Its march Madness so from the files of the great SteveMaz lets get a bit crazy

[stevemaz]

Here goes my manic dream scenario.. keeping in mind this is mostly in jest yet holding out believe that there is somewhere between 6.5% and 11.2% chance I'm gonna be right.

1. Step One. Kentucky bellies up, Cal sites the fact that he lost the fire, and he resigns
2. Step Two. He takes job in TV for next season
3. Step Three. Matt McCall is wildly successful next year or next two years taking Minutemen to the precipice of the Final Four and then bolts
4. Step Four.. sighting a deep regret of how things ended and not finishing the job, Cal calls Bamford accepting what would be considered a low ball offer of say 1.5 Mil plus % of ticket revenues
5. Step Five: National champs 2021.
6. Step Six: You guessed it, Sighting "like" institutions and Highly regarded hoops programs for men and women (UConn) and hockey, the Big Ten does the smart thing and extends invite to UMass and UConn later that summer.

Bow to my visionary status!

[Roadtrip]

^This just in: I don't want any of what you are smoking, drinking, or "in jesting."

[Minutemaniac74]

Here goes my manic dream scenario.. keeping in mind this is mostly in jest yet holding out believe that there is somewhere between 6.5% and 11.2% chance I'm gonna be right.

You have a better chance of winning Powerball and MegaMillions in the same week

[McKinney]

Damn. How was your Blarney, Steve?

[McKinney]

6. Step Six: You guessed it, Sighting "like" institutions and Highly regarded hoops programs for men and women (UConn) and hockey, the Big Ten does the smart thing and extends invite to UMass and UConn later that summer.

I actually do think UMass as an institution belongs in the B1G, but our athletics' performance and facilities are just not there. That part could take decades. Rutgers accent to B1G started with getting serious and joining Big East football in 1991. That's a 24 year long journey.

With that said, if our hockey continues to grow I could see B1G taking us on as an associate member within the next 5 years if we wanted to do so.

[minutefanjsf]

6. Step Six: You guessed it, Sighting "like" institutions and Highly regarded hoops programs for men and women (UConn) and hockey, the Big Ten does the smart thing and extends invite to UMass and UConn later that summer.

I actually do think UMass as an institution belongs in the B1G, but our athletics' performance and facilities are just not there. That part could take decades. Rutgers accent to B1G started with getting serious and joining Big East football in 1991. That's a 24 year long journey.

With that said, if our hockey continues to grow I could see B1G taking us on as an associate member within the next 5 years if we wanted to do so.

Joining B1G in hockey is a step down, so if it comes, it will be with a full invite. Lacrosse, men and women, are also very attractive sports. Baseball and softball are rising. Five years is a long time away. The fact that we are late to this game, can’t be lost on anyone. For Football we still have Gillette in our back pocket. Of course we need to win. Our training facilities are on par with eh Big ten. The blemish is where we play football. The Bill is acceptable for hoops and outstanding for hockey.

[McKinney]

6. Step Six: You guessed it, Sighting "like" institutions and Highly regarded hoops programs for men and women (UConn) and hockey, the Big Ten does the smart thing and extends invite to UMass and UConn later that summer.

I actually do think UMass as an institution belongs in the B1G, but our athletics' performance and facilities are just not there. That part could take decades. Rutgers accent to B1G started with getting serious and joining Big East football in 1991. That's a 24 year long journey.

With that said, if our hockey continues to grow I could see B1G taking us on as an associate member within the next 5 years if we wanted to do so.

Joining B1G in hockey is a step down, so if it comes, it will be with a full invite. Lacrosse, men and women, are also very attractive sports. Baseball and softball are rising. Five years is a long time away. The fact that we are late to this game, can’t be lost on anyone. For Football we still have Gillette in our back pocket. Of course we need to win. Our training facilities are on par with eh Big ten. The blemish is where we play football. The Bill is acceptable for hoops and outstanding for hockey.

Why join B1G hockey? Because it puts our foot in the door in a revenue sport. I'm really not sure A10 would have picked Richmond in 2001 had they not already been playing football in the league. While I understand that Hockey East has some of our best rivalries and is a fantastically competitive conference, in what way would B1G be a step down? B1G may be a new ice hockey conference but its members are some of the best in hockey. Their average arena capacity (9,368) is the largest in college hockey (HE is 5,767). Their 2017-18 average attendance (6,491) is the highest in college hockey (HE is 3,662). Hockey East members lead NCAA in Tournament Appearances and have 10 more than Big Ten (336 vs 326), but Big Ten has more appearances per team (46.6 vs 31.8). Big Ten leads NCAA in National Titles with 23 (HE is #2 at 19) and in Titles per team at 3.3 (HE has 1.2).

Football is the biggest blemish for sure and yes Gillette could be a good option. However we'd still have the third smallest arena, only ahead of Northwestern and Rutgers. Perhaps, much like using Gillette for some football games, we could use TD Garden or DCU for some basketball games.

In both cases we'd also probably need to make the case that we'd have better success splitting the games off campus and/or show intent on expansion or construction of a football stadium and basketball arena.

Either way, I think the department should be focussing on building our résumé for AAC before we even think about B1G.

As far as UCONN, I'd wonder if they'd prefer being in ACC over B1G as that's where a good number of their Big East foes are now.

[sloves90_611]

I actually do think UMass as an institution belongs in the B1G, but our athletics' performance and facilities are just not there. That part could take decades. Rutgers accent to B1G started with getting serious and joining Big East football in 1991. That's a 24 year long journey.

With that said, if our hockey continues to grow I could see B1G taking us on as an associate member within the next 5 years if we wanted to do so.

Joining B1G in hockey is a step down, so if it comes, it will be with a full invite. Lacrosse, men and women, are also very attractive sports. Baseball and softball are rising. Five years is a long time away. The fact that we are late to this game, can’t be lost on anyone. For Football we still have Gillette in our back pocket. Of course we need to win. Our training facilities are on par with eh Big ten. The blemish is where we play football. The Bill is acceptable for hoops and outstanding for hockey.

Why join B1G hockey? Because it puts our foot in the door in a revenue sport. I'm really not sure A10 would have picked Richmond in 2001 had they not already been playing football in the league. While I understand that Hockey East has some of our best rivalries and is a fantastically competitive conference, in what way would B1G be a step down? B1G may be a new ice hockey conference but its members are some of the best in hockey. Their average arena capacity (9,368) is the largest in college hockey (HE is 5,767). Their 2017-18 average attendance (6,491) is the highest in college hockey (HE is 3,662). Hockey East members lead NCAA in Tournament Appearances and have 10 more than Big Ten (336 vs 326), but Big Ten has more appearances per team (46.6 vs 31.. Big Ten leads NCAA in National Titles with 23 (HE is #2 at 19) and in Titles per team at 3.3 (HE has 1.2).

Football is the biggest blemish for sure and yes Gillette could be a good option. However we'd still have the third smallest arena, only ahead of Northwestern and Rutgers. Perhaps, much like using Gillette for some football games, we could use TD Garden or DCU for some basketball games.

In both cases we'd also probably need to make the case that we'd have better success splitting the games off campus and/or show intent on expansion or construction of a football stadium and basketball arena.

Either way, I think the department should be focussing on building our résumé for AAC before we even think about B1G.

As far as UCONN, I'd wonder if they'd prefer being in ACC over B1G as that's where a good number of their Big East foes are now.

Basketball arenas are shrinking. I think The Mullins Center (with a few upgrades) would be more than acceptable for the B1G by the time they would even begin to consider UMass as an addition to the conference.

[minutefanjsf]

I actually do think UMass as an institution belongs in the B1G, but our athletics' performance and facilities are just not there. That part could take decades. Rutgers accent to B1G started with getting serious and joining Big East football in 1991. That's a 24 year long journey.

With that said, if our hockey continues to grow I could see B1G taking us on as an associate member within the next 5 years if we wanted to do so.

Joining B1G in hockey is a step down, so if it comes, it will be with a full invite. Lacrosse, men and women, are also very attractive sports. Baseball and softball are rising. Five years is a long time away. The fact that we are late to this game, can’t be lost on anyone. For Football we still have Gillette in our back pocket. Of course we need to win. Our training facilities are on par with eh Big ten. The blemish is where we play football. The Bill is acceptable for hoops and outstanding for hockey.

Why join B1G hockey? Because it puts our foot in the door in a revenue sport. I'm really not sure A10 would have picked Richmond in 2001 had they not already been playing football in the league. While I understand that Hockey East has some of our best rivalries and is a fantastically competitive conference, in what way would B1G be a step down? B1G may be a new ice hockey conference but its members are some of the best in hockey. Their average arena capacity (9,368) is the largest in college hockey (HE is 5,767). Their 2017-18 average attendance (6,491) is the highest in college hockey (HE is 3,662). Hockey East members lead NCAA in Tournament Appearances and have 10 more than Big Ten (336 vs 326), but Big Ten has more appearances per team (46.6 vs 31.. Big Ten leads NCAA in National Titles with 23 (HE is #2 at 19) and in Titles per team at 3.3 (HE has 1.2).

Football is the biggest blemish for sure and yes Gillette could be a good option. However we'd still have the third smallest arena, only ahead of Northwestern and Rutgers. Perhaps, much like using Gillette for some football games, we could use TD Garden or DCU for some basketball games.

In both cases we'd also probably need to make the case that we'd have better success splitting the games off campus and/or show intent on expansion or construction of a football stadium and basketball arena.

Either way, I think the department should be focussing on building our résumé for AAC before we even think about B1G.

As far as UCONN, I'd wonder if they'd prefer being in ACC over B1G as that's where a good number of their Big East foes are now.

I think we agree essentially, but I think the big ten will grab us if hoops and hockey take off as a full member and not need the associate member status. The attendance numbers are interesting, but seeing that 6 of the 11 HE teams are in Massachusetts and everyone else in NE, the professional sports boogeyman man exists with the Bruins. The Big ten schools have alumni that go to events just because the school name appears on the venue. I'd love us to be there like that. Would getting into the AAC help, first? Probably. But I don't think it is a necessity. We are neve going to build a stadium on campus to rival the Big ten football stadiums.

[McKinney]

I think we agree essentially, but I think the big ten will grab us if hoops and hockey take off as a full member and not need the associate member status. The attendance numbers are interesting, but seeing that 6 of the 11 HE teams are in Massachusetts and everyone else in NE, the professional sports boogeyman man exists with the Bruins. The Big ten schools have alumni that go to events just because the school name appears on the venue. I'd love us to be there like that. Would getting into the AAC help, first? Probably. But I don't think it is a necessity. We are never going to build a stadium on campus to rival the Big ten football stadiums.

I don't think we'll ever have a 100k seat stadium on campus (but you never can truly know), but I can look to ECU who built their 10,000 seat stadium around the same time as us and over the past 5 decades has built it up to 50,000+ seats. 5 decades from now (assuming football is still the nation's most attended sport) I don't think it's unreasonable to see a 50k seat stadium at UMass.

I'm not sure what to think of the pro-sports boogeyman. I think there is some truth to an extent, for instance Northeastern is 3.4 miles from TD Garden and they also struggle to bring in 2,500 people into their arena despite being a strong ranked team. However, the Hockey East attendance leader is Boston College who averages almost 5,000 per game and they're only 6.7 miles from TD Garden.

With that said, I'm not sure B1G is immune to the boogeyman. 5 of the 7 members are within 100 miles of an NHL franchise, of which 3 are within 50 miles, and 2 are within less than 10 miles. If Massachusetts were to join B1G hockey we'd actually about middle of the pack in terms of access to NHL hockey. Although I suppose you could make the argument that the pro-sports/college-sports market dichotomy is about culture, not access, but the good news is that cultures are not static. I'm of the opinion that a lot of sports-culture is simply success+time. The other part might be rivalries, which again a large function is time and another large part is likeness, whether that be in regards to geography or institution or both.

[McKinney]

Basketball arenas are shrinking. I think The Mullins Center (with a few upgrades) would be more than acceptable for the B1G by the time they would even begin to consider UMass as an addition to the conference.

That's interesting, I hadn't thought about that before. The Big Ten Conference currently leads NCAA in basketball arena capacity with an average of 14,794 seats. Is B1G one of the conferences you see going with this trend and significantly reducing that average in the coming decades?

[stevemaz]

I love that this circled back to B1G. There are two caveats. First, no idea if B1G even wants to go to 16 or more and second, can they lure Texas and then take another Big 12(Baylor, Oklahoma, Kansas). I think we can rule out any other ACC schools jumping because of the massive penalties that are now in place. If they could grab Virginia and either NC, Duke, Ga Tech, Pitt, BC or Cuse, I think they would. This perfect storm of potential realignment will begin to swirl in the next few years with target of 2023/2024. Over next few years, here are a few things that will help our cause

1. Continue moving up the Public School rankings (amongst publics that play div 1 football we rank #24 and I think we can move past a few of the schools just ahead from 16-23 (UConn, Maryland, Clemson, BYU, Rutgers, Baylor, Minn, TAM).
2. Get some sort of plan finalized for future football stadium expansion (it needs to be in 35K seat range with possible upgrade to 45K in the future). UMass is lucky to have Gillette in our back pocket thanks to the Kraft family (I think Jonathan K is also on board). We need Gillette for future home games vs Michigan/Ohio St, etc..
3. Be bowl eligible in 2018 and then explode on the scene in 2019 when our schedule could have 12 winnable games..
4. Hoops to come through next year and beyond.. I have already predicted that UMass will be in contention for top dog in league as soon as next year

The main point is that UMass needs to keep making good moves on the academic, athletics and planning fronts over next 3-5 years.

to most it seems laughable that UMass could ever compete on the gridiron with Big Ten schools and to that I say, once in that league we would now have access to better players and would have no trouble competing with the likes of Minn, Iowa, Purdue, NW, Illinois, Indiana, Rutgers, and Maryland.

[McKinney]

If they could grab Virginia and either NC, Duke, Ga Tech, Pitt, BC or Cuse, I think they would.

B1G has a thing about being in adjacent states so if they picked two from ACC it'd have to be Syracuse and Virginia, Syracuse and Pittsburgh, Virginia and Pittsburgh, Virginia and Carolina, or Virginia and Duke. Georgia Tech isn't going because they'd be on a 500 mile island from the closest school (Indiana). Boston College isn't going because they would never fit in with the nonsectarian STEM/Medical focussed institutions of the BTAA. That's the other thing, B1G will only expand to AAU institutions. So we can rule out Syracuse (who left AAU in 2011 for a dispute over how to count non-federal grants), Boston College, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. Missouri is in the SEC and with that deal I don't see them leaving anytime soon. Without Oklahoma there's no way they can take Texas.

So the P5 schools eligible are:
Virginia and Pittsburgh
Virginia and Carolina
Virginia and Duke
Virginia and Kansas
Pittsburgh and Kansas

I don't see Carolina going without Duke or vice versa, so I think the most likely P5 combos would be:
Virginia and Pittsburgh
Virginia and Kansas
Pittsburgh and Kansas

1. Continue moving up the Public School rankings (amongst publics that play div 1 football we rank #24 and I think we can move past a few of the schools just ahead from 16-23 (UConn, Maryland, Clemson, BYU, Rutgers, Baylor, Minn, TAM).

Baylor is a private Baptist university. Like Boston College they would never fit in with the nonsectarian STEM/Medical focussed institutions of the BTAA. Additionally, without Oklahoma there's no way of expansion to the state of Texas. Not to mention they're not an AAU institution and highly unlikely to ever be one.

[UMass87]

UVA leaving the ACC is among the least likely scenarios - only surpassed by either UNC or Duke leaving. It's just not going to happen. Va Tech joining AAU and getting an invite is far more likely than UVA leaving the ACC.

[MJatUM]

Aren't they too old to be playing AAU?