(02-13-2019 10:06 AM)McKinney Wrote:  

(02-07-2019 08:18 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(02-06-2019 07:44 PM)esayem Wrote:  UConn started the process of studying 1-A as early as 1990 when the Big East football conference was set in motion. They had an open invite from the get-go.

Interestingly enough, UMass had an offer from Robert Kraft to use the Pats stadium to move-up to 1-A back in the fall of 1994! Imagine if UMass upgraded back then when they started seriously studying the move.

I believe that the invite was part of the compromise related to the 1995 expansion that added Rutgers and West Virginia.

That would have been so cool for UMass to be in the Big East with UConn (later), BC, Temple, Rutgers, Syracuse, Pitt, Miami, WVU, and VT.

Researching old newspaper articles on 1-AA schools moving up, no school comes up more than UMass. It took 20 years to get it done! Seems there was always a spat between the athletic and academic side of the university.

On a side note, Florida A&M was actually in a transitional period in the early 2000’s before FAU and FIU, but something happened and they dropped back down. Can’t remember exactly.

Holy Cross had some boosters and athletic dept people talking about building an Orange Bowl-level program in 1980, and they hired an amazing young coach in Rick Carter who won a title at Dayton. Then the president cut scholarships, HC joined the Ivy-wannabe Patriot League, and the AD wouldn’t let Carter out of his contract to take the NC State job. He was even talked about as a replacement for Faust at ND; the guy was that well respected. Unfortunately, he suffered from depression and committed suicide in ‘86. Tragic. Holy Cross went on to dominant the non-scholarship level in the late 80’s and had a back to back Heisman contender who played both sides of the ball. There’s a 30 for 30 called the Throwback that talks about him.