shizzle787
King Shizzle DCCLXXXVII of the Cesspool
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Not necessarily.
UMass > MAC for all sports in 2025-2026
- Thread starter huskymedic
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I see this as good for UMass. Hockey, their only real sport, will stay in HE. Basketball will hurt a bit, but it has never been a consistent winner. In football, this is definitely better than independence. They actually have a shot at the playoff (even if small). We don’t even have that. And while I’d never move all our sports to the MAC, I miss being in a football conference and having rivalries. Independence isn’t a long term solution for us.
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UMess men’s lax to apply to remain with A10 as affiliate member.
So says a Pete Thamel tweet citing an unnamed UMess source
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MAC makes sense competition wise. but the schedule is so unattractive, it doesn’t make sense from a marketing standpoint.
That isn’t what UConn aspires to be.
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If Delaware had gone to the MAC as well, it would be a maybe but with just UMass and Buffalo it is definitely not enticing. We are lucky to be in a spot where we are not desperate to get into a fb conference and can wait out to 2026+ to see what happens with the ACC and the CFP. For now our best move is to stay calm and work the back channels.
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An annual “U” game between New England’s two premier football teams at Gillette Stadium might make it worthwhile for us to join the MAC as well. Football drives the bus, not basketball. A pathway to the playoffs is what we need.
Best case scenario I could see our football temporarily parking in the MAC.
I think first choice would be lining up with some old rivals (plus some others like Duke, GT, etc) from the ACC when it collapses. Maybe combine with BE.
The other option I wouldn’t mind would be if PAC and Mountain West merge and we could join as a football only - offering 4 hoops games per year as incentive.
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There is nothing about UMass and UConn at Gillette that will drive anything. Nothing.
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1) We can and most likely will continue to play UMass in football without joining the MAC
2) Playing that at Gillette in front of 6000 fans is a terrible idea
3) Basketball drives the bus at UConn
We could strike up a move with the B12 sooner
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CTBasketball
Former Owner of the Pizza Thread
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“The A10 has been a great partner, we’ve both had a ton of success together in all sports, especially basketball. It’s a nationally relevant league and I thank them.
But we want to play home football games on Thursday nights on ESPN8 the Ocho in front of 7 people instead of our usual 6.”
Opinion: As MAC Expands, Keep An Eye on Western Kentucky
Even in February, if you blink, you miss a big piece of college football news in 2024. On Monday, The Athletic broke the news that the University of
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UMass has been in the A-10 for over 40 years! Back when UMass was good, this was the basketball line-up:
UMass, Dayton, Duquesne, Fordham, GW, La Salle, St. Joes, St. Bonnies, URI
Temple, Virginia Tech, Xavier - gone
UMass is clearly making a bold move here. There is no way UMass makes this move without support of fans, alumni and boosters, many of whom were most likely driving the change. It's a conference of all large public universities while UMass would be second in size behind Buffalo. And it's more regional than any other conference.
Granted the MAC is not a good basketball conference but let's put down grandpa's cough syrup making comparisons to other crappy basketball conferences like America East, which only has 9 programs lead by UVM. After the top 10 they all stink. UMass will jump in as one of the top programs and lift the profile of the conference. It has a few programs who win regularly. Win the conference and go to the dance. May even help the Buffalos of the conference with recruiting and a rivalry.
Football had 5 MAC programs on the 2024 schedule already. Now it will play for new rivalries and a conference championship. It's a great conference to kick-start the program and start elevating it from the bottom 10 of FBS.
UMass, Dayton, Duquesne, Fordham, GW, La Salle, St. Joes, St. Bonnies, URI
Temple, Virginia Tech, Xavier - gone
UMass is clearly making a bold move here. There is no way UMass makes this move without support of fans, alumni and boosters, many of whom were most likely driving the change. It's a conference of all large public universities while UMass would be second in size behind Buffalo. And it's more regional than any other conference.
Granted the MAC is not a good basketball conference but let's put down grandpa's cough syrup making comparisons to other crappy basketball conferences like America East, which only has 9 programs lead by UVM. After the top 10 they all stink. UMass will jump in as one of the top programs and lift the profile of the conference. It has a few programs who win regularly. Win the conference and go to the dance. May even help the Buffalos of the conference with recruiting and a rivalry.
Football had 5 MAC programs on the 2024 schedule already. Now it will play for new rivalries and a conference championship. It's a great conference to kick-start the program and start elevating it from the bottom 10 of FBS.
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The support from alum at UMass was less than 50%. UMass is very much like UConn in that basketball drives the bus there and more recently hockey. No one cares about football in Amherst - they play in a football stadium that is as "big" as the XL Center and it is NEVER filled up. The MAC is a horrendous hoops conference where the 1 bid team will get a 13 seed in the NCAAT. There will be no huge recruiting classes to that conference. UMass' attendance will crater to the extent there ever were fans at games in either sport.
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More facts I suppose? Maybe look at the fact that UMass has sucked at the FBS level and is doing what it needs to do to improve, or are you entirely against change? It made the jump to FBS, so its only option is to try to improve and then the fans will turn out. That's the way it works, always has. I'm sure the alumni who know anything about football support this move. It doesn't affect hockey at all so no harm there.
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Yup more facts. No one will care in western Mass about the MAC. Just saw that the MAC is likely to add North Dakota State and Western Kentucky too. Football will be in better shape but fans still wont care and they wont be coming close to selling out a tiny football stadium. And basketball is toast which has always been the most popular sport at the school. The alumni who support football there will support the move but there just arent that many of them.
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Yeah those extra NCAA spots will definitely go to the MAC and not the power conferences.
It will be just like the bowl games. The MAC was a 1-bid bowl conference until bowls dramatically expanded. Now, every MAC team with a 6-6 record or better is likely in a bowl game.
The majority of teams in the expanded NCAA tournament will likely be from the P5, but not all of them. If a MAC team dominates the regular season, but loses in the MAC Tournament, that team will likely be in the field in the expanded tournament. Same with most other conferences.
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Um. Boston College is light years better than UMass and us, 2 seasons ago notwithstanding... UMass can play Maine each year. I'd rather face BC though I find them to be a boring team akin to a Syracuse. Pretty vanilla teams anyway you slice it.