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UMass Amherst cancels fall football
By adamg on Tue, 08/11/2020 - 10:51am
In a statement this morning, UMass Athletic Director Ryan Bamford announced:
We have been in constant communication with university leadership and our football staff since March, with the health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches and staff remaining our top priority. The continuing challenges surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic posed too great of a risk, and we reached the conclusion that attempting to play a season would not have placed the members of our program in the safest situation possible.
The school continues to hope it can reschedule canceled fall sports events to the spring.
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Comments
You can't lose if you don't play!
Northeastern football has been undefeated since 2010.
BU Football
Unstoppable since 1995.
Many years ago..
I met a then BU football player at a networking event who had interned at Staubach Enterprises.
Me: wow, did you have a chance to meet Roger?
Him: Roger who?
Me: Roger Staubach, the founder of Staubach Enterprises...
Him: Oh, no, I don't know him
Me: But you know who he is?
Him: No, not really
Me: He was a football player like you...
Him: Oh, cool.
Me: Yeah, he only won the Heisman, led the Cowboys to 5 super bowls and won 2, was MVP at one of those, was a Pro Bowler numerous times and then after he retired, he started the company where you interned last summer.
Him: I had no idea
1997, not 95 was the last
1997, not 95 was the last game, i was there
Time To Pull The Plug On Division One Dreams
There are a few problems with UMass Football:
1. They are not that good.
2. They play in a stadium that makes the old Foxboro stadium feel like the State Street Pavilion seats at Fenway.
3. They are not that good.
4. They have never been good.
5. 98.4% (Not Sourced) people from Massachusetts and about 96.7% of Umass Students don't give a damn about college football.
6. I'd rather have the money spent on where they have been good; Marching Band and Hockey. Also, if they get a superfund grant they can finally get rid of the Stain O'Calipari that has hung over the basketball program since 1997, get a good coach, and recruit there.
This largely checks out
A few quibbles:
You are (sadly) under-counting the amount of BC fans in the state in point 5.
UMass football team is actually terrible, far beyond 'not that good'.
There are plenty of college football fans
in New England.
Most of us just don’t root for teams from New England.
Too many things work against
Too many things work against college football getting the preeminence here that it has in other locales- pro-dominated market, too many colleges, no overarching State U- went to school in Ohio and it seemed everybody rooted for either Ohio State, Notre Dame or where they went to school (Cincinnati, Akron, Toledo, et. al.)
A few years back, I returned
A few years back, I returned to the land of my ancestors and took my wife to the University of Wisconsin season opener. For those of you not familiar with Big 10 scheduling, every team historically played 3 non-conference games to open every season. The games were essentially tune-up games that gave your team 3 in-the-bag wins to start the season (helpful come Bowl selection time).
The level of competition booked for these games was a running joke: "Who's on the schedule for next week, Southwestern State Hairdressers College?!" Sadly, that week, it was UMass. Sconnie played pretty sloppy football for four quarters and still annihilated the Minute Men. I remember thinking: "yeah, it's 45-0, but shouldn't we be piling 70 on these guys? Is the offense alright?"
The funniest thing was the size differential of the players. The UMass O and D lines were just dwarfed. I met a guy who played in two Rose Bowls for UW before being drafted by Seattle (if I recall). The dude was listed 6'7" and 315 lbs. and he wasn't even the largest player on that line. I don't think Massachusetts grows them like that...
The size isn't the issue.
They were bigger than a lot of Notre Dame players a few years ago when they played. But they were so much slower and less athletic.
I think they are hoping for that one SEC or Power 5 win that might generate enough interest to get them to that next level. They have actually been pretty close a few times with some near misses versus SEC teams, but they lose to everyone else as well.
I don't know the end game with renovating that stadium though. If they aren't going to build a 50K seat stadium on campus (I believe they have the room) why did they spend money renovating one of the smallest stadium in d1 football?
Wottsamatta U
hadn't won a game in 38 years.
"And it's high time they did."
"Oh, I don't know. Seems a shame to spoil a perfect record like that."
Agreed, hockey is the best
Agreed, hockey is the best thing going in Amherst, because they're good and because they play in a highly competitive league with other New England schools. Football at UMass, at least the FBS version, is pointless, except when they make their annual trip to SEC country for a cupcake payday(now called off).
Cool
Now never bring it back.
But
what will they (we) do with the giant indoor practice bubble between the stadium and 116? Socially distanced lectures?
If a tree falls in a forest..
If a tree falls in a forest...
The Big 10 is now out, too.
More dominoes yet to tumble.
Pac-12 now out, too.
A few days before the dam bursts and the rest of the big conferences concede, too, I'll wager.
Looks like Trump ruined America's autumn, even for his mouth-breathing cult. Guess you can't tweet, fire, gaslight, bully, sexually assault, cheat, magically wish, tear-gas, baselessly slander, or sue away a virus.
Mr. President, it's time to find a medical excuse to walk away, spare yourself the ignominy of a crushing defeat. Let Pence suck on the tailpipe: no reason to believe he wouldn't abase himself further on your behalf, the pale little worm-man. Everyone thinks you've had a series of minor strokes anyway: no big stretch! You could claim they were the greatest strokes in the history of strokes!
Will huge savings on UMASS football be returned to kids?
---
Since tens of millions of dollars and numerous attempts to legitimize the UMass football program have failed over the years, will the huge amount of money saved be reflected in the form of tuition cuts or just spread out to other wasteful endeavors in the UMass system?
That depends if they lay off the football staff
Which I'm guessing they haven't done or won't do.