that a G5 conference is necessary for UMass Athletics. Therefore option 1 is and has been a non starter for me. Given the MAC or CUSA, will align myself with the administration. If Ryan wanted the MAC, we'd be there. Whether it was while WKU needed a partner or more recently with Delaware's hopes of going FBS. This lead me to vote for CUSA, even thou like the MAC.

So this post on cnsbbs and sounds about right.

If the AAC is a few steps away, then CUSA is the logical next step, sorry single LaTech fan. CUSA would immediately bring in UMass as an all-sports member because the university presidents would endorse it, even if it is revenue neutral.

CUSA is like a mini-AAC so I can see the appeal from the UMass standpoint. I still argue they need to move the tournament to Nash Vegas every season.

[Rolling Ridge]

Everyone seems to still be dancing around the obvious problem - NOBODY wants Umass.

I don't believe that's true. I think CUSA or the MAC would take us if we went in all sports, with CUSA being more likely and increasingly looking like the most viable and intriguing option. The holdup seems to be the sense that such a commitment might not be in UMass' best interests for whatever reason. Not knowing the full scope of the impact of such a move, I defer to the people making that decision. I don't think this is solely Bamford's decision to make, nor do I think he's not trying to find a workable solution. It may simply be that his and the administration's assessment of the all-sports affiliations with these conferences don't make sense for UMass at this moment, and they might be right.

I want to be in a football conference as much as anybody, but I don't want to get in a situation where in five years everybody feels the move was a giant mistake. I also don't feel that just because Bamford isn't doing what you or I want for the football program right now makes him incompetent, merely that he looks at the situation differently. The Chancellor and/or the President need to set expectations for Athletics and if Bamford doesn't meet them, they need to take action, but I don't know what the specific expectation is vis-a-vis a conference for football, or what the downsides might be to joining all-sports to the two conferences which I think are viable options.

[eldonabe]

Everyone seems to still be dancing around the obvious problem - NOBODY wants Umass.

I don't believe that's true. I think CUSA or the MAC would take us if we went in all sports, with CUSA being more likely and increasingly looking like the most viable and intriguing option. The holdup seems to be the sense that such a commitment might not be in UMass' best interests for whatever reason. Not knowing the full scope of the impact of such a move, I defer to the people making that decision. I don't think this is solely Bamford's decision to make, nor do I think he's not trying to find a workable solution. It may simply be that his and the administration's assessment of the all-sports affiliations with these conferences don't make sense for UMass at this moment, and they might be right.

I want to be in a football conference as much as anybody, but I don't want to get in a situation where in five years everybody feels the move was a giant mistake. I also don't feel that just because Bamford isn't doing what you or I want for the football program right now makes him incompetent, merely that he looks at the situation differently. The Chancellor and/or the President need to set expectations for Athletics and if Bamford doesn't meet them, they need to take action, but I don't know what the specific expectation is vis-a-vis a conference for football, or what the downsides might be to joining all-sports to the two conferences which I think are viable options.

Umass needs to do something. The music in this round of musical conference chairs is about to stop and the number of open chairs is not in their favor.

That line of thinking (underlined above) is the exact paralyzing reason nobody will pull the trigger in this fucking administration. THERE ARE NO WRONG MOVES with the one exception of doing nothing and keeping the status quo.

I am about to give Maz a massive boner - but Umass could go to the Pac12 at this point and it would be a better option than current; nothing they choose to do is permanent. In 5 years from now they will hopefully be some level of desirable for another conference with better logistics but they need to do something - anything.

[LS71]

The options offered are too limiting. My vote is ‘none of the above’.

I actually agree with this 100%

Everyone seems to still be dancing around the obvious problem - NOBODY wants Umass.

We can (ad nauseum) state where we would all "like" the school to go, but I still never ever hear any conference officials mention Umass as a possibility to add into their conference.

Our board is little more than an echo-chamber.

Bamford has to go. Until then - we are stuck in Athletic purgatory.

What I'd really like to see is UMass get its act together to make the conferences we want, want us too, instead of sniffing around low level conferences and hoping for an invite.

For that to happen, we gotta give conferences something to want...read: a solid FBS football program. UMass is competitive in pretty much everything else these days.

Our training facilities are solid as are are the venues where games are played....all except football and unfortunately that's the one that matters most, whether you're a football fan or not. McGuirk sucks...there's no other way to say it.

Recruits want to play in top notch stadiums. Until we provide that our football program looks bad to both quality recruits and the conferences we'd want to join.

Also, WE HAVE TO IMPROVE the gameday experience. The nightmare that was getting to the stadium on Saturday, the lighting, etc. is unacceptable.

I went to a U of Arizona home hoops game last season. Knowing what a huge pain the ass getting in and out of the Mullins Center can be, I was prepared for a hassle. There were like 14,000 fans there and getting in and out could NOT have been easier.

UMass has work to do.