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The UMass Athletic Dept story here .
The Michigan Athletic Dept notice here.
Springfield Republican here .
Nearly all the various newspaper articles just copy the schools press releases, except of course for Matty Vautour, who has a number of details.
According to Matty's story, future UMass I-A opponents look like this:
- 2010 Michigan
- 2011 Boston College
- 2012 UConn (in negotiation stage)
- 2013 Syracuse (in negotiation stage)
"The opportunity to have both schools play for a one-year guarantee with no return trip makes it appealing for Michigan, which has been reluctant to schedule home-and-home series because that would mean a one less revenue-producing game in Ann Arbor in the road year of a contract. That is also a reason U-M has hesitated on scheduling neutral-site games."
Michigan makes so much money on home games they would play all 11 games in Michigan Stadium if they could. Nearly all I-A teams want a home-and-home contract. That's not a good deal for Michigan as they have to pay a higher guarantee to a FBS team and loose a highly lucrative home date to boot. Playing FCS/I-AA teams counts towards bowl eligibility, so playing UMass is both a financial and on-the-field win for the Wolverines in 2010.
UMass could do alright on the game also. The Minutemen get a $550,000 guarantee and 5,000 tickets. I paid $40/seat in Texas Tech. If UMass could sell a couple thousand of those seats at Michigan prices to current fans and Mid-west alums, it should push UMass' take past the $600,000 mark.