UMass Announces Intention To Play Football in Fall 2020

[huskymedic]

>>UMass is focused on a competitive start date in mid-October with development of a competitive multi-contest schedule already underway. All opponents, game dates and sites for the 2020 season will be announced as they are confirmed and will be scheduled based on the ability to meet campus and state regulations.<<

 

[Drew]

Lol we might be the smallest small-time program remaining in FBS. What a joke

 

[uconnsouth]

Sooo we can play now? With all the cancellations and moving parts, I’m sure DB can find some games

 

[Hoophound]

We may be looking into playing based on some things I’m hearing. The talk about playing UMass in the spring is all part of this discussion. Maybe we plan to do something similar, maybe we don’t. The biggest issue is that UMass may have jumped into the pool first because they were quietly seeing if they could get games. Now there may not be enough games to go around if we decide to jump in.

 

[Drew]

 

[Drew]

There is zero reason for us to not be playing this fall. Zero.

Given the independent schedule too we could easily fill in for games/teams that get postponed. Play multiple FCS games and we may actually have a chance to win some football games for once. Tell AD David Benedict and Randy to sack up and lets get these boys out on the field (just so long as it isn’t an inconvenience to Toronto FC!)

 

[gampelcrazies]

But I thought UConn was trend setters for cancelling. I was told no fall football.

Nothing ever goes right for UConn football. It's amazing.

 

[Palatine]

We cancelled way too soon. The NFL had zero Covid positives this week. But there doesn't seem to be a way out of this. Just sit back and take our medicine.

 

[Drew]

By the way- any moron still claiming UConn is “putting their student athletes first” for football by not playing while they allow a MLS team to play a full regular season at Rentschler and the school gears up to play basketball games beginning in November needs to revisit their opinion on what “putting student athletes first” means.

Putting your student athletes first means finding ways to safely allow for them to play the sport they’re on scholarship for. Which the school is LITERALLY DOING for men’s and women’s basketball beginning in November. Yet UConn can’t play football because it’s “not safe”? While we move into week 4 of the season and every league that canceled is trying to play? UMass is going to play! UMass! UConn sitting this season out is a complete and total joke and is beyond small time. I’m truly embarrassed by this and quite frankly I never thought I’d see the day when UConn is being big-timed by UMass but here we are. Complete and utter joke of an athletic department in Storrs.

 

[gwhuskyfan]

I can't believe we let UMass beat us to this. Disappointing

 

[gampelcrazies]

By the way- any moron still claiming UConn is “putting their student athletes first” for football by not playing while they allow a MLS team to play a full regular season at Rentschler and the school gears up to play basketball games beginning in November needs to revisit their opinion on what “putting student athletes first” means.

Putting your student athletes first means finding ways to safely allow for them to play the sport they’re on scholarship for. Which the school is LITERALLY DOING for men’s and women’s basketball beginning in November. Yet UConn can’t play football because it’s “not safe”? While we move into week 4 of the season and every league that canceled is trying to play? UMass is going to play! UMass! UConn sitting this season out is a complete and total joke and is beyond small time. I’m truly embarrassed by this and quite frankly I never thought I’d see the day when UConn is being big-timed by UMass but here we are. Complete and utter joke of an athletic department in Storrs.

And it's going to be funny when they let fans into Gampel

 

[SubbaBub]

By the way- any moron still claiming UConn is “putting their student athletes first” for football by not playing while they allow a MLS team to play a full regular season at Rentschler and the school gears up to play basketball games beginning in November needs to revisit their opinion on what “putting student athletes first” means.

Putting your student athletes first means finding ways to safely allow for them to play the sport they’re on scholarship for. Which the school is LITERALLY DOING for men’s and women’s basketball beginning in November. Yet UConn can’t play football because it’s “not safe”? While we move into week 4 of the season and every league that canceled is trying to play? UMass is going to play! UMass! UConn sitting this season out is a complete and total joke and is beyond small time. I’m truly embarrassed by this and quite frankly I never thought I’d see the day when UConn is being big-timed by UMass but here we are. Complete and utter joke of an athletic department in Storrs.

Pro v. Student athletes. That may not be obvious most of the time, but it's an important distinction.

Can it be done, sure. Should it? No, of course not.

 

[Drew]

Pro v. Student athletes. That may not be obvious most of the time, but it's an important distinction.

Can it be done, sure. Should it? No, of course not.

UConn is literally going to play basketball with fans in the arena in a month and a half.

 

[Drew]

And it's going to be funny when they let fans into Gampel

Complete and total joke. There literally isn’t an argument to make for not playing football while playing basketball this fall other than “we know the boosters and fans care more about basketball and we’ll lose money playing football”. Absolutely ridiculous.

 

[Hornet22]

We cancelled way too soon. The NFL had zero Covid positives this week. But there doesn't seem to be a way out of this. Just sit back and take our medicine.

FWIW, I saw a stat that said there were more games cancelled than played thus far. It hasn’t gone completely smooth either. Heck Memphis is already on their second consecutive cancellation. There’s nothing wrong with UConn making the decision to cancel at the time (they lost games because of conference only) given the info they had and then reassessing later on.

 

[MustangMan]

FWIW, I saw a stat that said there were more games cancelled than played thus far. It hasn’t gone completely smooth either. Heck Memphis is already on their second consecutive cancellation. There’s nothing wrong with UConn making the decision to cancel at the time (they lost games because of conference only) given the info they had and then reassessing later on.

Do you think they will reassess? should they?

Fact: There have been ZERO hospitalizations in CFB and HS FB (teams in many states are playing) related to Covid.

 

[Hornet22]

Do you think they will reassess? should they?

Fact: There have been ZERO hospitalizations in CFB and HS FB (teams in many states are playing) related to Covid.

I hear you man. Remember, it’s easy for a fan to make these decisions based on passion for sport, whatever statistics are out there- but more importantly not having to be responsible to these players like the coaching staff has. They have to consider a whole lot more in terms of hypotheticals than we as fans do. Simple as that. And I respect that. Doesn’t mean they made the right decision but I can respect it

 

[Exit 4]

This is fascinating. What a crazy timeline from 8/5 to 9/21.

 

[ChampHusky]

At this point, the program is better off taking a redshirt year instead of trying to ramp up quickly to play a couple of games in the fall. My main concern is athletes can't turn it on and turn it off. You are risking a ton of soft tissue injuries if you try to start play in a couple of weeks. Look at week 2 of the NFL as evidence. COVID aside, RE doesn't have the depth or horses to compete where we want this year. Let the boys develop into men, preserve the eligilibty of the seniors and let's come back in 2021 and try to win 6+ Games.

 

[MustangMan]

I hear you man. Remember, it’s easy for a fan to make these decisions based on passion for sport, whatever statistics are out there- but more importantly not having to be responsible to these players like the coaching staff has. They have to consider a whole lot more in terms of hypotheticals than we as fans do. Simple as that. And I respect that. Doesn’t mean they made the right decision but I can respect it

While I could understand (even if I disagreed with) the original decision, the only reason UConn shouldn’t be in the Fall is an inability to schedule enough games. (IMHO - 6 games would be better than playing in the Spring or not at all).

Simple fact: college football players face the most risk from attending college (including the parties that you know they attend). Football, properly managed, is a negligible additional risk.

 

[kibblesnbits]

There's no comparison for us between basketball and football because we don't have a league in football. It's as simple as that.

This UMass experiment should be interesting. The only school in NE, NY, NJ and PA that they could possibly schedule is Army as a replacement for the cancelled BYU game. It's most likely UMass could throw together a last minute slate of BYU plus squeeze in a few Sun Belt, CUSA and southern FCS schools (similar to Army's schedule mix) for a partial schedule. Another possibility is that this is a pitch to the AAC with a goal of getting membership. The AAC has already had six games cancelled so maybe UMass could agree to be their on-call replacement. Perhaps make a similar offer to another conference or two - when you lose a game because one team has an outbreak just give us 7 days notice and we'll just put our guys on a plane as a fill-in. At this point whatever schedule they put together isn't going to be meaningful, so why not prostitute the team to gain conference membership (AAC) or future scheduling considerations (P5)?

 

[Exit 4]

There's no comparison for us between basketball and football because we don't have a league in football. It's as simple as that.

This UMass experiment should be interesting. The only school in NE, NY, NJ and PA that they could possibly schedule is Army as a replacement for the cancelled BYU game. It's most likely UMass could throw together a last minute slate of BYU plus squeeze in a few Sun Belt, CUSA and southern FCS schools (similar to Army's schedule mix) for a partial schedule. Another possibility is that this is a pitch to the AAC with a goal of getting membership. The AAC has already had six games cancelled so maybe UMass could agree to be their on-call replacement. Perhaps make a similar offer to another conference or two - when you lose a game because one team has an outbreak just give us 7 days notice and we'll just put our guys on a plane as a fill-in. At this point whatever schedule they put together isn't going to be meaningful, so why not prostitute the team to gain conference membership (AAC) or future scheduling considerations (P5)?

I hear UMass is setting up to play any team that cancels on a Friday night because of COVid testing. They are volunteering to be the official standby / permanent substitute teacher of College football.

I am kidding......or am I?

 

[BigTenFan]

What a joke- Here is a University that told it's students not to come to campus to protect the community. They are happy taking tuition from kids to sit in bedrooms remotely and now they want to play football??
Looking at the big picture - power 5 conferences are playing football to get their TV contract revenue and extras.
Uconn and UMass should get their priorities straight and get the students learning on campus.
Both programs lose money on football and have no business putting a team on the field this fall

 

[JohnFSilver]

I think they should try. And I was against before.

Why? Because the rates are there and we have gotten more used to Covid on campus. That and rapid testing.

I wonder if UConn is going to revisit. Hard with Lamont, but a 4-6 game schedule could probably be done. BYU, army, liberty. It is still only September.

As long as we are ok with last minute cancellations.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

I think they should try. And I was against before.

Why? Because the rates are there and we have gotten more used to Covid on campus. That and rapid testing.

I wonder if UConn is going to revisit. Hard with Lamont, but a 4-6 game schedule could probably be done. BYU, army, liberty. It is still only September.

As long as we are ok with last minute cancellations.

This is where I am. I supported the decision at the time, but now it feels like schools have generally made it work. If the team now wants to play, then it makes sense to try and make it work.