I think its funny that a UConn fan is trying to do a deep dive analysis of MAC branding strategy as if there was a specific, strategic plan that included moving the logo of an exiting affiliate member.

(08-21-2014 03:40 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  I think its funny that a UConn fan is trying to do a deep dive analysis of MAC branding strategy as if there was a specific, strategic plan that included moving the logo of an exiting affiliate member.

Here's a historical recreation of the "in depth" strategy session:

Web guy: "So, what should I do with the logo of UMass?"
MAC office guy: "How long will this redesign be good for?"
Web guy: "I dunno, 3-5 years, maybe."
MAC office guy: "They'll be gone before then, just leave the UMass logo with the other affiliates."

(08-21-2014 03:40 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  I think its funny that a UConn fan is trying to do a deep dive analysis of MAC branding strategy as if there was a specific, strategic plan that included moving the logo of an exiting affiliate member.

Actually, it is pretty interesting stuff. I have some experience in branding, so I find it interesting. I think that the American has done a great job of branding from day one. The MAC, on the other hand, only started taking it seriously two years ago. The MAC web design this year looks nice and the logos of the schools look sharp and crisp (versus the old ones that you had to hover over to get a sharp image).

The MAC's smartest move? Replacing this extremely lame logo:


with this....

(08-22-2014 11:37 AM)UConnHusky Wrote:  The MAC's smartest move? Replacing this extremely lame logo:


with this....

Never cared for the Soccer badge.

Progress in perception has started. UMass is no longer considered one of the 10 worst FBS Football teams.

Here are the 5 worst teams.

Quote:5. Temple. The Owls are a program that keeps outkicking its coverage. A decade ago, they were booted out of the Big East for incompetence and wound up in the Mid-American Conference, where they managed a couple of bowl appearances. When the imploding Big East changed its membership standards to basically any school with a pulse, the Owls were invited back. Last season, they morphed into the American Athletic Conference with a familiar result: 2-10.

4. Eastern Michigan. Coach Ron English was fired in November for using vile language during a secretly taped meeting with defensive backs. Some may say he got off lucky at a school that's 28-90 over the last decade. Then again, one of the Eagles' two wins in 2013 came against Western Michigan (1-11), so maybe we'll make Eastern 5a, Western 5b.

3. Idaho. The Vandals have one winning record in the last 14 years, going 1-11 each of the last two seasons. This school is located in Moscow, a small town near the Washington state border. They would be getting roughly the same attention if they were playing in that other Moscow.

2. Georgia State. The Panthers are likely the worst program in the country, but we'll give them a bit of a break since they started in 2010 and this will be just their second year in FBS. (Full disclosure: As a graduate of GSU, I know the Panthers have never been No. 1 in anything.)

Which brings us to No. 1. (Or should we say No. 128?)

Drum roll, please.

1. New. Mexico State. Ohhh, where to begin. The Aggies have the nation's longest active streak of losing seasons (11 in a row) and the worst record of any FBS school over the last decade (28-94). Since 1968, they have a grand total of four winning seasons. But the Aggies (along with Idaho) are moving to the Sun Belt Conference, which already includes Georgia State. Keep an eye on New Mexico State's Sept. 6 showdown against the Panthers in Atlanta.

See who else is on the list link

(08-23-2014 10:20 AM)Steve1981 Wrote:  Progress in perception has started. UMass is no longer considered one of the 10 worst FBS Football teams. See who else is on the list link

We'll see. A school that puts together a three win season would ensure that they stay off a similar post-season list as well:

Sunbelt: 3 ~ #1 NMSU, #2 Georgia State, #3 Idaho
CUSA: 2 ~ #9 UAB, #10 Southern Miss
MAC: 1 ~ #4 EMU
AAC: 1 ~ #5 Temple
Big10: 1 ~ #6 Purdue
SEC: 1 ~ #7 Kentucky
PAC12: 1 ~ #8 Cal

Not listed: MWC, AAC, Big12

Every team on that list would beat you--except maybe GSU.

(08-23-2014 10:43 AM)masttg Wrote:  Every team on that list would beat you--except maybe GSU.

Too bad your the only team we have a shot at. We'll see how Oct 18th turns out. Are you making the trip to Foxboro? We're expecting a bing turnout from you guys, since the other MAC teams are playing on campus at McGuirk. (Too bad no wink,grin icon here.)

(08-23-2014 11:31 AM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  So I guess UMass would be about .500 in the Sun Belt then... That might revive the program. That league really whiffed on expansion.

The program is already revived. We have 3 games back on campus, a young and an exciting team with way better coaching. We'll have 4 downs to make a first down. Whipple likes to go for it on 4th down. Attendance should increase by 3k and be in the 18-19k range.

Don't think we'll be in the Sun Belt, Louisiana and Arkansas State have a blocking block of votes. They rather be the big fish in a small pond and prefer another FCS call up. The have a legit rational that we are outside the footprint and the sun does not shine up north. Regardless its similar to the Villanova blockade for Temple until the split.

(08-23-2014 10:40 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(08-23-2014 10:20 AM)Steve1981 Wrote:  Progress in perception has started. UMass is no longer considered one of the 10 worst FBS Football teams. See who else is on the list link

We'll see. A school that puts together a three win season would ensure that they stay off a similar post-season list as well:

Sunbelt: 3 ~ #1 NMSU, #2 Georgia State, #3 Idaho
CUSA: 2 ~ #9 UAB, #10 Southern Miss
MAC: 1 ~ #4 EMU
AAC: 1 ~ #5 Temple
Big10: 1 ~ #6 Purdue
SEC: 1 ~ #7 Kentucky
PAC12: 1 ~ #8 Cal

Not listed: MWC, AAC, Big12

Note that the writer lists WMU as being as bad as EMU.

(08-23-2014 12:09 PM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  

(08-23-2014 11:39 AM)Steve1981 Wrote:  

(08-23-2014 11:31 AM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  

The program is already revived. We have 3 games back on campus, a young and an exciting team with way better coaching. We'll have 4 downs to make a first down. Whipple likes to go for it on 4th down. Attendance should increase by 3k and be in the 18-19k range.

Don't think we'll be in the Sun Belt, Louisiana and Arkansas State have a blocking block of votes. They rather be the big fish in a small pond and prefer another FCS call up. The have a legit rational that we are outside the footprint and the sun does not shine up north. Regardless its similar to the Villanova blockade for Temple until the split.

I applaud the optimistic outlook but the realist would say you are looking at an 0 - 5 start to the season which could quickly derail any of that momentum.

The Sun Belt should add UMass football only and lock in whatever additional revenue they can from a conference championship game. Any league which stretches as far as New Mexico and Idaho for football should have no qualms about adding a football only in Massachusetts. With the MAC's new TV deal the Sun Belt is now a distant 5th in the G5 revenue pecking order and with all the transitioning / underperforming teams in its current lineup, the league will be looking at the lowest payout in the playoff distribution most seasons.

Forgot to mention they don't want a championship game. They are afraid that if they are rated high enough for the CFP or access bowl, they could lose in the championship game. They like to sight what happen to you guys last year as validation of their fears.

(08-23-2014 01:24 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  

(08-23-2014 12:09 PM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  

(08-23-2014 11:39 AM)Steve1981 Wrote:  

(08-23-2014 11:31 AM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  

The program is already revived. We have 3 games back on campus, a young and an exciting team with way better coaching. We'll have 4 downs to make a first down. Whipple likes to go for it on 4th down. Attendance should increase by 3k and be in the 18-19k range.

Don't think we'll be in the Sun Belt, Louisiana and Arkansas State have a blocking block of votes. They rather be the big fish in a small pond and prefer another FCS call up. The have a legit rational that we are outside the footprint and the sun does not shine up north. Regardless its similar to the Villanova blockade for Temple until the split.

I applaud the optimistic outlook but the realist would say you are looking at an 0 - 5 start to the season which could quickly derail any of that momentum.

The Sun Belt should add UMass football only and lock in whatever additional revenue they can from a conference championship game. Any league which stretches as far as New Mexico and Idaho for football should have no qualms about adding a football only in Massachusetts. With the MAC's new TV deal the Sun Belt is now a distant 5th in the G5 revenue pecking order and with all the transitioning / underperforming teams in its current lineup, the league will be looking at the lowest payout in the playoff distribution most seasons.

Forgot to mention they don't want a championship game. They are afraid that if they are rated high enough for the CFP or access bowl, they could lose in the championship game. They like to sight what happen to you guys last year as validation of their fears.

And we can easily point at the previous season when the championship game would have put NIU in..

We have daily articles in the Springfield Republican and regular coverage in the college newspaper and Northampton in the Gazette. We get more attention in the Boston Herald, but we have a feature spot in the Sunday Globe Sports section. The online version is out and fear its too late to correct one small mistake.

Quote:“It’s right over there,” the University of Massachusetts football coach says, leaning back in a desk chair in his plush new office and motioning toward a large window that overlooks the freshly cut and painted turf of McGuirk Stadium.

Yes, past the silver railings of a porch dotted with red umbrellas and shiny chairs, past the renovated press box high in the air above the stadium seats, just over the Jumbotron on the opposite side of the field — there’s the past.

It takes the form of a derelict one-story shack that used to serve as the Minutemen’s football facility. The walls in the hallway are lined with plaques of former All-Americans, and the lockers are wooden and small. There is a stench of old and better days.
...
“Twenty-three championships won in this locker room,” Whipple likes to say.
...
That was part of it, sure, but this was, too: Revitalizing the Minutemen, 2-22 since they took that Next Step and jumped to the Football Bowl Subdivision, the sport’s highest level, represented what Whipple, who signed a five-year contract that guarantees him at least $450,000 a year, craves — another challenge.

Then there’s the renewed commitment to football. At 290 Stadium Drive stands the 55,000-square foot, $34.5 million Football Performance Center, a sleek, two-story building with glass windows, fresh smells, and air conditioning. Inside, there is progress: a state-of-the-art weight room, a hydrotherapy pool, custom-vented lockers, two chiseled mannequins decked out in UMass gear, spacious offices with a whiteboard for all coaches, a giant auditorium. Everything is centralized. They’re on an even playing field.

“I don’t think I would have come back if they didn’t have the facility,” Whipple says. “I don’t know, but that was a big part of it.”

“You wanna be a first-class program? You gotta have a first-class facility,” says assistant coach Dave Sollazzo.

The all-in-one-place convenience will cut down on transportation time — players used to have to find rides to their coaches’ off-campus offices — and build the brotherhood, says redshirt senior linebacker and Dorchester native Stanley Andre and junior receiver Tajae Sharpe.

Whipple? He’s fair, Sollazzo says. He’s all football, Andre says. There’s no coach Sharpe would rather play for. They’ll need all of that to achieve what Whipple wants — a conference championship — because they’re young (only three seniors on the roster), and their opening schedule goes like this: BC, Colorado, Vanderbilt, Penn State.

On the grass outside the stadium stands a sign that reads “UMass is coming home.” The Minutemen, who are slated to leave the Mid-Atlantic Conference after 2015, will play three home games at the renovated McGuirk for the first time in two years. It’s telling that the return of football to Amherst coincides with Whipple’s homecoming.

The coach, pragmatic and forward-thinking until the end, says he feels no pressure to bring back UMass football glory. He can see the past but prefers the future.

UMass football coach Mark Whipple ready for next challenge

(08-23-2014 01:24 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  Forgot to mention they don't want a championship game. They are afraid that if they are rated high enough for the CFP or access bowl, they could lose in the championship game.

Is that Sunbelt followers in sports forums, or Sunbelt University Presidents and Athletic Directors?

Because its daft reasoning, so for the good of the Sunbelt I should hope its daft reasoning by supporters rather than by those in a position of authority. The Sunbelt is far more likely to have their best team in a position to put themselves into the mix with a strong win in a championship game, than to have a team with the inside track risking getting knocked out.

Quote:They like to sight what happen to you guys last year as validation of their fears.

"cite"

Except for that to be an issue, you have to rate your chances of having a school not only going into championship week ahead, but unlikely to be passed if the strongest school in one of the other conferences puts on a convincing performance while winning their CCG. And the Sunbelt is the conference least likely to be in that position.

An alternative explanation for a reduced sense of urgency in pursuing a CCG among Sunbelt movers and shakers is the moves by P5 conferences for CCG deregulation ... it makes a lot of sense to wait until that is sorted out, since you don't want to be inviting a school partly for the CCG if it turns out that you can have a CCG with 10 or 11 schools.

(08-23-2014 11:39 AM)Steve1981 Wrote:  

(08-23-2014 11:31 AM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  So I guess UMass would be about .500 in the Sun Belt then... That might revive the program. That league really whiffed on expansion.

Don't think we'll be in the Sun Belt, Louisiana and Arkansas State have a blocking block of votes. They rather be the big fish in a small pond and prefer another FCS call up. The have a legit rational that we are outside the footprint and the sun does not shine up north. Regardless its similar to the Villanova blockade for Temple until the split.

This is the first I have heard about ASU & Louisiana, it makes sense other than the fact that why would they be worried about an FCS call up showing them up?

I thought the reason the SB didn't want UMass was that they don't need UMass for a championship game and since the MAC was negotiating a new TV deal and didn't want UMass there is no value there, so why bring them on.

(08-23-2014 09:47 PM)Sam Minuteman Wrote:  

(08-23-2014 11:39 AM)Steve1981 Wrote:  

(08-23-2014 11:31 AM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  So I guess UMass would be about .500 in the Sun Belt then... That might revive the program. That league really whiffed on expansion.

Don't think we'll be in the Sun Belt, Louisiana and Arkansas State have a blocking block of votes. They rather be the big fish in a small pond and prefer another FCS call up. The have a legit rational that we are outside the footprint and the sun does not shine up north. Regardless its similar to the Villanova blockade for Temple until the split.

This is the first I have heard about ASU & Louisiana, it makes sense other than the fact that why would they be worried about an FCS call up showing them up?

I thought the reason the SB didn't want UMass was that they don't need UMass for a championship game and since the MAC was negotiating a new TV deal and didn't want UMass there is no value there, so why bring them on.

The big fish in a small pond is my reaction to teams from those universities voting power against us and coming out with the most comments against a championship game. Some of us remember an Ark State fan posting about joining the MAC and wanting MSU or another close partner. Guess resent Ark State and Louisiana voting against us as ironically would be the first to jump conferences.

The Sun Belt could use us as a pawn for a desirable all sports FCS member. JMU rebuffed the Sun Belt based on academic standards and peers.

Say we do better this year and show a little value, then perhaps that with a conference championship game could get ESPN to open up the Sun Belt contract. That contact runs through 2019.

Ark State and Louisiana are a pivot point for the Sun Belt and perhaps MSU will step up to FBS. My gut says its more than 10 months away, but a lot of chatter and posting on the Sun Belt board. Read their board regularly, but unless correcting false statements, refraining from posting until we start playing football. Hope to post about improved performance and attendance numbers.

Less than a week until the BC game and extremely excited. Purchased 20 group tickets for the BC game and people have asked for the tickets. Bought 20 tickets and 15 are already gone.

According to Sun Belt fans Idaho and NMSU had no chance of getting invited. The odd part is having to go independent for a year. The second part that doesn't make sense is NMSU football only. Idaho has has a bad record since moving up. Still we were tied for the most bowl wins among SBC teams when invited. NMSU has not played a bowl game in fifty years. NMSU is a basketball school so its surprising.

The SBC may have no choice but U MASS due to the uncertainty the stipends bring. Schools are already afraid of making the FBS commitment.

Hopefully the four schools with shakey conference affiliation work together.
Idaho
NMSU
U MASS
ARMY
Possibly even working together to form a conference.
They could add their football games to their Olympic sports conference's TV package if independent.

Never seen the idea of a UMass affiliation with the AAC thrown out there as the Notre Dame and ACC. Where the Olympic sports go to the conference and they play 5 games and can be consider for their bowls. Then to balance things have Army 5 games, but they leave their Olympic sports as is. Then alternate with UMass-Army home and away so each has 3 home games.

(08-24-2014 09:39 AM)Steve1981 Wrote:  Never seen the idea of a UMass affiliation with the AAC thrown out there as the Notre Dame and ACC. Where the Olympic sports go to the conference and they play 5 games and can be consider for their bowls. Then to balance things have Army 5 games, but they leave their Olympic sports as is. Then alternate with UMass-Army home and away so each has 3 home games.

Wouldn't it be four games for Army and UMASS each playing half a schedule.

I hate to see another fan base twist in the wind.
Hopefully the SBC invites you guys and buys your program some time.

(08-24-2014 09:39 AM)Steve1981 Wrote:  Then to balance things have Army 5 games, but they leave their Olympic sports as is. ...

Not sure that Army is looking for it.

As far as late home games, a 4 game deal with the Sunbelt in November, two home and two away, seems like it could be workable (though would likely cost BBall home and away as well, which might stress the number of cupcakes warm-up games UMass would want on their BBall schedule), since the Sunbelt at 11 have a bye in their conference rounds that could be organized around the allocated four games. Work out a deal with Army in late October, schedule the buy FCS game in late October, and then the openings to fill in the season are the first half of the season, where its easier to find opponents.

If it turns out that the CCG perhaps gets choice of schools de-regulated but in any event not number required to hold a CCG, then the Sunbelt might have another think. A deal where UMass pays a $200k affiliation fee with a $100k travel subsidy for each UMass game ... which would split the $1m CFP money $400k to UMass, $100k each to its four Sunbelt visitors in the year and $200k to be added to the conference funds ... might have more interest if there is more clarity whether or not a CCG would bring any extra media money.

Also, the first Go5 school to make the Access bowl because of a strong performance in its championship game might focus the attention of some in the Sunbelt on the difference between acting like they are on the inside track and aiming to avoid losing a spot and acting like they are on the inside track and taking a shot at winning a spot.

(08-24-2014 07:29 AM)MJG Wrote:  According to Sun Belt fans Idaho and NMSU had no chance of getting invited. The odd part is having to go independent for a year. The second part that doesn't make sense is NMSU football only. Idaho has has a bad record since moving up.

Yeah, when I first heard about NMSU's problems with the WAC dropping football ~ my mom was living in Las Cruces for a couple of years at the time ~ I saw that they had contacted the Sunbelt but at first received no interest. Then came the CUSA raid of the Sunbelt, and the offer to add NMSU and Idaho FB-only.

If you remember how that was originally going to work, before the follow-up raid of WKU, neither the timing nor NMSU FB-only was all that strange, since it was aimed at a move to 12, two divisions and a CCG, and the 2 FB-only schools balanced the 2 Olympic-sports-only schools.

And even though both Idaho and NMSU were offered FB-only positions, we've since learned that the Idaho affiliation is a four year minimum term, based on an option to give notice at the end of two years, so its more of a tenuous relationship.