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UMass > MAC for all sports in 2025-2026

NE Football said:
An annual “U” game between New England’s two premier football teams at Gillette Stadium might make it worthwhile for us to join the MAC as well. Football drives the bus, not basketball. A pathway to the playoffs is what we need.
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1) We can and most likely will continue to play UMass in football without joining the MAC
2) Playing that at Gillette in front of 6000 fans is a terrible idea
3) Basketball drives the bus at UConn
 
How Sway?! said:
If Delaware had gone to the MAC as well, it would be a maybe but with just UMass and Buffalo it is definitely not enticing. We are lucky to be in a spot where we are not desperate to get into a fb conference and can wait out to 2026+ to see what happens with the ACC and the CFP. For now our best move is to stay calm and work the back channels.
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We could strike up a move with the B12 sooner
 
huskymedic said:
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“The A10 has been a great partner, we’ve both had a ton of success together in all sports, especially basketball. It’s a nationally relevant league and I thank them.

But we want to play home football games on Thursday nights on ESPN8 the Ocho in front of 7 people instead of our usual 6.”
 
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UMass has been in the A-10 for over 40 years! Back when UMass was good, this was the basketball line-up:
UMass, Dayton, Duquesne, Fordham, GW, La Salle, St. Joes, St. Bonnies, URI
Temple, Virginia Tech, Xavier - gone

UMass is clearly making a bold move here. There is no way UMass makes this move without support of fans, alumni and boosters, many of whom were most likely driving the change. It's a conference of all large public universities while UMass would be second in size behind Buffalo. And it's more regional than any other conference.

Granted the MAC is not a good basketball conference but let's put down grandpa's cough syrup making comparisons to other crappy basketball conferences like America East, which only has 9 programs lead by UVM. After the top 10 they all stink. UMass will jump in as one of the top programs and lift the profile of the conference. It has a few programs who win regularly. Win the conference and go to the dance. May even help the Buffalos of the conference with recruiting and a rivalry.

Football had 5 MAC programs on the 2024 schedule already. Now it will play for new rivalries and a conference championship. It's a great conference to kick-start the program and start elevating it from the bottom 10 of FBS.
 
Kolumbo said:
UMass has been in the A-10 for over 40 years! Back when UMass was good, this was the basketball line-up:
UMass, Dayton, Duquesne, Fordham, GW, La Salle, St. Joes, St. Bonnies, URI
Temple, Virginia Tech, Xavier - gone

UMass is clearly making a bold move here. There is no way UMass makes this move without support of fans, alumni and boosters, many of whom were most likely driving the change. It's a conference of all large public universities while UMass would be second in size behind Buffalo. And it's more regional than any other conference.

Granted the MAC is not a good basketball conference but let's put down grandpa's cough syrup making comparisons to other crappy basketball conferences like America East, which only has 9 programs lead by UVM. After the top 10 they all stink. UMass will jump in as one of the top programs and lift the profile of the conference. It has a few programs who win regularly. Win the conference and go to the dance. May even help the Buffalos of the conference with recruiting and a rivalry.

Football had 5 MAC programs on the 2024 schedule already. Now it will play for new rivalries and a conference championship. It's a great conference to kick-start the program and start elevating it from the bottom 10 of FBS.
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The support from alum at UMass was less than 50%. UMass is very much like UConn in that basketball drives the bus there and more recently hockey. No one cares about football in Amherst - they play in a football stadium that is as "big" as the XL Center and it is NEVER filled up. The MAC is a horrendous hoops conference where the 1 bid team will get a 13 seed in the NCAAT. There will be no huge recruiting classes to that conference. UMass' attendance will crater to the extent there ever were fans at games in either sport.
 
Vuce said:
The support from alum at UMass was less than 50%. UMass is very much like UConn in that basketball drives the bus there and more recently hockey. No one cares about football in Amherst - they play in a football stadium that is as "big" as the XL Center and it is NEVER filled up. The MAC is a horrendous hoops conference where the 1 bid team will get a 13 seed in the NCAAT. There will be no huge recruiting classes to that conference. UMass' attendance will crater to the extent there ever were fans at games in either sport.
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More facts I suppose? Maybe look at the fact that UMass has sucked at the FBS level and is doing what it needs to do to improve, or are you entirely against change? It made the jump to FBS, so its only option is to try to improve and then the fans will turn out. That's the way it works, always has. I'm sure the alumni who know anything about football support this move. It doesn't affect hockey at all so no harm there.
 
The NCAA tournament is likely going to have a dramatic expansion in the near future. In which case, the MAC will no longer be a one-bid conference.
 
Kolumbo said:
More facts I suppose? Maybe look at the fact that UMass has sucked at the FBS level and is doing what it needs to do to improve, or are you entirely against change? It made the jump to FBS, so its only option is to try to improve and then the fans will turn out. That's the way it works, always has. I'm sure the alumni who know anything about football support this move. It doesn't affect hockey at all so no harm there.
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Yup more facts. No one will care in western Mass about the MAC. Just saw that the MAC is likely to add North Dakota State and Western Kentucky too. Football will be in better shape but fans still wont care and they wont be coming close to selling out a tiny football stadium. And basketball is toast which has always been the most popular sport at the school. The alumni who support football there will support the move but there just arent that many of them.
 
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How Sway?! said:
Yeah those extra NCAA spots will definitely go to the MAC and not the power conferences.
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It will be just like the bowl games. The MAC was a 1-bid bowl conference until bowls dramatically expanded. Now, every MAC team with a 6-6 record or better is likely in a bowl game.

The majority of teams in the expanded NCAA tournament will likely be from the P5, but not all of them. If a MAC team dominates the regular season, but loses in the MAC Tournament, that team will likely be in the field in the expanded tournament. Same with most other conferences.
 
NE Football said:
An annual “U” game between New England’s two premier football teams at Gillette Stadium might make it worthwhile for us to join the MAC as well. Football drives the bus, not basketball. A pathway to the playoffs is what we need.
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Um. Boston College is light years better than UMass and us, 2 seasons ago notwithstanding... UMass can play Maine each year. I'd rather face BC though I find them to be a boring team akin to a Syracuse. Pretty vanilla teams anyway you slice it.
 
Rufus said:
The NCAA tournament is likely going to have a dramatic expansion in the near future. In which case, the MAC will no longer be a one-bid conference.
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Actually, it probably will still be. The A-10, however, will probably go back to 2+ bids per year. The most likely expansion is simply adding four play-in games to get to 72.
 
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NE Football said:
An annual “U” game between New England’s two premier football teams at Gillette Stadium might make it worthwhile for us to join the MAC as well. Football drives the bus, not basketball. A pathway to the playoffs is what we need.
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Why do we have to always do the darn game at a neutral site. Play home and home. Much more fun.
 
Not one of the entire UConn/UMass series has ever been played on a neutral site. Given the current state of affairs of both programs, I don't see any change to that.
 
This guy goes into some in-depth financials too which favor the MAC - "follow the $$"

Also mentions near 0 chance that UConn would follow football only

 
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Decent artcle about the move:
UMass move to MAC is brutal blow to its men’s basketball program | Vautour

I especially like the part of:

"The Minutemen’s first trip to the Camellia Bowl or Famous Idaho Potato Bowl will be incredible. UMass fans will be excited and many will might even make the trip. But the third and fourth trip to any of the mid-December forgetabowls isn’t going to fire up the fan base after the novelty of FBS postseason has worn off."
 
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