UMass to the MAC?

[Grayghost]

Did anyone know about this? The only way I found out was going to fbsschedules.com to look at next years schedules and saw this.

I had heard about Texas St. and UT San Antonio going to the WAC, but this is the first I heard anything about UMass. Is this football only?

edit: Hmmmm...also just noticed South Alabama moving into the Sun Belt...missed that one too.

[Eric]

Yup, this came out about a year and a half ago and I'm happy for it. UMass is staying in the A-10 and going the Temple route by playing football only in the MAC. The problem is the CAA is more centered around the Southern teams since Northeastern and Hofstra folded and so UMass took the chance to go FBS. I think 2012 is a transition year and 2013 is full-fledged. South Alabama will make the full jump in 2013 as well.

[WoVeU]

I think UMass will do well. The Northeast has such few FBS teams and with BC playing in the ACC they have even less FBS teams that play each other (Syracuse and Pitt going to the ACC will help and hurt some.)

FBS teams:
Buffalo, Syracuse, BC, Rutgers, UConn, Temple, (and Pitt, Maryland).
Pro Teams:
Buffalo, NY Jets, NY Giants, Washington, Philadelphia, New England, (and Pittsburgh).

With that many pro teams in comparison to FBS, there is simply no way the North East can't support 2 or 3 times as many teams easily. Football may be elevated to a religion in the South, but it still enjoys at least political status in the North. There is more than enough love to do much more up there. I think the separation between FCS and FBS teams and the emphasis placed on the FBS through all of the growth left a vacuum in the north. You could grow college football like mushrooms there if they went to a true Big East

Buffalo
Syracuse
UConn
Rutgers
Boston College
Temple
Maryland
UMass
*Delaware
*Maine
*Rhode Island
*New Hampshire
**Villanova
**Towson
**Lehigh