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UMass > MAC for all sports in 2025-2026

UConnDan97 said:
That's incredible. I try not to advocate for schools to drop their ambitions, especially knowing that we had a few years of extreme suffering ourselves. But at this point, they're so much better off going back to playing against URI and Maine...
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They need an AD with a clue.
 
UConnDan97 said:
That's incredible. I try not to advocate for schools to drop their ambitions, especially knowing that we had a few years of extreme suffering ourselves. But at this point, they're so much better off going back to playing against URI and Maine...
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UMass can drop and turn America East into a modern Yankee conference. The A-10 is dying so URI shouldn't have too many qualms about swapping. I would think they could get a CBSSN/NESN/SNY/ESPN+ type media deal going for men's basketball and maybe some WBB and football like they have in the A-10.
 
The A10 is much more valuable than the America East, that’s why URI and UMass wouldn’t ever move there. Playing in a Yankee Conference that’s only real feature are the irrelevant regional flagships is not appealing.
 
by any chance, is anyone here following UMass' recruiting and can give an overview of how they're doing this offseason in the portal otherwise, in their re-loading efforts? I am too lazy to go searching for umass boards, but I always casually root for them to not suck anymore. last year was worse even than anything I saw at UConn even in our worst days... my heart just breaks for those guys.
 
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FightOnCT said:
The A10 is much more valuable than the America East, that’s why URI and UMass wouldn’t ever move there. Playing in a Yankee Conference that’s only real feature are the irrelevant regional flagships is not appealing.
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Depends what you mean by valuable. Each school is making a few hundred grand a year off the media deal. Its value drops every year it continues to fade into its new reality as a bloated one-bid no-football league. Doesn't really move the needle
 
UMass Hoops lost to #24 Miami OH 86-84. That would have been a huge win and they were leading 47-43 at the half. Attendance 9,200 in Miami.

UMass Football needs to do a bunch of things to turn the ship around. First follow UConn's lead and try to hire a successful coach from the MAC or another G6. Coach Candle is clearly bringing a lot of recruits from Toledo so that is an immediate boost to the roster. Hopefully in our case that translates to wins. A coach going to UMass may not have the same recruiting impact but it should have some. Perhaps a coach from a high FCS program where the players would consider UMass a move up in terms of competition and exposure. Coach Joe Harasymiak is from NJ, coached at Maine, Minnesota and Rutgers and may be a good coach but the program needs transformational changes. Maybe they are doing some of that already.
 
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FightOnCT said:
UMass probably doesn’t have the pull to take a successful FCS coach let alone MAC coach.
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That's another area where UMass has to be all in or get out. $$$$

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Kolumbo said:
UMass Hoops lost to #24 Miami OH 86-84. That would have been a huge win and they were leading 47-43 at the half. Attendance 9,200 in Miami.

UMass Football needs to do a bunch of things to turn the ship around. First follow UConn's lead and try to hire a successful coach from the MAC or another G6. Coach Candle is clearly bringing a lot of recruits from Toledo so that is an immediate boost to the roster. Hopefully in our case that translates to wins. A coach going to UMass may not have the same recruiting impact but it should have some. Perhaps a coach from a high FCS program where the players would consider UMass a move up in terms of competition and exposure. Coach Joe Harasymiak is from NJ, coached at Maine, Minnesota and Rutgers and may be a good coach but the program needs transformational changes. Maybe they are doing some of that already.
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Why would any successful ciach in the MAC or FCS leave prosperity to coach at that dumpster fire and work for Ryan Bamford?
 
ZooCougar said:
Why would any successful ciach in the MAC or FCS leave prosperity to coach at that dumpster fire and work for Ryan Bamford?
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Fame and Fortune. You think a successfull coach in the MAC or FCS is prosperity? Jim Calhoun left Northeastern and he is UConn's Hero. A state like Mass has the resources. They just don't have the intellect.
 
Kolumbo said:
Fame and Fortune. You think a successfull coach in the MAC or FCS is prosperity? Jim Calhoun left Northeastern and he is UConn's Hero. A state like Mass has the resources. They just don't have the intellect.
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Why would you go from a successful MAC school to a dumpster fire MAC school like UMass?

Jim Calhoun left Northeastern to coach in something called THE BIG EAST. UMass has nothing like that.

Success in the FCS is prosperity. The Montana State HC turned down Oregon State.

I don’t even think UMass is capable of winning in the FCS right now. There are D2 schools near me that would boat race them.
 
ZooCougar said:
Why would you go from a successful MAC school to a dumpster fire MAC school like UMass?

Jim Calhoun left Northeastern to coach in something called THE BIG EAST. UMass has nothing like that.

Success in the FCS is prosperity. The Montana State HC turned down Oregon State.

I don’t even think UMass is capable of winning in the FCS right now. There are D2 schools near me that would boat race them.
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I get it, you think change is impossible. Either UMass will make the commitment to change or it won't. It's looking like it won't, but if it really wants to, then it goes out and makes it happen. UMass as a state flagship has more upside potential than the MAC programs. Maybe Harasymiak is the guy or maybe he isn't. The bigger commitment would be a new stadium but since UMass doesn't have plans for that, I don't see them turning it around.

Curt Cignetti went from IUP > Elon > James Madison (CAA, Sun Belt) > Indiana. You think James Madison was some dream job, an FCS program in the CAA? People take risks and sometimes they payoff bigly. If a young coach can go in and turn UMass around, he'll get his payday soon enough.
 
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Kolumbo said:
I get it, you think change is impossible. Either UMass will make the commitment to change or it won't. It's looking like it won't, but if it really wants to, then it goes out and makes it happen. UMass as a state flagship has more upside potential than the MAC programs. Maybe Harasymiak is the guy or maybe he isn't. The bigger commitment would be a new stadium but since UMass doesn't have plans for that, I don't see them turning it around.

Curt Cignetti went from IUP > Elon > James Madison (CAA, Sun Belt) > Indiana. You think James Madison was some dream job, an FCS program in the CAA? People take risks and sometimes they payoff bigly. If a young coach can go in and turn UMass around, he'll get his payday soon enough.
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UMass won’t make the commitment to change. It’s a dumpster fire and will only get worse. No one cares. They missed their opportunity when Calipari galvanized the state with their flagship sport - basketball. There was a buzz even in eastern MA and they needed to take that momentum to the state legislature and leverage it in other sports much like UConn did. They are cooked
 
UMass cares and wants to be good but they don’t prioritize it enough. They are even more disadvantaged than UConn. They seem much less supported by benefactors, the state and school. If they can win 6 games, maybe things can improve.
 
We should nuke this thread. Mass is twice the size of Conn and wants to play big league ball on a little league budget. screw them.
 
Kolumbo said:
I get it, you think change is impossible. Either UMass will make the commitment to change or it won't. It's looking like it won't, but if it really wants to, then it goes out and makes it happen. UMass as a state flagship has more upside potential than the MAC programs. Maybe Harasymiak is the guy or maybe he isn't. The bigger commitment would be a new stadium but since UMass doesn't have plans for that, I don't see them turning it around.

Curt Cignetti went from IUP > Elon > James Madison (CAA, Sun Belt) > Indiana. You think James Madison was some dream job, an FCS program in the CAA? People take risks and sometimes they payoff bigly. If a young coach can go in and turn UMass around, he'll get his payday soon enough.
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I don’t think you are for real at this point.
 
Kolumbo said:
I get it, you think change is impossible. Either UMass will make the commitment to change or it won't. It's looking like it won't, but if it really wants to, then it goes out and makes it happen. UMass as a state flagship has more upside potential than the MAC programs. Maybe Harasymiak is the guy or maybe he isn't. The bigger commitment would be a new stadium but since UMass doesn't have plans for that, I don't see them turning it around.

Curt Cignetti went from IUP > Elon > James Madison (CAA, Sun Belt) > Indiana. You think James Madison was some dream job, an FCS program in the CAA? People take risks and sometimes they payoff bigly. If a young coach can go in and turn UMass around, he'll get his payday soon enough.
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Your last 2 sentences are right, but nobody as an established HC is taking the risk of handling arguably the worst job in America. A coordinator, sure, because they have less to lose.
 
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FightOnCT said:
Your last 2 sentences are right, but nobody as an established HC is taking the risk of handling arguably the worst job in America. A coordinator, sure, because they have less to lose.
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No, his last two sentences illustrate his ignorance.

Compared to UMass, yes JMU is a dream job. It has far more support from fans, the school, the state and any other category you can think think. The whole athletic department is fantastic.

It's like he thinks UMass and JMU are equal. It's an absurd belief. UMass doesn't have the prerequisites and conditions for a turnaround in place. It's the sick man of college sports.
 
I was agreeing with the idea that people can take risks and it pay off. Turning around UMass would be massive because it’s an otherwise horrible job.

But no sitting HC is risking that
 
FightOnCT said:
I was agreeing with the idea that people can take risks and it pay off. Turning around UMass would be massive because it’s an otherwise horrible job.

But no sitting HC is risking that
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Also without sweeping institutional changes in resourcing and mindset, they aren't attracting some visionary HC. If they hired some football version of Calhoun, then that coach is bouncing at the first opportunity too.
 
ZooCougar said:
They need an AD with a clue.
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...and yet you support this AD's impactful decision of moving to an unaligned conference, pouring gas on a dumpster fire. Which one is it?
 
pepband99 said:
...and yet you support this AD's impactful decision of moving to an unaligned conference, pouring gas on a dumpster fire. Which one is it?
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That’s silly. It doesn’t matter what conference they are in. If they were doing this right the MAC wouid be far better. And based on how bad the basketball team is it’s not like they would compete in the A-10.
 
ZooCougar said:
That’s silly. It doesn’t matter what conference they are in. If they were doing this right the MAC wouid be far better. And based on how bad the basketball team is it’s not like they would compete in the A-10.
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The MAC would be horrible regardless. Miami is one of two undefeated teams left and they are at #90 in Kenpom. Their only hope of making the NCAA tourney is win the postseason tournament whether they win every MAC game or not. UMass is in a spot where they lost tons of season ticket holders and donors, in a worse league and no younger fans will ever care about a local MAC program with those conference opponent from East, West and Central Michigan. So why bother building a brand new stadium when "fans" wont show up in droves? And the Mullins Center is totally obsolete now too. They are completely cooked
 
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Vuce said:
The MAC would be horrible regardless. Miami is one of two undefeated teams left and they are at #90 in Kenpom. Their only hope of making the NCAA tourney is win the postseason tournament whether they win every MAC game or not. UMass is in a spot where they lost tons of season ticket holders and donors, in a worse league and no younger fans will ever care about a local MAC program with those conference opponent from East, West and Central Michigan. So why bother building a brand new stadium when "fans" wont show up in droves? And the Mullins Center is totally obsolete now too. They are completely cooked
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Well they suck in the MAC so it doesn’t matter.

That ship has sailed. Buh bye.
 
At this point, UMass doesnt have anything to offer someone of a really high caliber that could build their athletic department. Even if you go back to when Jim Calhoun was hired, we had Big East membership as something to sell coaches, players, and fans. UMass doesn’t even have the Atlantic 10 to sell anymore, which was no great shakes anyway. They are in a really tough spot and while I understand moving to the MAC for football, I really don’t see any way to get the fan base excited about much of anything in the MAC. They probably feel their basketball is above the MAC (it was) and that winning the conference just isn’t very exciting no matter what the sport. Flagships of major states are not supposed to be in the MAC. Before anyone tells me that Buffalo is a flagship, I know, but you get my point.
 
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ZooCougar said:
Well they suck in the MAC so it doesn’t matter.

That ship has sailed. Buh bye.
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It’s worse than sailed. It sunk and they have less now than they did before. Way to read the room UMass!
 
UMass hoops is 14-9 and 5-6 and 6th place in the MAC. 4,800 at the game yesterday. Last year UMass was 12-20 and 7-11 in the A-10. Leonardo Bettiol leading the team with 17.4 pts per. It seems like there might be more than a flicker at the end of the tunnel. Winning is more fun no matter who you play.
 
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