Quote:Pretty sad when a flagship school in a state with a huge population can't even get in a mid major conference. But that is New England. Lots of people with money but no football fans.

I think that's pretty much it. Plus their plans going wacky in terms of a new stadium, etc hurt their cause of building. They are on their way up, but not enough evidence that they'll get over that hump into 6+ wins land year to year.

UMass joining SBC to help give it two divisions? Well, a lot of Travel for that, but OK. What's good for Idaho is good for any potato. They'd only do that for football-only.

To join CUSA they'd have to join in Basketball which would be a solid step Down on that, and that's their bread and butter sport. Not going to do that.

They could go Independent, which would garner a Tough schedule to help build the team -- and then join the MAC football-only if the MAC had uneven numbers after a few years. But the MAC would still say that after, say, 4-5 years, they'd re-convene again to see if it was still kosher @football-only.

But going Independent could end up being OK for them to try and join the AAC. IF they time it right, they could get their team built thru Tough schedules, where AAC would be looking for someone, and with UMass' basketball program, they'd join with UConn and some others still there. It'd be a win-win that way.