UMass announces a home and home series with Tulane and Louisiana Tech.The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports on the series. Dan Malone also has a post on the announcement.
Matty V. has a report on the additions to the schedule.
Tulane went 3-9 in the AAC last year with wins over SE Louisiana, UConn (yeah!) and Houston. Athlon predicts the Green Wave 5th in the AAC West this year. Sporting News also predicts a 5th place finish.
The Orlando Sentinel previews Tulane as #108 in 2015.
So the 2016 schedule now looks like:
2016 UMass Football Updated Schedule:
Sept. 3 - at Florida
Sept. 10 - Connecticut
Sept. 17 - at Boston College
Oct. 1 - Tulane
Oct. 8 - at Old Dominion
Oct. 15 - Louisiana Tech
Oct. 29 - at Appalachian State
Nov. 5 - at Troy
Nov. 19 - at BYU
Nov. 26 - at Hawaii
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The Minutemen now have three home games for 2016. NCAA regulations require at least five. UMass
will probably add an FCS team to make it to four. If the Minutemen can sign another FBS team, we will end up playing four games in Gillette and one at McGuirk.
So, assuming UMass can scout up the necessary FBS game, why not play two FCS teams in 2016? That would allow a three and three split between Gillette and Amherst. Note that Boston College will play home games against Maine and Howard this year. A home schedule of UConn, Tulane, Louisiana Tech and another FBS team would still be an excellent home schedule for UMass fans. There would be more name recognition than MAC schools.
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Tulane has one player from Massachusetts: Aaron Golub.
Golub is legally blind. Sports Illustrated has an inspiring story on his success in football.
A quartet of four-star recruits took a visit to Tulane.
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Athlon Sports has the best young college football coaches among them are Matt Campbell (Toledo), P.J. Fleck (Western Michigan) and Neal Brown (Troy).
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Victor Cruz will have his own brand of sneakers this year: Air Cruz
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