Thursday---March 24, 2011

Alyssa Creamer and Tom King of MassLive give a balanced presentation about the possible gains and pains from a UMass football upgrade. They do a pretty good job except for the bogus $3 million cost  for the program.

One thing I'd like to point out. The one of the biggest gains for UMass football fans would be the added stability for the program.

Going FBS, as the article says (and every study has found) would change UMass' funding; UMass would have a stable source of income that would move the program into into a break even status.

"From all we have looked at, the program [expansion] would be self-supporting in that way, given the new revenue streams we would be generating,'' McCutcheon told Chimelis."

That would be a very good thing considering the on-again-off-again funding from the state.

We lost a Hall-of-Fame coach (MacPherson) when his scholarships were cut. We lost Jimmie Reid (who won the conference championship three of his six years) when his scholarships were cut.

In addition, the break even status would extend to the additional scholarships for UMass' women's programs.

 Also, UMass football fans would not have to worry about the long-term viability of the program.

There are certainly some risks involved, and I do not expect the move to generate vast amounts of money after all expenses are paid.

However, there does seem to be the prospect that the program will do more than break even if the potential use of Gillette Stadium for some games comes true.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The UMass Football Broadcast team was honored by the Associated Press for the ninth consecutive year.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kyle Harrington and Tracey Belton will be playing in the Arena Football league.

Good Luck Kyle and Tracey!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some reports from Boston College's Pro Day here .

Greg Niland from UMass gets some Pro Day coverage here and here.

John Griffin, Kyle Havens, Mike Mele, Anthony Nelson also took part.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

During recruiting season I blogged about Donald Buie and J.J. Hubbard . They both ended up signing with Gardner Webb.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

College football reached new heights in attendance and TV ratings in 2010.

From the article:

"The Big Ten Network's afternoon telecasts ranked first among cable households in its eight metered markets for the second year in a row. The network also produced its top two ratings ever. The noon ET time slot on Sept. 18, which included the Ohio State vs. Ohio and Michigan vs. UMass games, averaged a 5.64 rating while the conference battle between Ohio State and Illinois earned a 5.49 rating on Oct. 2."

How about that UMass fans!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------