UMass Football going Independent

[78]

^
Swampy is right. We need to worry about filling McGuirk right now. The athletic department has to get creative.

Maybe they can have some doorbuster deals for the Black Friday game -- BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

[njumass08]

^ I actually said before the season started that they should invite some local businesses to set up tents with Black Friday deals or something along those lines.

[rayers]

Give away tickets to all area high schools.

[jjmc85]

I personally feel like we have a Big 10 profile. We are a flagship land-grant university in a rural area. While our program is new to FBS our basketball and hockey programs are pretty established. Now I am not saying we have the potential to be in the Big 10, a lot would need to happen. I still see another major realignment happening. The Big 12 is only at 10 schools so its a matter of time before they go for 4 schools and raid. The AAC and ACC will be partially raided. At that point the Big 10 will have to make more moves to shore up its base.

When it comes to spectator sports, UMass Hockey is #2 in my heart, only behind UMass Football. But what do you mean by established? Do you mean they've played 20 years? If so, I guess you could say they are established...

[Frigidevil]

I personally feel like we have a Big 10 profile. We are a flagship land-grant university in a rural area. While our program is new to FBS our basketball and hockey programs are pretty established. Now I am not saying we have the potential to be in the Big 10, a lot would need to happen. I still see another major realignment happening. The Big 12 is only at 10 schools so its a matter of time before they go for 4 schools and raid. The AAC and ACC will be partially raided. At that point the Big 10 will have to make more moves to shore up its base.

When it comes to spectator sports, UMass Hockey is #2 in my heart, only behind UMass Football. But what do you mean by established? Do you mean they've played 20 years? If so, I guess you could say they are established...

I'm not going to pretend I know anything more than the score of our hockey games, but I remember seeing a graph that had us in the top 10 schools with current NHL players. Yeah, we're pretty much bottom feeders in the best conference, but we were ranked 5 years ago. The freaking Jennings Trophy (and former Conn Smythe) winner is a grad. UMass Hockey has fallen on tough times, but the program is legit.

[jjmc85]

If by legit you mean they actually exist, then yes. They are legit. And like I said, I love the program. I've done a lot more than check the scores. I've driven all over New England to watch them. I'm a hockey season ticket holder. Though I'm not a pond club member this year, I have been in the past. I've been to more hockey games than any other sport on campus. But implying that because the hockey program is "established" and "legit" and that's why UMass gets into the Big 10? Putting aside the ridiculous idea that college hockey has anything to do with conference alignment for a second, it makes me wonder if some posters are confusing our programs with Lowell's, sad as that it.

[Refuse2Lose83]

^Whoa! You mean we're weren't the 2013 Frozen Four!?!?

[Crank]

From Thayer Evans (SI): @ThayerEvansSI: BREAKING: UAB is firing athletic director Brian Mackin & will announce later this week it will be shutting down football program per source.

[Sheck]

^
Hope McCutcheon is all over this. We need to get into Conference USA for FB only.

[jpatsfan]

Just created a separate thread for this issue. The NBC Sports article at http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.co ... l-program/ is wrong because it says CUSA will be balanced at 12 teams. This is incorrect because UNC Charlotte is coming back in which will once again create unbalanced divisions and scheduling.

[DEM]

^
But the thing is, it looks like UAB will have to leave CUSA for all other sports too (possibly to land in the Sun Belt?). If so, CUSA will need more than a football only member, and I doubt we'd be willing to make the move for all-sports, which is practically equivalent, if not worse, than what we were offered by the MAC.

[eldonabe]

This is great, now we can dispense with this ridiculous "football" talk and get back to whining about playing home games at the Razor, an dhow bad the deal was to get into the MAC in the first place.... Ah I love the off season

[78]

And, buried in his meandering random thoughts column today, Shaughnessy asks when the Commonwealth is going to revisit UMass's colossal blunder of moving up to FBS football.

[njumass08]

^
I wonder how often Shaughnessy revisits the colossal blunder of having a son who beats up cops? The red headed step child his #2 on my most hated list.

[Kosty]

So UAB officially has dropped football. What say us in regards to a full invite to C-USA, all sports? Sure the travel will be a BUTT LOAD of cash but at least we'd be in a conference.....for now. Is this a stepping stone to get in to the AAC as a full member? Would C-USA put a HUGE cash payout in any sort of contract that we would sign should we bail?