UMass as leverage | Page 3 | The Boneyard

UMass as leverage

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Guys, UMASS is not leverage because the potential, to the extent it is there at all, would be too long in development. UCONN just about owns college athletics in New England as it is and if this conference realignment shakes out reasonably well for UCONN the die will be cast for BC's death nail. Why bring in an institution with more potential long-term capabilities in UMASS.

This thread is really kind of silly.....
 
FfldCntyFan said:
How many of those 32k were New Hampshire fans (a school who I believe normally has better attendance than UMass)?

There are a ton of UNH grads in the Boston ara and unlike many UMass grads, they actually prefer admitting to where they went to school and take pride in their alma mater.
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You want to talk taking pride in your Alma Mater? Look at some of the threads on this forum. Many UCONN fans aren't taking pride in their Alma Mater's football program right now. Half the posters are trashing the place.
 
metsfan2323 said:
You want to talk taking pride in your Alma Mater? Look at some of the threads on this forum. Many UCONN fans aren't taking pride in their Alma Mater's football program right now. Half the posters are trashing the place.
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I never said that it wasn't a problem with UConn (in all candor, it is far more existent outside of the Boneyard than in it).

I would however be stunned if UNH did not provide at least 14k of the 32k fans at that game and would not be surprised if their fans outnumbered UMass fans.
 
This is about the THREAT of adding UMass. The acc tried to destroy the big east in 2003, we found 3 good replacements and it did not work. They are trying again to destroy the big east again, but they haven't quite done it. If it was proposed that the big east was going to go to 12 schools and keep the catholics, adding rivalry schools for current members: Houston for TCU, Central FL for USF(competition for miami, fsu), ECU (competition for the carolina acc schools),UMass(competition for bc)Temple and Villanova(takes over philly), then perhaps the Big East retains its BCS. Does the acc want to wait for all of this to MIGHT happen and then pick off UCONN or Rutgers a few years down the road afterwards? It doesn't matter if the new schools are not good right at this moment, they could be in short order(UCONN, USF). The threat of keeping the basketball onlies keeps the big east very strong in basketball still.

This is all hypothetical that is leaked to the press by UCONN or Rutgers. The acc could dismiss it, but the big east is still around after 2 attempts to destroy it. If the acc takes UCONN and Rutgers now they destroy the big east for good. If the acc waits, they get a bunch more competition they didn't plan on. If they are waiting on ND,who says you have to stop at 16, take them as #17. It also makes ND decide quicker.

This is something UCONN does not want to do for real unless we don't get a seat at the super conference table. The problem is the longer we wait, the tougher it will be to recruit because all of the other coaches will tell the kids that the big east will be losing their BCS. If we have to wait 3-5 years to get in our product won't be very good and it would take much longer to build back up.
 
If they will change their name, I vote we let them play.
 
metsfan2323 said:
UMASS drew 32,000 people to Gillette last year for a game against New Hampshire. If they could draw that many for New Hampshire i'm sure they could get
close to 50,000 for Big East games. I'd be willing to bet that UMASS could draw more fans to games than BC which would have to be pretty embarrassing to BC.

The question people need to ask themselves is can UMASS generate more fan support than BC if they were moved into a quality league? The answer to that question is absolutely YES, which is why UMASS as leverage might work.
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I agree. A UMASS vs UCONN football game if both teams are in the Big East or some other BCS conference would easily draw 40-50k; easily. That is one reason why UMass should be considered period. It's the same reason why BC vs UCONN should continue. Simply because there will be LOCAL interest!
 
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JcHusky95 said:
I agree. A UMASS vs UCONN football game if both teams are in the Big East or some other BCS conference would easily draw 40-50k; easily. That is one reason why UMass should be considered period. It's the same reason why BC vs UCONN should continue. Simply because there will be LOCAL interest!
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Again, adding a 3rd BCS program in New England is stupid for 3 main cases:

1) Decreases our already thin recruiting base. Maybe some Jordan Tordmans in the future decide to play for the state U and not go to UConn.
2) If we don't have too many more defects we're going to need programs to come in and help stabilize the BCS bid. What won't help with this is a team transitioning from D1AA to the Big East.
3) Nobody cares about UMass and it further weakens are already crappy brand.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
It is about choices. ECU is the #5 team in a large poor state. UCF is the #5 team in a very large state that has several of the top programs in college football to compete with. UMass is the #1 school in a large state that has weak competition for viewers and fans.
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Yes, the Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, New England Patriots, BCU Beagles, and UConn Huskies are weak competition for viewers and fans.

I believe ECU averages more fans than UConn, if not they are very, very close. Not bad for the #5 team in a large poor state. I'm gonna put my neck out and say they average a lot more fans than UMass does. As much as the thought of them in the big east dissapoints me, UCF and ECU (and Navy) have to be near the top of the list. UMass should be the very last team we consider if you want to stay in a BCS league.

You continue to maintain we need to keep the big east together, but you are completely ambivalent to our BCS status in the process. If we're going to keep the Big East together, job #1 has to be maintaining the BCS status and Umass couldn't do more to hurt that goal. A fact you conveniently ignore despite hundreds of declarations about what the big east should and shouldn't do.
 
UMass & Temple hurt the Big East today, 10/3/11 but what about 5 years from now? 10 years? You have to stop looking at this like some quick fix solution and all of our BCS prayers will be answered. Are UMass and Temple moving in the same direction UConn is? Will Southern schools be the answer to the Big East long term or is it wiser to concentrate more on regionalization(Penn St, Navy, MD, Pitt, Cuse, BC, Temple, UMass)?
 
Unless somehow the state of Massachusetts can solve its budget problems, and miraculously they decide to stop treating UMass like a red-headed stepchild, there is no money for UMass to make a jump to Div. 1a. It's fantasy.
 
Mr. Wonderful said:
Unless somehow the state of Massachusetts can solve its budget problems, and miraculously they decide to stop treating UMass like a red-headed stepchild, there is no money for UMass to make a jump to Div. 1a. It's fantasy.
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Don't tell UMass that, because they have already announced they are upgrading to D1A.
 
Are any of us going to be alive when that happens?
 
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OK, UMass will be D-1a in two years. You're on record with this.
 
Don't be fooled by the UMass-UNH attendance last year. Half of that was UNH fans, it was not considered a UMass home game, but rather a neutral site game. They didn't draw a half-full crowd when their basketball team played Memphis at TD Garden a couple of years ago, listed at 8,000. Here's a video from the closing moments of the game, 8,000 is generous. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT4L07xdC-c The balcony wasn't even open. UMass football drawing 50K of their own fans at a venue 100 miles from their own campus is a total pipe dream. There are more BC and BU hockey fans in this part of the state than there are UMass football and basketball fans. Whoever said UMass is the #1 school in this state is a complete fool.
 
metsfan2323 said:
UMASS drew 32,000 people to Gillette last year for a game against New Hampshire. If they could draw that many for New Hampshire i'm sure they could get
close to 50,000 for Big East games. I'd be willing to bet that UMASS could draw more fans to games than BC which would have to be pretty embarrassing to BC.

The question people need to ask themselves is can UMASS generate more fan support than BC if they were moved into a quality league? The answer to that question is absolutely YES, which is why UMASS as leverage might work.
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I'm sorry to be blunt, but you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about and are categorically wrong. BC soundly trumps UMass in terms of fan support. I know we all grasp at straws here to find the most asinine reasons to hate BC, but this is absolutely wrong. Pretty soon we're going to start hearing that Northeastern has more fan support than BC.
 
brasssbonanzaa said:
BC soundly trumps UMass in terms of fan support.
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Because UMASS is division 2, That can change when they go to D1 and it would certainly change if they were in the Big East. Need proof? Yale had more football fan support in CT than UCONN did in the 80's...and in the 60's Yale had more football fan support than UCONN does now! The world changes, even the sportsworld.
 
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It's really hard to take UMass to the big east seriously when one of the most vocal supporters uses one game with an announced attendance of 32k against another local team to argue they are "sure" UMass would "get close to 50k for big east games". And the other most vocal supporter lectures others on his knowledge of market studies, while ignoring the impact of the pro teams in Mass and their affect on UMass' market share.
 
metsfan2323 said:
Because UMASS is division 2, That can change when they go to D1 and it would certainly change if they were in the Big East. Need proof? Yale had more football fan support in CT than UCONN did in the 80's...and in the 60's Yale had more football fan support than UCONN does now! The world changes, even the sportsworld.
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You cannot compare fan support in the 1960's. You also cannot compare fan support in different states with different schools, it's apples and oranges. Plus, Yale is FCS, so saying we eclipsed them isn't saying much. That's not proof. The proof is their marquee sport cannot fill 50% of the big arena in the city they're supposed to be drawing support from in their FBS move. UMass sports are not big here, they are not covered regularly in the newspapers/news stations unless something huge happens. UConn gets significantly more coverage here. As I stated, the 32k at the UMass-UNH game was half UNH fans, and believe me, they promoted that game to hell and were practically giving tickets away. The only seats outside of the lower level that were open were the small group of sections at the 50 yard line, and they did not sellout. The entire upper level and all other balconies were not open. It was also a neutral site game, so tickets were evenly distributed to both schools. Here's a picture from the game: http://blogs.umass.edu/jack4rl/files/2010/10/2010-10-23-17.41.21.jpg Point: There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that UMass football would ever draw 50K for a game at Gillette in the Big East, unless 25-30K of those people are UConn fans. Likewise, the suggestion that they would pass BC in fan support, even with BC down and being low on the totem pole to the pro teams, is backed by absolutely no facts whatsoever. Hell, Harvard averaged more fans lat year than UMass.
 
This thread has gone on for 5 pages, and it could have been stopped with brassbonanzaa's "hell Harvard averaged more fans last year than UMass". Case closed.
 
I'm not even sure that UMass could be used for leverage if someone's bank robbery was thwarted and the only hostage they had was UMass.
 
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