I'm hoping some UMass fans can answer this question.
What are the main Football and Basketball rivalries for the Minutemen?
And how would you rank them in order of importance.
Thanks.
(11-17-2011 09:45 PM)Howl-n-Prowl Wrote: [ -> ]I'm hoping some UMass fans can answer this question.
What are the main Football and Basketball rivalries for the Minutemen?
And how would you rank them in order of importance.
Thanks.
Being an FCS fan i know they have a pretty good rivalry with UNH, Delaware, Maine and maybe URI. They also have some history with Holy Cross. They were conference mates with UConn during the Yankee/A10 days.
BBall wise it has to be Boston College, UConn and Temple imo. URI is probably up there as well.
Football: Michigan
Mostly kidding, but we're playing them twice in 3 years and the first game was the highlight of the last 4 seasons.
UConn was our big rival before they moved to the Big East. Delaware might be next, but they consider Villanova to be their big rival, and we lost ties with them when our conference separated into North-South divisions. New Hampshire is probably our closest current rival, but it's one of those deals where we'd rather they weren't our rival, plus their true rival is Maine. The conference tried to create a rivalry between us and Hofstra, but it never took and they disbanded football entirely. As did Boston University and Northeastern, and Rhode Island has been horrible for so long that no rivalry was ever possible. I don't know, we might have football rivalry abandonment issues. We've never actually played Temple in football, and our programs go back 100 years. We'd like to start something up with BC obviously, but we'll have to bend over backwards to get them on the field.
Basketball: Used to be Temple, and man do I miss those days. Nothing was better than Calipari vs. Chaney. Perfect clash of personalities and playing styles. Nowadays it's Rhode Island. It should be Boston College, but we keep losing to them. UConn won't play us anymore even when we're bad, which has been often lately. And URI is like UNH in that we recognize them as equals on the floor, but would rather they weren't. I wish the A10 would give us a 2nd game against Temple, but instead they give us the other 2 Philadelphia schools every year, who we couldn't care less about. Maybe the A10 doesn't trust UMass and Temple hanging out together. Or more likely, we just haven't been playing well enough lately to get that matchup for RPI reasons. But hey, we're
#1 in RPI right now!*
*statement may no longer be valid if you click that link more than 5 minutes from now.
Hockey: Our true rival is probably Vermont, who we'll be playing in Fenway Park in January, but our fans are much more interested in BC and BU, who needless to say are more interested in each other.
Toledo had a nice opening to Savage Arena against UMass in basketball.
Good news! 9 minutes later and you still are.
Basketball would say BC, URI, UConn, Temple and GW were teams we hated. Naturally most
A10 teams and we like beating our other New England teams as Holy Cross, Northeastern and BU. Fordham on a weekend is a nice rode trip. Disappointed we did not start play some MAC teams.
LM covered football.
BC is number one and we play at their house Monday night, sometimes we are louder in their house.
I would say that in basketball Temples rivals are the Big Five schools and Xavier. I could give two hoots about UMASS as they have been down for a while and Calipari is not around
Thanks for the responses.
Hopefully the jump to FBS will allow UMass to (re)establish those football rivalries with UConn and BC.
Wow, on never having played Temple in football. That's astounding.
I'll guess that Temple will become a football rival. That might be one of the big benefits of moving up to I-A and the MAC.
BC - sure. UConn - sure.
Any chance a rivalry develops with Army? Or at least a game every other year? (would Army or Navy draw in Foxboro?)
Part of the success of UMass football would be to develop rivals outside the MAC (Temple should be an instant rival but quite frankly there won't be rivalries with UB/Akron/Kent/Ohio/etc.). Hence the need to foster a strong OOC schedule with BC/UConn/Army etc. Maybe others like Maryland, and a I-AA team like 'Nova or Delaware. Not to mention UofMichigan. :)
Lot of the MAC rivalries are based on 'geography'. E.g., Toledo and BG; Akron and Kent. CMU and WMU.
(11-19-2011 08:18 AM)Steve1981 Wrote: [ -> ]Army would be great, but they do not have an openning until 2016, wish they'd join the MAC.
Army Schedule on fbschedules.com
Okay, if the world doesn't end this year
I'm sure Army/UMass can start working on a series for '16.
I'm sure Army would be happy to play home and home w. the home game in Gillette. I'm sure a game in New England would be desirable to them.
BTW, Army has I-AA games most years such as Morgan State, Fordham, etc. which maybe they can get out of and work a 1:1 with UMass.
Call me crazy but I could see Army in the MAC.
Army fans say, "why?" and I reply why would Navy join a conference?
C-USA was a POOR choice for Army years ago.
Army would be a good fit with UMass, Temple, UB, etc.
Heard alot BCS schools have expressed interest in play us, including UConn for a 1:1.
(11-19-2011 12:33 PM)Steve1981 Wrote: [ -> ]Heard alot BCS schools have expressed interest in play us, including UConn for a 1:1.
This doesn't surprise me.
BC, UConn and UMass are the only I-A teams in New England.
New England is a nice market to tap.
It has been 'Gospel' that N.E. is a pro area (e.g., NFL), but that might be more about the history of N.E. collegiate football than the innate 'inability' of college football to thrive.
N.E. needs true rivalries.
UMass/BC won't be next year or the year after BUT if UMass develops a top tier team than a rivalry could develop.
Ditto UConn.
Northeast football has come a long way since the early 90's.
Rutgers and UConn have increased fan support. Buffalo and UMass have moved up and Temple of course has improved.
Then at the CAA level you see similar improvements in play.
Don't forget Penn State has one of the very largest FB programs in the country and they're solidly Northeast.
A NE league with Penn State, WVU, Pitt, Maryland, Syracuse, BC, Rutgers, UConn, Temple is close to the Big XII in overall football power.
Quick change of pace:
Could Stony Brook move to the CAA after UMass leaves?
Is Stony Brook a program which has potential if it can get into the 'right' conference?
Could UMass play SB?
(I'm watching Liberty @ Stony Brook now).
The CAA took the Yankee/A10 conference and has only added teams south of the Mason Dixon line. When Hofstra and Northeastern drop football, did they add a northern team. When RI annouce they are moving down and now UMass moving up are they adding a northern team, doubt it. This was one of the many factors that had us finally move up.
No, we have bills to play and will not be playing a FCS school for a long time. Favor UNH and Holy Cross over Stony Brook.
SBU is on an upward trajectory, but it's tough to figure out what the CAA wants. They're similar to the Big East: half-football, half-non-football. I think a good basketball program with adequate football is more likely to get invited there than a good football program with adequate basketball. FCS football doesn't produce TV revenue, so the urgency to expand in football isn't there. Mainly they just want to make sure they have enough members for 8 conference games and the travel isn't too crazy.
UMass has played SBU a few times recently, but won't be playing any FCS teams in the immediate future. It doesn't make sense when we can only use Gillette for 5 games per season to pay a FCS team $350k to play us. Maybe when we get to the point of expecting to be bowl eligible most years, we'll start doing that.
Re: Army, it's a sensible scheduling option, but I don't see a rivalry developing between a service academy and a non-service academy, excluding ancient ones like between Navy and Notre Dame.
(11-19-2011 10:10 PM)LastMinuteman Wrote: [ -> ]SBU is on an upward trajectory, but it's tough to figure out what the CAA wants. They're similar to the Big East: half-football, half-non-football. I think a good basketball program with adequate football is more likely to get invited there than a good football program with adequate basketball. FCS football doesn't produce TV revenue, so the urgency to expand in football isn't there. Mainly they just want to make sure they have enough members for 8 conference games and the travel isn't too crazy.
UMass has played SBU a few times recently, but won't be playing any FCS teams in the immediate future. It doesn't make sense when we can only use Gillette for 5 games per season to pay a FCS team $350k to play us. Maybe when we get to the point of expecting to be bowl eligible most years, we'll start doing that.
Re: Army, it's a sensible scheduling option, but I don't see a rivalry developing between a service academy and a non-service academy, excluding ancient ones like between Navy and Notre Dame.
Well I am assuming you could play an FCS on campus for homecoming right? that would be six home games
(11-19-2011 10:10 PM)LastMinuteman Wrote: [ -> ]SBU is on an upward trajectory, but it's tough to figure out what the CAA wants. They're similar to the Big East: half-football, half-non-football. I think a good basketball program with adequate football is more likely to get invited there than a good football program with adequate basketball. FCS football doesn't produce TV revenue, so the urgency to expand in football isn't there. Mainly they just want to make sure they have enough members for 8 conference games and the travel isn't too crazy.
This may sound a little too 2020ish, but SBU could be groomed for I-A FB IF there was a way that CAA would consider them for membership.
I live in the D.C. area and appreciate that CAA is a BASKETBALL conference. so as 'Minuteman indicates they are looking for hoops, not football.
It just seems to me that ultimately SBU should be playing high I-AA football or I-A football and that the MAC might be an option FAR down the road.
(11-19-2011 11:12 PM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote: [ -> ] (11-19-2011 10:10 PM)LastMinuteman Wrote: [ -> ]SBU is on an upward trajectory, but it's tough to figure out what the CAA wants. They're similar to the Big East: half-football, half-non-football. I think a good basketball program with adequate football is more likely to get invited there than a good football program with adequate basketball. FCS football doesn't produce TV revenue, so the urgency to expand in football isn't there. Mainly they just want to make sure they have enough members for 8 conference games and the travel isn't too crazy.
UMass has played SBU a few times recently, but won't be playing any FCS teams in the immediate future. It doesn't make sense when we can only use Gillette for 5 games per season to pay a FCS team $350k to play us. Maybe when we get to the point of expecting to be bowl eligible most years, we'll start doing that.
Re: Army, it's a sensible scheduling option, but I don't see a rivalry developing between a service academy and a non-service academy, excluding ancient ones like between Navy and Notre Dame.
Well I am assuming you could play an FCS on campus for homecoming right? that would be six home games
We will pay our bills and probably have just 1 OOC game a year. We are required per contract to play 5 games at Gillette for 2012 and 2013 and then four games. While we could play a FCS game at home in 2014, it is assumed that would be reserved for a MAC week night game.
Gillette Contract