State of the Progam

[eldonabe]

I have no fear of placing my expectations too high for next season as I know it is a lock that UMass football will be bowl eligible (not guaranteeing a bowl bid). Coach Bell is more than a home run hire, he is a Grand Slam. We are going to get better players, we are going to beat smaller schools handily (no way the likes of Coastal Carolina comes to our house and wins), We are going to fill McGuirk by the end of next season, and we will get invite to AAC in the near future along with plans for stadium renovation. This will all come to pass...

HA - I will take The Under across the board.....



Keep fightin' the fight Steve.......

[Berkman]

It looks like Bell and the assistants he has are beating the bushes for recruits and from what is on the Fight MA site he has several good size JC klids that have given a verbal and I expect that they will sign later this week in the early signing period.

[KahunaK]

Love what Bell is accomplishing with recruiting in such a short time. Two school I compare with UMASS in FBS are App. State and GA. Southern. Both won bowl games this weekend. UMASS needs to be at that level after all these years. I hope Bell can deliver. Go UMASS!

[eldonabe]

Love what Bell is accomplishing with recruiting in such a short time. Two school I compare with UMASS in FBS are App. State and GA. Southern. Both won bowl games this weekend. UMASS needs to be at that level after all these years. I hope Bell can deliver. Go UMASS!

That may be the most reasonable comparison I have seen here so far. Without a conference to hang in, these two programs would be a bar to hit.

[McKinney]

Love what Bell is accomplishing with recruiting in such a short time. Two school I compare with UMASS in FBS are App. State and GA. Southern. Both won bowl games this weekend. UMASS needs to be at that level after all these years. I hope Bell can deliver. Go UMASS!

That may be the most reasonable comparison I have seen here so far. Without a conference to hang in, these two programs would be a bar to hit.

Both of those teams had at least a week this season where they were in the Top 25 or Receiving Votes. Since they've moved up App's been to four bowl games and GASO has been to two. So it's not all that low of a bar, but I believe UMass can be where they are and where those two are going.

[Jack]

Both of those teams had at least a week this season where they were in the Top 25 or Receiving Votes. Since they've moved up App's been to four bowl games and GASO has been to two. So it's not all that low of a bar, but I believe UMass can be where they are and where those two are going.

Considering that UMAss beat both of those teams in 2017 I would tend to agree with you.

[Old Cage]

This seems to be the best thread for this Isenberg release about the aging of sports fans. It is from November, but I don't think it has been posted here:

“Sports fans are getting older,” observed 2018 Mark H. McCormack Executive in Residence Bernie Mullin in a campus-wide lecture in October. Mullin remarked. Last year’s NCAA football attendance, he added, was the lowest in 30 years. And three years ago, season ticket sales to collegiate football continued their decline, dropping by 10%.

https://www.isenberg.umass.edu/news/dr- ... -residence

[McKinney]

^ If collegiate athletics are to go by the wayside: how are large schools supposed to encourage supporters to "keep in touch"? Say what you want about the state of these pro-esque programs, but what other activity has the potential to engage 100k+ alumni, students, faculty/staff, prospective students, and community members?

[Swampy]

^ Quidditch?

[eldonabe]

^ Quidditch?

That made me laugh out loud

[Floyd]

So the old fuckers are the only ones supporting college athletics?

[Swampy]

^ And, that made ME laugh out loud.

[UMass'96]

Must be a generational thing...

[KahunaK]

Not necessarily a generational thing but also a time thing. As an undergrad, I could go to a football game and be in and out in about two hours. It is almost double that. When I went to the Miss St. game at Gillette, my thinking was "will this game never end". With all the commercial breaks, the game is slow and tiresome. Same with bball. How many timeouts do they get per half- 25? So much easier to watch on tv and if the game gets out of hand, you can do something else.

Winning keeps people coming to games and staying to the end- UMASS hockey is proving that. The Redskins prove that also. When I first moved down here, getting a Redskins ticket was a major coup. It was joked that Snyder walked around the stadium every day trying to figure out where he could put more seats. Now they put tarps over large portions of the stadium and when some teams show up with their fans (Pittsburgh, Baltimore etc), it is like an away game for the Redskins.

People do not have time to follow teams that just aren't that good no matter how loyal they are. The entertainment dollar is not just about expense and alternatives but also the time commitment.

Worth Reading:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/r ... 818b77e6d7
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2 ... fb3c6a2539

[Berkman]

New addition to the FB staff:

https://umassathletics.com/news/2019/1/ ... staff.aspx