Pre-Season Rankings

There are a number of pre-season rankings out. Recently Sports Illustrated picked UMass as #9 in the I-AA universe. Previously the Sports Network picked UMass #15.

The UMass website has an article on the Sports Illustrated pick here .

The Fanzone does not put much stock in most polls. The AGS poll has proven to be the most accurate in the past.

Outlets that specialize in I-AA football tend to know more (in some cases a lot more) about I-AA football

Case in point is Street & Smith, which does a good job with I-A, but dropped its I-AA coverage several years ago. This year they did do a Top 25 and included the laughable pick of LaSalle (3-8) last year in the MAAC. To be fair, the Fanzone thinks this is a “typo” (The Fanzone knows a thing or two about typos), Street & Smith probably meant Lafayette (8-4 in the Patriot League in 2004)...

The Fanzone would pick UMass as around #15 or #16 pre-season. Certainly, UMass is a lot better team this year. We have more athletes, especially on defense. But until we do it on the field, we're still 6-5.