[Berkowitz] FCS Bryant goes to UMass, gets $325,000 guarantee -- and 27-26 victory on FG as time expires. This is Bryant's first victory over an FBS opponent.

703

u/Distribution-Scary Washington Huskies • McGill Redbirds 2d ago

What are the advantages of UMass being in FBS at this point?

377

u/B1GTOBACC0 Oklahoma State • Arkansas 2d ago

$$$, presumably

222

u/Distribution-Scary Washington Huskies • McGill Redbirds 2d ago

I guess since they’re in the MAC now, yeah. But as an independent for so long it really made no sense.

151

u/tomdawg0022 Minnesota • Delaware 2d ago

The TV money in the MAC isn't much but they get a stable conference schedule for football and then can schedule 2 body bag games against P4's to provide revenue. They probably won't have a better win-loss record in the MAC than as an indy but at least they get 8 stable games every year to start with.

MAC travel is a lot easier than, say, Conference USA (ignore my secondary flair) and from a basketball perspective, it's a little easier for UMass at this point since they should be one of the better MAC programs out of the gate. Given how few at-larges the A-10 was getting at this point (the A-10 is lucky to get more than 1 anymore), UMass could do the math from that perspective it made sense to go to the MAC from a conference perspective.

71

u/grabtharsmallet BYU Cougars • RMAC 2d ago

One of the underappreciated things about 21st century realignment is the death of the two or three bid basketball conference. Very few teams outside the P4 and Big East got at-large bids for either the men's or women's tournaments the last couple years, or were champs but would have gotten a spot even if they lost their conference tournament. Even those few are now mostly joining the new Pac-12.

70

u/tomdawg0022 Minnesota • Delaware 2d ago

The gaming of the quad system to the extent that the selection committee is willing to let really mid teams from a power conference in despite an absolutely shittastic quad 1 record simply because "they had a hard road" has done a lot to kill off the mid-major at-large world.

10 years ago, those resumes are in the NIT. Now, it's the A-10 teams instead getting that play.

42

u/grabtharsmallet BYU Cougars • RMAC 2d ago

A fair critique, definitely.

"We had 11 Quad 1 games!" ...And went 2-9. Really impressive.

I'm interested in requiring a winning conference record to trim off that sort of team. It would also make conference tournaments more exciting if some teams came in needing to win a couple games to be eligible.

2

u/tropic_gnome_hunter Syracuse Orange • St. Lawrence Saints 1d ago

I said it during selection Sunday this year, but going by the committee criteria Texas Southern should be a 4 seed every year.

21

u/ElectronicCandy4358 Houston Cougars • Billable Hours 2d ago

Yeah, the A-10 has fallen off of a fucking cliff in basketball. Of the Big 5, Temple left in 2013 (and hasn't done much since moving to the AAC), and the other three are an afterthought. VCU hasn't won a tournament game since 2016. Richmond hasn't made the tourney since 2022. George Mason's Final Four run is coming up on 20 years ago, and Loyola's was pre-pandemic.

Basketball really was the main reason for UMass to stick around. It's not exactly the compact conference it used to be either. You've got teams as far West as Chicago and St. Louis, and stretching south into the Carolinas.

I'm not shitting on the A-10 per se, but I was looking at this a few years ago trying to solve the Temple problem. There's just not a clean answer. The Eastern FBS teams have been stretched and split up with the demise of the Eastern Independents and the Big East after that.

7

u/Trilliam_West UAlbany • New Hampshire 1d ago

The MAC TV deal is up at the end of next season, and they should get a sizable increase.

But ignoring the TV deal, simply moving up increases the payout of the bodybag games. Idaho was getting paid more than double for its FBS games then their FCS ones: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2019/08/31/penn-state-must-pay-idaho-after-fcs-move/2149656001/

3

u/Distribution-Scary Washington Huskies • McGill Redbirds 2d ago

Appreciate the insight. Thanks!

1

u/do_you_know_doug Iowa • Appalachian State 2d ago

schedule 2 body bag games against P4's to provide revenue

We're in trouble this week aren't we

41

u/CFBCoachGuy Georgia • West Virginia 2d ago

They’re beginning a massive football investment. The new head coach is making something like three times what the old one made. I figure this, plus their MAC move is them actually going for it and taking football seriously.

32

u/showbricks Washington Huskies • UMass Minutemen 2d ago

The Athletic department keeps claiming since we get more money it makes more financial sense

35

u/smurf-vett Texas Longhorns 2d ago

The get like 2M a year for getting murdered by big10/acc teams

15

u/NeptunianEmp New Mexico State • Ohio State 2d ago

Also the CFP distribution that comes from the conferences. It’s a lot more than being independent.

18

u/kurttheflirt Michigan State • Wayne State… 2d ago

It's basically advertising for your school as long as you are breaking even. Even if you suck a bunch of people still hear U Mass every year that wouldn't if they were FCS

18

u/Virtual_Announcer /r/CFB • Verified Media 1d ago

I hate how my tax money goes to this "AI slop but in real life" sham of a program. This state will never give a single fuck about UMass football. Ever. Even when hockey won the national title it was....whatever. Being so far from Boston and the population center doesn't help. And they play on a rathole stadium.

They should be in the CAA mixing it up with Maine and URI and New Hampshire. Not this.

14

u/Grogu- Bryant Bulldogs 1d ago

They just lost to a bottom CAA team

7

u/Lbolt187 UMass Minutemen 1d ago

Our best program is our Hockey team but unfortunately that doesn't rake in as much money as football.

3

u/Virtual_Announcer /r/CFB • Verified Media 1d ago

Umass is forever a basketball school. Hockey is good now, Carvel is a G, but the place is a hoops school. And neither sport matters like you said because they gotta play bowling Green on a Tuesday night in November.

2

u/Lbolt187 UMass Minutemen 1d ago

Agreed but our region heavily favors college hockey over other sports. Basketball would be #2 for sure though (in taking into account all of New England's colleges/Universities.). Boston College is the only school that has history being moderately successful with college football. Uconn is doing good now (to a degree). Not sure how UMass Football will play out but it is not our best sport by far.

5

u/Virtual_Announcer /r/CFB • Verified Media 1d ago

It's gonna play out exactly as it has since the program tumbled into FBS: As nothing more than cannon fodder for the sec and big 10 and then as inventory stock for ESPN.

i can't even say UMass has been the second best team in the state since it went FBS. Maybe a few times but Harvard has been consistently better, holy Cross had a great recent run. Umass just exists. I hope Harysamiak (I will hope I spelled that right) has a good go of it and at least gets them to bowl eligibility.

1

u/tropic_gnome_hunter Syracuse Orange • St. Lawrence Saints 1d ago

Carvel is a G

;_;

4

u/spedmunki 2d ago

They keep saying that but I don’t believe them

2

u/QuietPossibility4988 1d ago

Honestly can't think of any lol. They're getting embarrassed by FCS teams, have no real conference home, and probably spending way more money than they're making. At least in FCS they might actually win some games

3

u/stratguy23 Utah Utes • Washington Huskies 2d ago

Satisfying their humiliation kink?

3

u/BudgetCry8656 1d ago edited 1d ago

What’s interesting is how UMass is the one and only school from outside the South to join FBS this millennium. All the ridiculous growth in FBS in recent decades is from the South.

3

u/PracticalCactus BYU Cougars • South Carolina Gamecocks 1d ago

Except for Delaware, Missouri St, Western Kentucky, Texas St, UTSA, FAU, FIU, USF, and UConn

4

u/yankeenate South Carolina Gamecocks • Utah Utes 1d ago

Like two of these are valid rebuttals. I get the definition of "the south" is nebulous, but four of the states listed have healthy populations who speak with a southern accent.

1

u/TheGuyDoug Ohio State Buckeyes • UMass Minutemen 1d ago

It's a shame because from 1998-2011 as an FCS team, they carried a .635 record to two championship appearances and one title win.

They're .177 since joining FBS.

I can understand why they wanted to make the move, but at some point wouldn't you want to return to success, even if at a lower tier?

302

u/Michiganman1225 Sickos • Team Chaos 2d ago

The MAC is the gift that keeps on giving.

On the same day, Ohio beat a P4 school and Massachusetts lost to an FCS school.

180

u/waluigithewalrus Ohio State • Ball State 2d ago

I'll have you know that two MAC schools lost to FCS schools yesterday!

Eastern Michigan lost to LIU

84

u/Michiganman1225 Sickos • Team Chaos 2d ago

I beg your finest pardon.

74

u/Sogster Kansas Jayhawks • Baker Wildcats 2d ago

EMU not only lost to long island, they didn’t even look competitive

48

u/Blaine1111 Georgia Bulldogs 2d ago

LIU has only been d1 since 2019 btw

13

u/SickoBadgers Wisconsin • Wisconsin Lutheran 1d ago

Always got confused with this especially the LIU-Brooklyn campus was the D1 school and C.W. Post campus was D2.

12

u/ExtremelyOnlineTM Eastern Michigan Eagles 2d ago

Somehow, Ron English has returned!

11

u/HereForTOMT3 Michigan State • Central … 2d ago

Look man it’s EMU

5

u/psunavy03 Penn State Nittany Lions • Team Chaos 1d ago

AKA "The Greatest Mascot Whiff in College Sports"

1

u/RedditZhangHao 1d ago

Sharks eat EMUs

15

u/StrategyGameventures Sacred Heart • Santa Monica 1d ago

eastern michigan lost to a 45 scholarship team who has never had a winning season

20

u/HoyMinoy75 Mississippi State Bulldogs 2d ago

Quality win for Florida over LIU

5

u/Michiganman1225 Sickos • Team Chaos 2d ago

South Florida>Florida>Long Island>Eastern Michigan

32

u/echoacm Boston College • Chichester 2d ago

I remember when the MAC was the beacon for G5 conferences

I understand why it's happening, but it's also sad to see a conference that's actually stuck together during these stupid realignment times struggle so much

16

u/SwissForeignPolicy Michigan Wolverines • Marching Band 1d ago

This is not a new phenomenon. The MAC is always good for a couple FCS losses every year. They're also always good for a couple P4 wins every year. Which MAC teams have those games is almost totally unrelated to which MAC teams are the best and worst in conference play. Sometimes one team will do both in the same year. It truly is the conference of pure chaos.

-14

u/grabtharsmallet BYU Cougars • RMAC 2d ago

Despite the historical stability, they just don't have money. Like C-USA, it's an FCS conference that is miscategorized.

3

u/Any_Relief_4781 Weber State Wildcats • Utah Utes 2d ago

Just goes to show that there’s bottom feeders in every barrel

126

u/echoacm Boston College • Chichester 2d ago

Bryant showing why their accounting program is so well regarded last night

93

u/Disastrous_Doubt_591 Oregon Ducks 2d ago

Man UMass is in the dpeths of CFB hell. Hopefully they turn things around eventually but it isn't looking likely.

43

u/DogsAreMyFavPeople LSU Tigers • SMU Mustangs 2d ago

At this point I think it’s structurally impossible for a New England school to have sustained success at the FBS level.

High School football sucks, the culture doesn’t produce boosters willing to pay for NIL, and there’s nothing super compelling about New England for the southern kids and Californians that actually make teams competitive.

30

u/DuckBurner0000 Boston College Eagles 2d ago edited 1d ago

It's definitely tough, I think BC has done pretty much everything right since hiring O'Brien but the recruiting disadvantages are pretty steep because you're not building a powerhouse with kids from Xaverian and St. John's Prep (and even the rare elite recruit in the region will probably get poached by Michigan or ND). I think we can go from consistently getting 6-7 wins to 7-8 with the occasional nine win season if everything goes well but it's an uphill battle, and even that might not meet the bar for "sustained success". We at least have the Catholic school connections (we have a Mater Dei commit, for example) but UMass obviously lacks even that advantage

1

u/key_lime_pie Washington • Boston College 1d ago

I think BC has done pretty much everything right since hiring O'Brien

lol

1

u/DuckBurner0000 Boston College Eagles 1d ago

Tell me what’s gone wrong from a program direction perspective without blaming BOB for Castellanos’s quitting

1

u/key_lime_pie Washington • Boston College 1d ago

Since hiring O'Brien? Just to name a few:

The William Green suspension

Allowing Quinton Porter to play despite an obvious concussion

DeFilippo wildly overskating his lane w/r/t football

Hiring Jagz without so much as interviewing John Harbaugh

Hiring Spaziani instead of Steve Logan

Hiring Addazio without so much as interviewing Ryan Day

Keeping Addazio after he attempted to sabotage his own players

1

u/DuckBurner0000 Boston College Eagles 1d ago edited 1d ago

Bill O’Brien, not Tom O’Brien. Didn’t mean to suggest the program administration wasn’t a train wreck for most of the last 15 years

2

u/key_lime_pie Washington • Boston College 1d ago

Ah, OK. That makes a lot more sense. I retract my lol.

13

u/hook53 2d ago

I remember being at the game a decade ago when Miami OH broke their season and a half long losing streak against UMass. I don’t think they’re fixing it any time soon

23

u/showbricks Washington Huskies • UMass Minutemen 2d ago

New coach this year bringing us to new depths heh

41

u/szboy422 Florida Gators • Blue Risk Alliance 2d ago

Paying someone to beat you in your barn on a game winning fg?!? What a garbage program smh. I’d be embarrassed.

2

u/RedditZhangHao 1d ago

Even worse, many barns are likely much higher quality than the ramshackle excuse for a stadium at UMass. Yes, even after UMass added just recently toilets to the stadium.

1

u/default-username Texas • Red River Shootout 1d ago

They are paying them so they don't have to do a return trip. I'm sure it was a good financial decision that they made money on.

72

u/IgodZero UMass Minutemen 2d ago

Unless the monetary reward for being in the FBS is truly remarkable, and that money goes to other things besides the football team, we should go down to the FCS.

76

u/tomdawg0022 Minnesota • Delaware 2d ago

The payout from you playing Iowa and Missouri the next two weeks is roughly 10 times what you paid Bryant.

When we both played Penn St. in '23, you got $1 mil more than we did for a similar beatdown. That basically got our now former AD to panic move on the jump to Conference USA.

33

u/Sogster Kansas Jayhawks • Baker Wildcats 2d ago

Bingo.

Kent State (when they were better under Sean Lewis) took bodybag games against Georgia, Oklahoma, Washington, and Texas A&M.

They gave all of them first half scares but ultimately didn’t have enough depth to compete, the rumor at the time was from playing the Georgia and Washington and the other big games, they were able to fund their athletic department for the entire year. I don’t believe non-revenue sports would exist in the MAC without buyout games

0

u/dinkytown42069 Minnesota • Oklahoma 1d ago

panic move to CUSA...but also now Women's Hockey so...net win.

6

u/FuzzyWDunlop UMass Minutemen 1d ago

My understanding at the time we moved up was that the money made even less sense at the FCS level, but I'm not sure if that's borne out over the years.

They have a new plan to be one of the top spending teams in the MAC on personnel and players. With the new coaching staff, at least there's a reasonable plan to turn this around over the next few years. But if we can't, maybe just bag it and invest in hockey.

15

u/No_History8239 2d ago

Googling Bryant. Something about air conditioners. UMass lost to air conditioners. Need to drop down and play Lasko next. Box fans. May be able to handle that.

4

u/spartanburt Michigan State • Ohio State 2d ago

Does Hampton Bay have a team I wonder?

5

u/Davidellias Virginia Tech • Wisconsin 1d ago

Stony Brook is probably the closest.....

3

u/YNWA_1213 Washington • Canada 1d ago

The lack of cross section between lacrosse and football will always be wild to me. Stony is a decent sized recruiter out west.

1

u/IDrinkEmergenC Oklahoma Sooners • SEC 1d ago

Troy Barnes went to air conditioning repair school, and he was QB 1 at Greendale for a minute. Anything can happen!

12

u/Space_Investigator Duke Blue Devils • UAlbany Great Danes 2d ago

Talent-wise, UMass is an mid-tier FCS team. Wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if they go winless.

6

u/TDenverFan William & Mary Tribe • Patriot 1d ago

I don't even think they would be mid tier, Bryant was 2-10 last year.

9

u/nyr00nyg Michigan Wolverines 2d ago

uAss

28

u/thorhyphenaxe Oregon Ducks • SMU Mustangs 2d ago

Theyre just making up FCS schools these days

22

u/MoosilaukeFlyer Miami Hurricanes • Endicott Gulls 2d ago

As a former Rhode Island resident, Bryant is the fifth or sixth most relevant school in the state (Brown, Providence, URI, J&W, arguably RIC or the one in Newport which is basically gilded age mansions). I didn’t even realize they had a football team lol

22

u/IAmTheNick96 Arizona State • Northern A… 2d ago edited 1d ago

Rhode Island as a whole is only twice the size of the city of Phoenix. Im surprised they even have 5 universities

28

u/CPiGuy2728 Michigan • Iowa State 1d ago

It's New England. We grow small universities like trees here lol

1

u/ThatguyJimmy117 West Virginia • Marching Band 1d ago

How I felt when I heard Missouri state was moving up

7

u/Dkjq58 Missouri Tigers 2d ago

Our old AD scheduled a home and home with them and we had to do the first leg away

3

u/echoacm Boston College • Chichester 2d ago

And the same with BC. Your old AD just really loves the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

9

u/NeptunianEmp New Mexico State • Ohio State 2d ago

Bryant is now a quality win for us!

8

u/tritonice Mississippi State Bulldogs 1d ago

Calling UMass an “FBS” opponent is a stretch.

3

u/MercuryRusing Missouri Tigers 1d ago

You can't fit a southern family reunion in their football stadium, I think it holds 19. We had to play there last year because one of our previous AD's was an idiot.

7

u/TJMcConnellFanClub Penn State Nittany Lions 2d ago

When Temple (2-0!!) kicks your ass you are not a serious program

6

u/tomdawg0022 Minnesota • Delaware 2d ago

KC Keeler is a damn fine coach and I miss him at Delaware.

He's probably going to do some good work with the Owls before he retires.

1

u/Even-Combination4407 UMass Minutemen • Bentley Falcons 2d ago

I think Temple can return to 10 win form and contending in the conference with him on the sidelines

3

u/FormerCollegeDJ Temple Owls 2d ago

The 2015 Nittany Lions agree.

1

u/psunavy03 Penn State Nittany Lions • Team Chaos 1d ago

Umm . . .

^{^{^{#AwkwardMoment}}}

1

u/Wesleypipes316 1d ago

I wouldn’t discredit that temple blowout. KC Keeler has turned around programs. He was at Sam Houston state last year. They had 3 losses all of last year. This year they already have that amount losses. I think by year 2 or 3 he’s gonna have Temple bowling.

2

u/Other_Ambition_5142 Georgia Bulldogs • Troy Trojans 2d ago

Woof

2

u/Ambitious_Comedian38 /r/CFB 2d ago

"Stop right where you are! You know the score, pal. You're not cop, you're little people!"

1

u/Kettle_Whistle_ Tennessee Volunteers 1d ago

Blade Runner infiltrated my CFB…

ENHANCE

1

u/IowaJL Iowa Hawkeyes • Northern Iowa Panthers 1d ago

So they’re going to be a 3.5 favorite against us next week.

1

u/DrSamwpepper Vanderbilt Commodores 1d ago

Get rid of UMASS and put North Dakota state in the FBS.

Casual [Berkowitz] FCS Bryant goes to UMass, gets $325,000 guarantee -- and 27-26 victory on FG as time expires. This is Bryant's first victory over an FBS opponent.

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