patfanmike

The Athletics Committee canceled its June 19th meeting. The task force that was announced back in Sept 2007 to study the move to FBS football was expected to report its findings at the March 27th meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for October 2nd.

Is it important for UMass to move to FBS for a branding/marketing perspective? Obviously Yes.

If the answer is yes what is the next step?
Establish and build financial support.

Some things I would like to see:

• Contact everyone in listed in every UMass database from every campus. Every alumnus, every supporter of UMass, every company in Massachusetts should be contacted.
• Send an e-mail message to everyone in the entire UMass database.
• Send a letter to everyone in the entire UMass database.
• Telephone everyone in the entire UMass database.

Bear in mind that UMass football represents the entire state of Massachusetts and should be supported by the entire UMass Family of 50K students. UMass football doesn't not only belong to Amherst.

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Scooter_McGruder

Until the Big East offers us a spot, I don't see it happening.

patfanmike

I don't expect the Big East to offer us a spot nor do I think it is in our best interest to join the BE.

We can't afford to join the BE. Today the MAC is the only viable affordable option. We should join the MAC as an associate member as Temple has done. We would be competitive in the MAC immediately and could expect to go to a Bowl Game within a few years.


We need to make incremental improvements.

We don't enter a Ph.D. program after grammar school and shouldn’t even consider the BE. The people who are expressing the opinion "the BE or nothing" are using it as an excuse not to become a FBS program.

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Scooter_McGruder

I don't know, the MAC kind of sucks. I mean, we can beat most of those teams right now. Honestly, who wants to play the Akron Zips and Bowling Green State Falcons and Kent State Flashes year in and year out? What has any team in that conference done in recent memory? The only team in MAC history to leave for a real conference was Cincinnati, and they left in 1953. I don't want to have to wait until I'm 70 for a chance to see UMass compete in a major conference.

I don't see the point of perpetually playing in the Meineke Car Care Bowl or whatever with no hope of real success in FBS. Why move up to a crappy conference in FBS when you're an annual competitor for the FCS national championship? The MAC is not an incremental increase, in my humble opinion. It is a lateral step at best.

Now I agree that the Big East will probably not come calling for a long while, so looks like we'll be in FCS for a good long time, and hopefully take home some more titles (Hopefully we have some more Liam Coens and Steve Baylarks and Marcel Shipps in our future)!

EDIT: A nitpick, but the link in your sig says "1988 National Champs" instead of "1998". Just thought you should be aware. Hopefully you'll be adding "2008" to that soon!