Indeed. But wasn't the on-campus facility minimum requirement for football suppose to be 30k+ in terms of seating capacity? Plus, I bet UMass has an on-campus facility for basketball/hockey of at least 10k+.

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Short-term, a number of games vs. MAC teams can be converted from confernece games to OOC games.

And they can schedule against: Army, Navy, BYU, and perhaps whomever moves up to that the sun Belt #12 slot.

Long term, they need to be in a conference.
I could see them eventually in the AAC, but nobody is going to invite them right now after going 2-22 or whatever....

Maybe Quinn could tell us what is happeneing regarding a larger on-campus football stadium.

I think they may have played vs. UConn in the Pat's Gillette Stadium in Foxboro (but that's a haul !).


Some schools do use NFL stadums.
Pitt plays at Heinz Field,
Temple plays at the Linc,
USF plays at Raymond James,
Miami plays at the Dolphins place, but is looking for a new stadium closer to Coral Gables.

If the host stadium is too far from campus, it would tend to discourage attendance.

Tute, keep in mind that football is NOT the only talk-about sport for whether or not it's about success (in this case 2-22 for UMass fb in its first 2 seasons on the FBS level). But what about on other sports with at least moderate success such as basketball, which they're a traditional team (like Temple) in the A-10 days within several years since that conference's inception?

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With an average attendance of under 16,000 per game in 2013, I doubt that UMass needs a larger playpen.

Some of those were played at the Patriots home field a few hours away from Amherst.
They need to win and then they will get fans.
I thought they planned on going from 17k to 25k.
Tulane is scheduling its home games at a 25k on campus stadium.

If you want to climb up through the FBS ranks, football is THE sport.

To illustrate my point, HOW MANY National chmpionships has UConn won in men's and women's basketball ?
OODLES !
And how much attnetion has that earned them from the Big Ten / ACC when considering expansion ?


There is an unenforced rule that FBS schools are supposed ot average 15,000 per home game in football.
16,000 is barely there, although it's pretty respectable considering the team has had back-to-back 1-11 seasons.

Whipple is adecent coach. I think he wil improve that dramatically.
The AAC (Big East) has let CIncy get away with a 28,000 seat stadium for a while (although I think it has recently or is currently undergoing expansion).
I would think, if UMass aspires to AAC membership, an attendance of 30,000 or so might be required.

Agree with this thought as a surface point with distinct parameters. As to the B1G haven not taken UConn so far, they use the AAU as part of their driven cause, and adding Maryland and Rutgers was much about a market decision with perhaps more to come.
In my opinion, it is the ACC that, comparatively, could have made more plausible and strategic choices with expansion. The ACC purports to value basketball so much, but they pass on UConn? And while UConn football lacks lofty distinction, they have played in a BCS game before and have won some minor bowl games in their relatively short history on their current level.
Pitt has not been a consistent football power since what, the late 70s? Syracuse has very dated history as a football power. BC has been up and down since the Flutie days, and have not turned out to be, so far, the New England goldmine that the ACC had expected.
And it is the ACC that took Notre Dame without complete conference football.
The ACC had said 'no' repeatedly to West Virginia who had strong football credentials. And WVU basketball had been doing very well during the last round of expansion.
The ACC cost themselves Maryland, and added Louisville as a replacement. Granted, Louisville has been on a roll in basketball and football. But the ACC also tossed their 'academic elitism' argument on this selection, and certainly deviated from the 'east coast' mantra they traditionally claimed. The same geographic factor applies as to Notre Dame though Notre Dame sees the east as a prime part of their implied national domain. Now of course, Notre Dame seeks more from the south.

UConn had strained relations with the ACC stemming from the first ACC raid on the BE around 2003. Recall UConn spent money on facilities and staff to upgrade for BE fb, only to see the BE start to crumble. Then the lawsuits. Add to this, BC was no friend to UConn in any of this and fought to keep UConn from better options such as serious ACC consideration. BC wants the New England turf as all theirs for big time fb and related. The problem with this notion is that BC is not delivering on it, and there is the fear UConn could do the better job with it.

SEC expansion was smart methodology and it has showed. B1G expansion met their objectives to date, but the Maryland acquisition has been a messy process and what the B1G shall ultimate gain from them and Rutgers is unclear. PAC12 expansion with Utah and Colorado remains a work in progress in hopes of showing great results. The Big 12 is stuck in 'more with less' and 'see what happens' mode.

Dealing with much less revenue and resources, and having generally more modest and lower profile schools (left-outs) to choose from, I perceive conferences such as the AAC, Sun Belt, and CUSA, with a few exceptions, have approached expansion, replacements, and re-aligning, with better skill applications, compared to the very petty, controversial, and flawed strategic approaches the ACC has displayed.

Agree with your last paragraph, if you insert "AAC (since Marinatto was ousted and Aresco came aboard)".

I also feel the current MWC alignment is quite sensible,
as is the MAC (which really wsn't faced with any upheaval at all).

From what I've read, it's staying in that 17-20K range, not adding much, if any, seating. It's getting nice expensive facelift, but it's barely passable for FBS.



It's about UMD and RU's enrollment as much as it is market and academics. UMD was the ACC's second biggest school, and Rutgers was the largest before the directional Floridas. "Big statey" indeed. From the numbers, UConn would be the smallest member other than JHU and Northwestern...Storrs is smaller than Lincoln. And in UConn's case, it doesn't help having a football stadium 20+ miles away from campus.

The AAU thing is overstated to a degree, especially now with Perlman's thoughts on membership chances, but Nebraska's membership vote occurred at an AAU event, and the conversation that opened the negotiations for Maryland happened at one as well. The AAU functions are like added opportunities for Big Ten member school leadership to mingle and conspire...being a member of the AAU is only important because it looks like they are all of a common vision. If it was really that important, Nebraska wouldn't be a member...they were in trouble with the AAU for years, and probably made more enemies after they dared to call out some of the other members they claimed to outperform (that group included Princeton, which, I guess you just don't do).

And let's not forget that the Big Ten has doggedly pursued Notre Dame (who is NOT an AAU member institution).

Is there any chance that Umass could be invited for everything but football right now? the conference is at 11 schools for basketball. Could they get some type of deal that Notre Dame got lets say 3 to 4 games a year or so.(maybe 2 home and 2 away) While there no where near the level of Notre Dame they could be a easy win for some AAC teams and the gives Umass some games guaranteed a year.

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Would UMass be interested in that ?

It's not a bad suggestion,
however it's not clear UMass would embrace it (due to travel considerations, and would it help / hurt them from a BB RPI stand-point ?).

If football were included in the offer, I'm sure they would jump all over it.

Totally, and probably will never be an AAU member, either. It's not the school's mission.

But, Notre Dame, like Nebraska, is about legacy. Schools that were Big Ten-like, just not in the Big Ten. How do UConn and UMass stack up to that? Who looks more like the Big Ten school?

As for UMass and anything AAC-related, UConn's probably the fat guy blocking the door, and Temple's hardly rescue. UMass SHOULD be where the AAC goes next...I doubt they do until UConn is out or thrown a big bone.

Putting everything related with business or financial issues within this conference aside, but how about those UConn Huskies men's and women's basketball teams? It's only the inaugural season of the AAC, but talk about the success it's having so far. Having potential NCAA tournament contenders like UConn, Cincinnati, SMU and even the defending champ (now dethroned) in Louisville. On the women's side, UConn is unbeaten (like former conference rival Notre Dame, now in the ACC on its debut). Imagine these two in the women's title game. Anyways, I wonder after the end of the men's and women's basketball national title games, I bet that UConn will stay in the AAC in a few years to at least help build as a huge mid-major basketball-spekked all-sports conference (aside from football of course), even WAY before either being considered to bring attention to either the Big TEN or the ACC as a potential expansion candidate. Any thoughts?

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Not going to happen. UMass has 2 years to work things out while collecting MAC money and A-10 money and credits. They should try for the last Sunbelt opening and the annual million dollar play off payment leaving the rest of their sports in the A-10 while they try to work things out the last 2 years in the MAC and go from there even if it means playing as an independent for FB for a couple of years. If things aren't working out they can make another run at the MAC for all sports possibly with James Madison all sports to hide out for a while while waiting for an AAC invite down the road. The A-10 may loose another team or 2 to the New BE that may change the mind set of UMass as the A-10 spirals downward with 2 more defections. In the mean time their main goal is the AAC down the road.

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