UMAss coming back to the MAC

[zippy5]

Pass on UConn as football only unless we get some home games in basketball guaranteed 

[ZippyRulz]

1 hour ago, zippy5 said:

Pass on UConn as football only.

 

fify.

[72 Roo]

The only thing UMass brings is basketball and access to the Boston TV market. Hopefully the MAC uses that to get a sweeter TV contract and subsequent payout to member schools.

The MAC is braindead if it adds Illinois State and N. Dakota State as one on-line pundit suggested.   

[lance99]

8 hours ago, catdaddyp said:

I know UCONN is holding out hope for a P5 bid, but I wonder if they eventually end up in the MAC as well.

I want NOTHING to do with UCONN......

[lance99]

4 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

 

I have a issue with this Tweet:

 

First with North Dakota State: Their whole issue is Geography. You cannot add them by themselves and even then, you either have to add South Dakota State(and BOTH Football Only) or leave them on a huge Island. IDK if they even want to move up and IMHO if they move anywhere, it is to the Big Sky(that will have its own problems if that happens)

 

Western Kentucky makes the most sense, but you have Umass on another Island in the other direction, so they need a Travel Partner themselves not named Uconn.....

 

Illinois State?!?!?!?! Talk about redundancy problems! IMHO just by adding them, not only you are not fixing a problem the MAC has now(too many schools in the same State), but now you are forcing the MAC to start taking Basketball Schools with no Football and lets get real: Schools like Dayton, Xavier and Saint Louis are not beating down the MAC's door right now! That leaves you with all of the deadweight around us......

Edited February 27, 2024 by lance99

[GP1]

5 hours ago, MangoZip said:

I don’t think it’s a solution but I don’t see any downside either? I wonder what makes this attractive to the MAC? 

It devalues the league. 

[GP1]

5 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

This is a step in the right direction. 

Good grief.....

[K-Roo]

All the excitement is for nothing.  CBS Boston says UMASS joining the MAC.  

 

The Mid Atlantic Conference

 

”BOSTON -- UMass is heading back to the MAC. The Mid-Atlantic Conference board voted Monday to add the University of Massachusetts as a full member and the school is expected to accept, according to multiple reports.”

 

Mass joins MAC

Edited February 27, 2024 by K-Roo

[catdaddyp]

6 hours ago, GP1 said:

It devalues the league. 

How so?

[RowdyZip]

I was excited at first, but then I realized that, despite tradition, UMass's basketball team hasn't been nationally relevant for a decade and football is on par terrible with our program. Will be curious to see how they do in-conference for basketball. 

[Let'sGoZips94]

7 hours ago, lance99 said:

I have a issue with this Tweet:

 

First with North Dakota State: Their whole issue is Geography. You cannot add them by themselves and even then, you either have to add South Dakota State(and BOTH Football Only) or leave them on a huge Island. IDK if they even want to move up and IMHO if they move anywhere, it is to the Big Sky(that will have its own problems if that happens)

 

Western Kentucky makes the most sense, but you have Umass on another Island in the other direction, so they need a Travel Partner themselves not named Uconn.....

 

Illinois State?!?!?!?! Talk about redundancy problems! IMHO just by adding them, not only you are not fixing a problem the MAC has now(too many schools in the same State), but now you are forcing the MAC to start taking Basketball Schools with no Football and lets get real: Schools like Dayton, Xavier and Saint Louis are not beating down the MAC's door right now! That leaves you with all of the deadweight around us......

 

NDSU is the least plausible addition for the time being, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. If the MAC has a desire to grow to 20 teams and become a mid major super conference, an addition like NDSU would make tons of sense. Let's say they add 3 more teams this round and NDSU isn't one of them. The next round of 4 could be something like NDSU, SDSU, Illinois State, and Indiana State/YSU/Northern Iowa. SDSU was the best FCS football team last year, NDSU is notoriously one of the best FCS football programs, and both YSU (they've been solid for several years now) and Northern Iowa were top 25 programs. Not to mention Indiana State, Illinois State, SDSU, and Northern Iowa have all been top mid major basketball programs. 

 

WKU brings MTSU with them, which again, opens the door for expansion into the Missouri Valley Conference and other Midwest/Central/Southern conferences.

 

Illinois State is traditionally an upper echelon basketball program. They beat #23 Indiana State by 13 this year and have made plenty of noise in the past. Their football program went 6-5 and played #1 SDSU, #25 YSU 3 pt loss, #23 Northern Iowa (3 pt loss), and #13 North Dakota (1 pt loss). They'd most likely hold their own in the MAC. 

[Let'sGoZips94]

7 hours ago, GP1 said:

Good grief.....

 

I'm sorry our schedule isn't littered with ACC schools for me to get excited about like Wake Forest. UMass moves the needle for me more than a directional Michigan, Ball State, Northern Illinois, etc., especially in basketball which is typically a 2x schedule appearance. It breathes some life into an otherwise dying and stale conference, especially because this means 3 other schools are being added, too. 

[GP1]

54 minutes ago, catdaddyp said:

How so?

It brings in an athletic department that is worse than almost every existing mac school. It makes the MAC worse, not better. 

[GP1]

59 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

. It breathes some life into an otherwise dying and stale conference

If by breathing life you mean farting into the faces of MAC fans, I agree. 

Edited February 27, 2024 by GP1

[GP1]

1 hour ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

I'm sorry our schedule isn't littered with ACC schools for me to get excited about like Wake Forest

I don't think most ACC football programs are as exciting to watch as you think. 

[GP1]

1 hour ago, RowdyZip said:

I was excited at first, but then I realized that,.......

...... UMass athletics is a sick joke.

[GP1]

14 hours ago, akzipper said:

How embarrassing is that the MAC needs to add teams to CATCH UP with the Sun Belt. 

 

Middle Tennessee, UConn, Western Kentucky, Temple? Idk...

 

Good point. If they won more games against the SB, that would be catching up in my view. 

[GP1]

14 hours ago, MangoZip said:

I wonder what makes this attractive to the MAC? 

Presidents and ADs who want to open a door for their next job. 

[catdaddyp]

46 minutes ago, RowdyZip said:

I was excited at first, but then I realized that, despite tradition, UMass's basketball team hasn't been nationally relevant for a decade and football is on par terrible with our program. Will be curious to see how they do in-conference for basketball. 

I don’t know if UMASS will ever get back to their glory days in MBB, but they should be solid as long as Frank Martin is there. Frank is excellent at developing talent (especially big men), assuming he is able to retain his players. He struggled at times recruiting at Carolina, which is no surprise as Carolina is bottom third in the SEC when it comes to investing in MBB (although that will soon change). Frank typically targeted (and this a generalization) athletes with length over skill and then developed those players. In his later years at Carolina he started targeting more pure wing shooters through the portal. His coaching style does not sit well with some people, but he is as genuine a person as there is and is not afraid to speak his mind to anyone in any position.

Don Brown has his work cut out for him with football, but has the program headed in the right direction. His first recruiting class at UMASS was not good and that’s putting it kindly. He hit the portal hard in the second class and is attempting to turn over the roster as quickly as possible. The 3rd class is a blend similar to ours in the terms of transfers/juco/hs allocation. High school football in the northeast is rapidly improving and UMASS is starting to tap into that. They also hit the state of Florida hard. There is already plenty of overlap in recruiting between MAC schools and UMASS. So in that regard, it’s a natural fit.

 

I know there is a lot of focus on how bad UMASS has been in football and their recent lack of success in basketball, yet that could quickly change with the right staff in place. And it seems that’s happening. I’m not someone who cares about the name across the front of the jersey or previous records. I look at recruiting and when the talent level increases and is eventually developed, good things happen. My only concern for UMASS is how much longer will Frank and Don continue to coach?
 

 

 

[GP1]

BTW. Was there a school smart enough to vote no when this came to a vite?

[GP1]

4 minutes ago, catdaddyp said:

I don’t know if UMASS will ever get back to their glory days in MBB, but they should be solid as long as Frank Martin is there. Frank is excellent at developing talent (especially big men), assuming he is able to retain his players. He struggled at times recruiting at Carolina, which is no surprise as Carolina is bottom third in the SEC when it comes to investing in MBB (although that will soon change). Frank typically targeted (and this a generalization) athletes with length over skill and then developed those players. In his later years at Carolina he started targeting more pure wing shooters through the portal. His coaching style does not sit well with some people, but he is as genuine a person as there is and is not afraid to speak his mind to anyone in any position.

Don Brown has his work cut out for him with football, but has the program headed in the right direction. His first recruiting class at UMASS was not good and that’s putting it kindly. He hit the portal hard in the second class and is attempting to turn over the roster as quickly as possible. The 3rd class is a blend similar to ours in the terms of transfers/juco/hs allocation. High school football in the northeast is rapidly improving and UMASS is starting to tap into that. They also hit the state of Florida hard. There is already plenty of overlap in recruiting between MAC schools and UMASS. So in that regard, it’s a natural fit.

 

I know there is a lot of focus on how bad UMASS has been in football and their recent lack of success in basketball, yet that could quickly change with the right staff in place. And it seems that’s happening. I’m not someone who cares about the name across the front of the jersey or previous records. I look at recruiting and when the talent level increases and is eventually developed, good things happen. My only concern for UMASS is how much longer will Frank and Don continue to coach?
 

 

 

It's a building process. 

[GP1]

Am I the only one who could make fun of UMass joining the MAC, again, all day long?

[zippy5]

11 minutes ago, GP1 said:

Am I the only one who could make fun of UMass joining the MAC, again, all day long?

appears so

[kreed5120]

1 hour ago, RowdyZip said:

I was excited at first, but then I realized that, despite tradition, UMass's basketball team hasn't been nationally relevant for a decade and football is on par terrible with our program. Will be curious to see how they do in-conference for basketball. 

They will instantly compete with Akron and Toledo at the top of the MAC. Their win totals are going to improve when they replace games against Dayton and VCU with Northern Illinois and Western Michigan. Using this season as an example, they're ranked 5th in the A10, but they're still currently ranked ahead of the MAC top ranked team (Akron).

[akzipper]

1 hour ago, RowdyZip said:

I was excited at first, but then I realized that, despite tradition, UMass's basketball team hasn't been nationally relevant for a decade and football is on par terrible with our program. Will be curious to see how they do in-conference for basketball. 

 

Wanted to look around yesterday to see how UMass fans were feeling about this move. Most seem to think the A10 is dying and the MAC is a good move. I was surprised how many said it was a good stepping stone until they move to a bigger conference. WHAT? Not that we have much room to talk but the UMass football program has average like 2 wins a season for the past 10 years and the basketball program is very average. 

 

Still view this a positive for the MAC. The conference needs some new blood and expanding it's footprint can't be a bad thing. Hopefully we see more schools added soon.