Friday News--- 12/04/09

UMass HC Kevin Morris was the keynote speaker at the Western Mass High School Super Bowl luncheon yesterday.

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This Google search contains a dozen or more links to articles about the end of Hofstra football.

Matty V. has another article on the decision.

Could UMass play two BCS/I-AA games next year? Why not? it would be the biggest income for the Athletic Dept in the history of UMass. I think 2010 will be a rebuilding year anyway. Two I-A teams will probably not impact our playoff chances.

This was a loss for Hofstra and for the Northeast. School administrators are being very shortsighted in actions like this. Football is gone at Hofstra and will be replaced by nothing.

At one time America was a nation of joiners. Social organizations like the Elks, the Moose (my grandfather was big in the Moose), the Odd Fellows and a dozen other fraternal organizations were a big influence on people's lives. Television stopped all that in its tracks. Nothing ever replaced the social influence of those organizations.

Likewise, attending college in the past was a life-defining action. You were a UMass or Holy Cross grad for life. School administrators need to realize that ethos is changing fast. Young people today no longer consider their school their "Alma Mater". It's a place where they spend four years. Then leave.

That's what just happed to Hofstra. The school administrators just made the Pride into a four year version of Nassau Community College. And just as loveable.

The same administrators will sit around the conference table and wonder why no one signs up with the Hofstra Alumni Club anymore.

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Former UMass player Seam Smalls was arrested Thursday on the UMass campus on weapons charges.

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CAA beat writer Terrance Thomas Sr. has his "CAA Today" Column for this week up on the CSN website.

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