UMass Kicked out of MAC Conference

[Potomac Griz]

And how soon until the American Athletic Conference comes calling?

Kind of wondered that too. That could be a great opportunity for the AAC to steal a very good basketball program from the A10 by taking UMass into their conference for all sports. The AAC of course is a great basketball conference too (UConn, Louisville, etc etc) so it wouldn't be the gigantic step down to the MAC that UMass would have had to make to stay in the MAC for football.

This could turn out to be a big positive for UMass. Guess we'll find out soon.

 

[FosterGrant]

Louisville is outta there after this season. Going to the ACC.

(UConn weeps over that, of course.)

 

[Potomac Griz]

Louisville is outta there after this season. Going to the ACC.

(UConn weeps over that, of course.)

So they'll likely be looking for a good replacement then. They might take a hard look at UMass then. That would give UMass an upgrade in terms of conference for football (better than the MAC) and a close to equal (sometimes better, sometimes not) conference for basketball.

Now if the Griz could just be a football only member of the Big Sky...maybe our basketball team could find itself in a decent conference. Hell.. the Sun Belt would be an upgrade

 

[ordigger]

Really, you don't say. This is old news....at least to me. Hahahaha....now if you only knew what was being discussed in regard to the football team.

Never at any time did UMass even seriously consider joining the MAC as a full time member. I know a certain someone that made his opinion very clear in that regard.

 

[PlayerRep]

UMass drew a total of 95,000 fans for the year (6 games). If you think that's good attendance, so be it.

At 15,830 fans per game UMass had higher attendance than they've ever had at the FCS level in their first official FBS year last year. So yes, I think having the highest average attendance the school has ever had is "good".

Do you think their FCS attendance averages of 10,000 or 11,000 were better than drawing 15,830 on average?

Since you pointed out the low attendance in their last 2 games of the season this year it's only fair to point out the attendance of their last two games when they were FCS.

vs Villanova: 10,012
vs James Madison: 7,103

Guess their trending in FCS was bad too at the end of seasons

Again, UMass has completed its SECOND year in FBS. Thus, in its FIRST year of FBS, UMass averaged 10,005 fans (not its last year in FCS). UMass averaged about 14,000 in attendance over its last 5 years in FBS. See quote below. Jeez, at least get your facts right. And no, I don't think having 15,830 attendance in FBS is better than having 14,000 in FCS. Do you?

UMass ticket prices are cheap too. Looks like the 2014 prices are $20 and $16.67 per game. http://www.umassathletics.com/tickets/umas-ticket-prices.html#footbl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; At that price, UMass made about $35,000 more per game (or about $200,000 for the season) more than it made in FCS. Do you think this even covered the cost of transporting the team and students to Boston for the games--let alone the millions of dollars of additional cost per year to be in FBS?

See this Globe article from Dec. 2012 entitled: "In move up, UMass football sees empty seats, high costs: Empty seats at Gillette, high costs mar move to elite competition"

"Over the previous five years, they had played before average crowds of 13,937 at the 17,000-seat McGuirk Alumni Stadium, on the UMass Amherst campus."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/12/12/umass-football-plagued-attendance-problem/g7gKSRY6HhclPTsOgc9tpM/story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[get'em_griz]

UMass drew a total of 95,000 fans for the year (6 games). If you think that's good attendance, so be it.

At 15,830 fans per game UMass had higher attendance than they've ever had at the FCS level in their first official FBS year last year. So yes, I think having the highest average attendance the school has ever had is "good".

Do you think their FCS attendance averages of 10,000 or 11,000 were better than drawing 15,830 on average?

Since you pointed out the low attendance in their last 2 games of the season this year it's only fair to point out the attendance of their last two games when they were FCS.

vs Villanova: 10,012
vs James Madison: 7,103

Guess their trending in FCS was bad too at the end of seasons

Again, UMass has completed its SECOND year in FBS. Thus, in its FIRST year of FBS, UMass averaged 10,005 fans (not its last year in FCS). UMass averaged about 14,000 in attendance over its last 5 years in FBS. See quote below. Jeez, at least get your facts right. And no, I don't think having 15,830 attendance in FBS is better than having 14,000 in FCS. Do you?

UMass ticket prices are cheap too. Looks like the 2014 prices are $20 and $16.67 per game. http://www.umassathletics.com/tickets/umas-ticket-prices.html#footbl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; At that price, UMass made about $35,000 more per game (or about $200,000 for the season) more than it made in FCS. Do you think this even covered the cost of transporting the team and students to Boston for the games--let alone the millions of dollars of additional cost per year to be in FBS?

See this Globe article from Dec. 2012 entitled: "In move up, UMass football sees empty seats, high costs: Empty seats at Gillette, high costs mar move to elite competition"

"Over the previous five years, they had played before average crowds of 13,937 at the 17,000-seat McGuirk Alumni Stadium, on the UMass Amherst campus."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/12/12/umass-football-plagued-attendance-problem/g7gKSRY6HhclPTsOgc9tpM/story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think the point is that, FOR UMass, the attendance they've had since they have been in the FBS has been great for them and much better than any attendance they had in the FCS. To some, this shows that UMass attendance has improved and will continue to improve when they get back into their stadium close to campus. Is averaging 15,000 fans great for an FBS team? Not even close. But it looks like UMass is slowly improving their attendance, which they were unable to do as an FCS school.

 

[PlayerRep]

UMass drew a total of 95,000 fans for the year (6 games). If you think that's good attendance, so be it.

At 15,830 fans per game UMass had higher attendance than they've ever had at the FCS level in their first official FBS year last year. So yes, I think having the highest average attendance the school has ever had is "good".

Do you think their FCS attendance averages of 10,000 or 11,000 were better than drawing 15,830 on average?

Since you pointed out the low attendance in their last 2 games of the season this year it's only fair to point out the attendance of their last two games when they were FCS.

vs Villanova: 10,012
vs James Madison: 7,103

Guess their trending in FCS was bad too at the end of seasons

Again, UMass has completed its SECOND year in FBS. Thus, in its FIRST year of FBS, UMass averaged 10,005 fans (not its last year in FCS). UMass averaged about 14,000 in attendance over its last 5 years in FBS. See quote below. Jeez, at least get your facts right. And no, I don't think having 15,830 attendance in FBS is better than having 14,000 in FCS. Do you?

UMass ticket prices are cheap too. Looks like the 2014 prices are $20 and $16.67 per game. http://www.umassathletics.com/tickets/umas-ticket-prices.html#footbl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; At that price, UMass made about $35,000 more per game (or about $200,000 for the season) more than it made in FCS. Do you think this even covered the cost of transporting the team and students to Boston for the games--let alone the millions of dollars of additional cost per year to be in FBS?

See this Globe article from Dec. 2012 entitled: "In move up, UMass football sees empty seats, high costs: Empty seats at Gillette, high costs mar move to elite competition"

"Over the previous five years, they had played before average crowds of 13,937 at the 17,000-seat McGuirk Alumni Stadium, on the UMass Amherst campus."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/12/12/umass-football-plagued-attendance-problem/g7gKSRY6HhclPTsOgc9tpM/story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think the point is that, FOR UMass, the attendance they've had since they have been in the FBS has been great for them and much better than any attendance they had in the FCS. To some, this shows that UMass attendance has improved and will continue to improve when they get back into their stadium close to campus. Is averaging 15,000 fans great for an FBS team? Not even close. But it looks like UMass is slowly improving their attendance, which they were unable to do as an FCS school.

Jeez, read the post you responded to. UMass' attendance average for its 2 years in FBS is much lower than it's attendance average for its last 5 years in FCS. It's FBS average is about 12,415 compared to his last 5 years in FCS average of about 14,000. Yes, UMass attendance went up last year in its second year of FBS, but it was way down in its first year of FBS compared to its 5-year average in FCS.

 

[ordigger]

One positive out of this, is that it's nice to see a program put their combined programs over the football team. Rare in this day and age. Although the clause was in the contract, there are some that felt this was a blackmail/betrayal by the MAC, who really decided to try this approach now because of the upswing of some programs for the Minutemen, ie the men's basketball team.

Not many within UMass's family will miss the MAC.

 

[Potomac Griz]

Jeez, read the post you responded to. UMass' attendance average for its 2 years in FBS is much lower than it's attendance average for its last 5 years in FCS. It's FBS average is about 12,415 compared to his last 5 years in FCS average of about 14,000. Yes, UMass attendance went up last year in its second year of FBS, but it was way down in its first year of FBS compared to its 5-year average in FCS.

You are incorrect about UMass being officially FBS for 2 years. The 2012 season they were "reclassifying" according to the NCAA. 2013 they were full FBS. So they've only played 1 official year in the FBS, which they drew 15,830. If you don't agree with that you'll have to take it up with the NCAA, they are the ones who slap the reclassifying tag on teams before making them official.

From the wiki article on UMass football: "The NCAA made a formal announcement of UMass' admission to FBS in the Summer of 2013 after the program met specified measures over its two transitioning years."

As for your attendance numbers (in the bolded area of your quote), they are wrong as well unfortunately. The last 5 years as FCS members they drew:
2007: 11,709
2008: 12,383
2009: 10.887
2010: 13,005
2011: 10,005

Add those up, divide them by 5 and you get an average of 11,597.8. Not "about 14,000". So even if we go with the incorrect view that UMass has been officially in the FBS for 2 years (counting their reclassifying year), their "2 years" in the FBS still drew more fans on average than their last 5 in the FCS. If we count the 2011 season as a transitional year too (which would be fair) it still comes only comes out to 11,929.4 fans in their previous 5 years (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010).

Here are their attendance numbers straight from the NCAA and UMass for the past 11 seasons.

2003: 7,618 (FCS)
2004: 8,838 (FCS)
2005: 9,353 (FCS)
2006: 11,663 (FCS)
2007: 11,709 (FCS)
2008: 12,383 (FCS)
2009: 10,887 (FCS)
2010: 13,005 (FCS)
2011: 10,005 (FCS, but a transitional year)
2012: 10.901 (Reclassifying to FBS, playing an FBS schedule but not officially FBS yet)
2013: 15,830 (FBS)

Just curious, where did you get attendance numbers showing they averaged "about 14,000" over their last 5 years in the FCS?

 

[ordigger]

UMass, behind the scenes would like to be in the AAC (obviously). Their plan calls for bringing another school with them to the AAC (rumor is Buffalo). However the likelihood of this happening is minimal. There are some with UConn that would block a UMass move, is what I heard....because the two schools are to "close". The irony is UMass would love to be a rival with UConn. Even in the AAC though there are not many natural rivals left. UMass is willing to join all sports with the AAC, but not the Sun Belt where if they landed they would only want to be a football only school, remaining in A-10.

 

[PlayerRep]

1. From a UMass press release. UMass played in FBS in 2012 and 2013. That's 2 years, not 1.

"FOXBORO, Mass. - The University of Massachusetts is pleased to announce it will be elevating its football program to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and will become a football member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The formal announcement was made at Gillette Stadium, where the Minutemen will be playing their home games. UMass will play a full FBS and MAC schedule beginning with the 2012 football season and by 2013 be eligible for the MAC championship and bowl participation. In 2011, UMass will continue to participate in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) but will not be eligible NCAA postseason play."

http://www.umassathletics.com/fbs.html#00" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

2. Here's what I posted above. The 13,937 figure for the 5-year average is from the Boston Globe article. If you don't like the Globe's figure, take it up with them. I just quoted it and linked the article.

"See this Globe article from Dec. 2012 entitled: "In move up, UMass football sees empty seats, high costs: Empty seats at Gillette, high costs mar move to elite competition"

"Over the previous five years, they had played before average crowds of 13,937 at the 17,000-seat McGuirk Alumni Stadium, on the UMass Amherst campus."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... story.html"

 

[Eriul]

Pr has a really tough time reading or he just hates facts...

 

[Potomac Griz]

1. From a UMass press release. UMass played in FBS in 2012 and 2013. That's 2 years, not 1.

"FOXBORO, Mass. - The University of Massachusetts is pleased to announce it will be elevating its football program to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and will become a football member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The formal announcement was made at Gillette Stadium, where the Minutemen will be playing their home games. UMass will play a full FBS and MAC schedule beginning with the 2012 football season and by 2013 be eligible for the MAC championship and bowl participation. In 2011, UMass will continue to participate in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) but will not be eligible NCAA postseason play."

http://www.umassathletics.com/fbs.html#00" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You need to read your own link... From that link:

"UMass will go through two years as a transitional member of FBS, the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The NCAA would make a formal announcement of UMass' admission to FBS in the Summer of 2013 after the program successfully meets the specified measures over its two transitioning years. The primary criteria center around average attendance, an increase in scholarships from 63 to 85 and specific scheduling requirements. "

Notice the date 2013 for UMass being officially in the FBS? Notice the two year transitional period where they aren't officially in the FBS?

2. Here's what I posted above. The 13,937 figure for the 5-year average is from the Boston Globe article. If you don't like the Globe's figure, take it up with them. I just quoted it and linked the article.

"See this Globe article from Dec. 2012 entitled: "In move up, UMass football sees empty seats, high costs: Empty seats at Gillette, high costs mar move to elite competition"

"Over the previous five years, they had played before average crowds of 13,937 at the 17,000-seat McGuirk Alumni Stadium, on the UMass Amherst campus."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... story.html"

Again, you need to read your own link... btw here's the fixed link since the one you posted isn't clickable (have to surround large links with link here for them to work right or they get mangled): Here ya go

Here is the FULL quote (why did you leave off the first part?):
"The sea of empty seats was especially stunning because the Minutemen had been accustomed to nearly packing their campus stadium for homecoming games. Over the previous five years, they had played before average crowds of 13,937 at the 17,000-seat McGuirk Alumni Stadium, on the UMass Amherst campus."

He's talking about the average attendance for homecoming games, not the full seasons. Pretty obvious when you read the full quote in my opinion. Not going to check his numbers, because I really don't care if he's right or wrong about the attendance of homecoming games... this was an opinion piece, not an official list of attendance anyway... I think I'll continue trusting the actual UMass stats and the NCAA's stats for attendance figures rather than some ranting author in an opinion section

Oh, one last bit of info...know what UMass drew for homecoming last year? 20,571.

 

[Eriul]

Potomac please stop posting. You didn't attend an Ivy League school so your opinion on what was actually written is wrong. Only those who attended Ivy League schools have the priveledge of understanding written language.

 

[uofmman1122]

 

[PlayerRep]

1. From a UMass press release. UMass played in FBS in 2012 and 2013. That's 2 years, not 1.

"FOXBORO, Mass. - The University of Massachusetts is pleased to announce it will be elevating its football program to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and will become a football member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The formal announcement was made at Gillette Stadium, where the Minutemen will be playing their home games. UMass will play a full FBS and MAC schedule beginning with the 2012 football season and by 2013 be eligible for the MAC championship and bowl participation. In 2011, UMass will continue to participate in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) but will not be eligible NCAA postseason play."

http://www.umassathletics.com/fbs.html#00" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You need to read your own link... From that link:

"UMass will go through two years as a transitional member of FBS, the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The NCAA would make a formal announcement of UMass' admission to FBS in the Summer of 2013 after the program successfully meets the specified measures over its two transitioning years. The primary criteria center around average attendance, an increase in scholarships from 63 to 85 and specific scheduling requirements. "

Notice the date 2013 for UMass being officially in the FBS? Notice the two year transitional period where they aren't officially in the FBS?

2. Here's what I posted above. The 13,937 figure for the 5-year average is from the Boston Globe article. If you don't like the Globe's figure, take it up with them. I just quoted it and linked the article.

"See this Globe article from Dec. 2012 entitled: "In move up, UMass football sees empty seats, high costs: Empty seats at Gillette, high costs mar move to elite competition"

"Over the previous five years, they had played before average crowds of 13,937 at the 17,000-seat McGuirk Alumni Stadium, on the UMass Amherst campus."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... story.html"

Again, you need to read your own link... btw here's the fixed link since the one you posted isn't clickable (have to surround large links with link here for them to work right or they get mangled): Here ya go

Here is the FULL quote (why did you leave off the first part?):
"The sea of empty seats was especially stunning because the Minutemen had been accustomed to nearly packing their campus stadium for homecoming games. Over the previous five years, they had played before average crowds of 13,937 at the 17,000-seat McGuirk Alumni Stadium, on the UMass Amherst campus."

He's talking about the average attendance for homecoming games, not the full seasons. Pretty obvious when you read the full quote in my opinion. Not going to check his numbers, because I really don't care if he's right or wrong about the attendance of homecoming games... this was an opinion piece, not an official list of attendance anyway... I think I'll continue trusting the actual UMass stats and the NCAA's stats for attendance figures rather than some ranting author in an opinion section

Oh, one last bit of info...know what UMass drew for homecoming last year? 20,571.

I'll give u the attendance average thing, but UMass has been in FBS for 2 years. Look at the schedule. Look at how the press treats it. They weren't in FCS. It doesn't matter if they are still technically transitional. Their attendance is terrible, it was declining at the end of the year, their revenues from games is very low.

 

[Eriul]

Except transitional means the absence of bowl eligibility... Which is kinda a big deal to most fbs schools and kinda is a huge motivation for the season ...

Also scholarship differences

Saying the transitional years is the same as being in the fbs is just outright stupid

 

[Speedy Grizzales]

The Sun Belt Conference is now suddenly aroused.

Gringos, the only thing aroused is the player rep as he types uno handed very well. oh, and his wife when she is with me....

 

[PlayerRep]

Except transitional means the absence of bowl eligibility... Which is kinda a big deal to most fbs schools and kinda is a huge motivation for the season ...

Also scholarship differences

Saying the transitional years is the same as being in the fbs is just outright stupid

Don't think bowl eligibility is a big deal for a team that has been 1-11 in its first 2 seasons of FBS.

 

[PlayerRep]

The Sun Belt Conference is now suddenly aroused.

Gringos, the only thing aroused is the player rep as he types uno handed very well. oh, and his wife when she is with me....

Are you here? http://www.waterfallgardens.com/about_peace_lodge.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;