UMass as leverage

[BlueWhiteOrange]

What if after the BE meeting on Sunday, UCONN leaks out that the league is interested in adding Umass as one of the new teams. They could play it up as an annual New England rivalry game played in Foxboro every year with some kind of trophy. Renew the U basketball game played each year at Boston Garden. All of this done in BC's backyard.

Would the threat of making umass into a "big time" player in Massachusetts be enough for BC/ACC to offer UCONN sooner? Instead of locking up the NE and New England, this could destabilize their plan. A member school(BC) getting in-state competition from a large dormant state university. Is this something the ACC/BC would want to avoid?

Maybe it's not a big deal to them, but maybe not. If they are eventually going to invite us into the ACC, this could motivate them, and all it takes is one reporter's news scoop.

 

[HuskyFan16]

well your assuming that the threat would force BC's hand and the problem would be averted. if the ACC is serious about waiting for ND and we pull these shenanigans as a sort of "call my bluff" kind of thing, and they call the bluff, then we seriously deplete our own recruiting pool.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Throwing UMass in the pot is obvious to any business person in much the way the OP suggested, but the academics might miss it. A reliable way to force a acquiror to move is to go after their core markets.

 

[UConnJim]

If they leak that they might add UMass, we know for certain that they don't know what they are doing. I went to UConn and now live in Massachusetts and, sadly, there is a huge difference in state support for UConn and UMass. In CT, people care about UConn and in Mass, nobody cares about UMass, especially in Eastern Mass. Most people in Mass think that the state ends at either rt 128 or rt 495 and Western Mass is practically another state. UMass is going to play "home" football games in Foxboro. Storrs is closer to Foxboro than Amherst!

When you drive in CT, you see UConn flags, ads, symbols,...Everywhere. I don't think I have ever seen any UMass flags, ads,...in the Boston area. Yes, there was a time when John Calipari was bball coach that they were relevant, but the weren't before that and haven't been since.

I would vote for Temple before UMass and I wouldn't vote for Temple either.

 

[businesslawyer]

BC would laugh if we did that. It would help them by devaluing our brand before the ACC gets around to expanding to 16 and inviting us. I no many of you don't believe in patience but ...

 

[auggie22]

i like this idea, even if it doesn't prompt an acc bid. it brings the boston market into the big east, much more so than bc would. and we can kick them around for some wins - win/win.

 

[MattMang23]

I'm afraid that if UMass came to the BE and lost a bunch of games it would make the BE as relevant in the Boston market as the ACC is...

 

[CTMike]

UMass is a threat to NO ONE. Boston doesn't care about BC and it's local, nevermind UMass. Just becaue a school resides in a state, that doesn't automatically deliver any market or following..

 

[MattMang23]

Exactly

 

[Dann]

if were thinking like this then umass isnt the right team. we should use Western New England University as leverage. they actually do carry the springfield mk unlike umess. wneu has a d1 ready baseball/lax/soccer programs and a fball team that went 9-2 with a bowl win last year. bball is a project, but that fball bowl win last year would help the BE keep its bcs big, something umass couldn't do. WNEU is a major sleeper in all this conf music chairs talk.

 

[jleves]

Good lord - now we are suggesting DII teams to save the Big East?

 

[MattMang23]

Praying a post saying "I was being sarcastic" shows up in 5...4...3...2...1...

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

The WNEU alum's message was as funny as he intended. The pock full of holes UMess as leverage remark was as unintentionally funny as the OP intended. Both were worthy of a good chuckle.

 

[metsfan2323]

Before people decide that MA would never support their state university for D1 football, please remind yourself how much fan support UCONN football received when we were D2. I think its a good idea, and I doubt BC really wants to see UMASS in the BIG EAST.

And that feeling of disgust you feel everytime someone brings up UMASS as an expansion candidate is the feeling that all good rivalries are made of. We hate and mock them because they are a rival. They were a huge rival when Calipari made them relevant and that feeling would most certainly come back.

In the 90's i'm sure BC and Syracuse fans laughed at the idea of UCONN playing them in football and i'm sure they felt it would weaken their football conference.

Good rivalries generate fan interest, a pursuit of excellence and $$$. Ask Duke and North Carolina.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Has anyone on this board every done a market study? Or even read one?

From a markets perspective, UMass is the #1 choice available. It is the #1 school in a big state with a lot of alumni. Yes, the program is not good and they don't have a stadium, but the school could flick the switch on the alumni support very quickly.

We keep covering the same ground when we talk expansion, and a lot of you refuse to see the obvious. If expansion was about basketball, Kansas would have been the belle of the ball. If expansion was about football, Oklahoma would have been the belle of the ball. Neither school got so much as a sniff from the Pac 12, Big 10 or SEC. Markets are the number 1 priority BY FAR in expansion. It is all about eyeballs on the television. If you are a Nebraska and have tons of tradition and a national following, you can overcome a mediocre or weak home market. Nebraska to the Big 10 was an oddball in a lot of ways. For everyone else, markets matter.

 

[HuskyFan16]

Im not saying your completly wrong Nelson because if it was all about football, the Pac probably would have taken someone before Colorado, and the ACC would have deffinitly taken WVU over Cuse. but that poll the other day showed Cuse was 6th in market share of NYC, Pitt struggles to maximize its own popularity in a pro-dominated town, Nebraska has about 4 people, and the Salt Lake City market, while probably a lean to Utah, is deffinitly split with BYU.

 

[fasko]

Aren't the UMass called the Minutemen? I don't like that name, it's the same name that vigilante border patrol group uses. We should not be playing teams with nicknames that are offensive. I was so glad when St. Johns changed from the Redmen to the Red Storm.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Aren't the UMass called the Minutemen? I don't like that name, it's the same name that vigilante border patrol group uses. We should not be playing teams with nicknames that are offensive. I was so glad when St. Johns changed from the Redmen to the Red Storm.

UMess already went PC with their transition from Redmen to Minutemen, but Minutepersons or Minute People awaits in the next round.

 

[ZooCougar]

Umess? Really?

 

[The Funster]

UMass is is not good leverage. It's not well supported by the state and (as most schools) has had a healthy dip in donations. It doesn't have a single notable men's or women's athletic program as an anchor (like UConn did) and had neither a viable stadium nor any plans to construct one. UMass is a pipe dream.

 

[tzznandrew]

Aren't the UMass called the Minutemen? I don't like that name, it's the same name that vigilante border patrol group uses. We should not be playing teams with nicknames that are offensive. I was so glad when St. Johns changed from the Redmen to the Red Storm.

So if a group of terrorists call themselves the USA, we should change it because it is offensive (please understand that this is hyperbole, not actually trying to equate certain Americans with terrorists)?

Minutemen are the militia of Mass that helped the country win independence. Just because a bunch of jokers somewhere started using the name doesn't mean that it becomes offensive. It's only offensive when you don't know the history well.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

If we really want to uspet the apple cart why not attempt to restor the old Yankee conference? We know how much southerners hate Yankees so this will show them.

[/sarcasm]

The reality is that the BE will not be able to lure any current high profile football programs to our conference. As the best way to restore (or build) the conference's credibility will require the years it will take for upgrades (such as UCF, ECU, Houston, whoever) to demonstrate they are legitimate BCS level football programs, the expansion angle will add little if any pressure until 2015. Expansion may well be the answer to keep the BE's football conference' BCS status but it will not expedite our move to the ACC.

 

[UConnJim]

I just don't understand why anyone would even think UMass. UMass does not play a big academic, social, or athletic role in Massachusetts. It's not hard to understand when consider all of the colleges in Massachusetts. BC struggles with the same issues as they are less relevant in Boston than Harvard and MIT from an academic and social standpoint. Remember, the biggest college football game in Boston is still Harvard/Yale. The media rarely reports on BC and it is even worse for UMass.

Having lived in both Mass and CT, there could not be a bigger difference between the relationship between the state and the State's flagship university. What made UConn unique and perceived as a sleeping giant was the lack of professional sports teams in the state, the strong relationship between the state and the school, and a strong fan base as judged by men's and woman's basketball. UMass has none of the above.

 

[businesslawyer]

I happened to catch GW playing hoops at UMass last February, on a Sunday afternoon. The students who were playing, cheerleading and in the pep band outnumbered the number of students who had come to watch the game. Literally, there were less than 100 students not involved in the game in the stands. UMass is so, so far from being a big time program in athletics that it's not funny.

 

[metsfan2323]

UMASS is in the MAC next year and they will play all of their home games at Gillete stadium. It will be interesting to see if they outdraw Temple in year 1.

If Temple and UMASS were both added to the Big East which team do you think would have the best home attendance? My money would be on UMASS. Hopefully UCONN will schedule UMASS is the near future, that game would certainly be more interesting than Buffalo. If we don't schedule them it will only be because we fear losing to them and we don't want to legitimize them. Just like BC was and is afraid of losing to us.

All those who fear losing recruits to UMASS please raise your hands and admit you are no better than the South Florida people who don't want to see Central Florida in the Big East.