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UMass > MAC for all sports in 2025-2026

Vuce said:
That's not a thing. UMass tried to do that the first time they were playing MAC teams and were told they had to move all sports there or no deal.
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Yeah, but there’s just a tiny bit difference between UMass and UConn basketball. It wouldn’t be permanent, but I think UConn football would have a decent base in the MAC and grow from there.
 
Last week's win was 1000 times more fun than the beat down from Maryland. It is dumb to keep playing 4 "Power" games a year. Last year Liberty made the Fiesta bowl playing zero P games in conference far worse than the MAC.
 
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metsfan2323 said:
We should strive to be the best G5 team in the country and joining a G5 conference for football only would help us to achieve that goal. Last year Liberty made the Fiesta bowl playing zero P games.
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We may be able to do that as an independent. Having gone from BCS to G5 to independent only to go back to G5 again is fairly convoluted when the goal is to join a Px conference. Joining a G5 is the last resort when all Px options have evaporated. Liberty, in contrast, is in a bit of ascendancy in terms of what their football is doing compared to UConn. Yes, our team beat them 2 years ago, but would they beat them now, who knows. I totally agree with you that at the very least, UConn needs to be among the better of the G5s but as an independent, because frankly, what conference is going to take our football in its current condition? That said, I've no qualms about some (loose) scheduling agreement with the MAC, Mountain West, PAC12, or SBC as these are the teams we need to beat to show we can hang as a middle team in a Px. Though, I think a G5 only slate doesn't help us as we do need a few high profile Px games too (for both the money they bring in and to show that UConn is not merely a G5 level team).
 
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metsfan2323 said:
Last week's win was 1000 times more fun than the beat down from Maryland. It is dumb to keep playing 4 "Power" games a year. Last year Liberty made the Fiesta bowl playing zero P games in conference far worse than the MAC.
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They played the 120th schedule. Their entire season was a canard.
 
Duncan Idaho said:
They played the 120th schedule. Their entire season was a canard.
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and they were rewarded big time for it, and they are perceived nationally as a decent football program. Remind me again, what is the perception of our football program?

If we had Liberty's success last year, we might be on our way to the B12 right now.
 
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metsfan2323 said:
and they were rewarded big time for it, and they are perceived nationally as a decent football program. Remind me again, what is the perception of our football program?
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Thats true. And its all phony. We have the perception of barely beating and sometimes not, FCS teams on our schedule the last decade or so. Its not the P4 losses.
 
Duncan Idaho said:
Thats true. And its all phony. We have the perception of barely beating and sometimes not, FCS teams on our schedule the last decade or so. Its not the P4 losses.
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our scheduling also makes it difficult to attract coaching talent, no rising coach will come near us anymore. Liberty attracted the East Carolina coach as he knew he could win there and advance his career, meanwhile Mora takes a beating from our fanbase after the loss to Maryland.
 
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metsfan2323 said:
Last week's win was 1000 times more fun than the beat down from Maryland. It is dumb to keep playing 4 "Power" games a year. Last year Liberty made the Fiesta bowl playing zero P games in conference far worse than the MAC.
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I agree and point taken, but the site I viewed had CUSA #10 and MAC #11 in terms of rpi. Both bad conferences no doubt but all G5 are in roughly the same neighborhood.
 
metsfan2323 said:
our scheduling also makes it difficult to attract coaching talent, no rising coach will come near us anymore. Liberty attracted the East Carolina coach as he knew he could win there and advance his career, meanwhile Mora takes a beating from our fanbase after the loss to Maryland.
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Liberty gained its reputation under Freeze as an independent beating and being very competitive in games against the multiple P4 teams on their schedule the last 5 years prior to last. UConn would have an invite after that stint too if as successful. Prior to Freeze they were a .500 team in some conference with Campell and such under Turner Gill.
 
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Look at it this way: you don’t have to sue to get out of the ACC
 
Duncan Idaho said:
Liberty gained its reputation under Freeze as an independent beating and being very competitive in games against the multiple P4 teams on their schedule the last 5 years prior to last. UConn would have an invite after that stint too if as successful. Prior to Freeze they were a .500 team in some conference with Campell and such under Turner Gill.
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In other words, coaching and institution support matter not just what conference you are in. The first 2 are within UCONN's control.
 
WestCoastHusky said:
In other words, coaching and institution support matter not just what conference you are in. The first 2 are within UCONN's control.
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Managed bad right up to having Spanos paid for two years while Mora doing DC work.
 
huskymedic said:
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There was probably a story in there, but I was too transfixed in watched all the shocked domer fans see their team lose to another set of Huskies on home field.

As far as losing impact players due to Px deals, that's our fate. We don't have college sports, we have minor league trade deadlines masquerading as academic transfers.
 


-> UMass spent some $58.44 million on athletics in 2023, including $11.22 million on football, according to Knight-Newhouse data. Bamford estimated his department will take in close to $2 million in profits during the first year of its MAC agreement, after making $500,000 as an Atlantic 10 affiliate (in non-football, non-hockey sports).

As an independent, UMass made $350,000 annually in trickle-down College Football Playoff payouts. That will rise to $1 million once it joins the MAC.

“Being an independent has been an absolute albatross for us,” Bamford said, pointing to challenges of scheduling and recruiting without a conference banner, and lack of shared revenue.

As a MAC member, Bamford expects to play one guarantee game annually (and it will be early in the season, with conference games down the stretch). Funds from buy-games are earmarked for football, Bamford said, but they create financial room elsewhere. <-
 
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dayooper said:
Yeah, but there’s just a tiny bit difference between UMass and UConn basketball. It wouldn’t be permanent, but I think UConn football would have a decent base in the MAC and grow from there.
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Because misery loves company?
 
As bad as uconn football has been with our nil program we'd be winning the mac in short order. I want to see what we can do in the next two,games but if things look the way they do we could win the mac this year
 
Patman said:
As bad as uconn football has been with our nil program we'd be winning the mac in short order. I want to see what we can do in the next two,games but if things look the way they do we could win the mac this year
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That's a bold statement. Northern Illinois beat Notre Dame at Notre Dame. Could UConn beat Notre Dame at Notre Dame? Could UConn beat Northern Illinois?
 
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I'm shocked the MAC is letting NIU keep the rest of it's sports there. Isn't that why it kicked out UMass the first time? UMass wouldn't go all in?
 
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