On March 26, UMass announced that it will be leaving the MAC to find a more suitable conference for its FBS football program. That leaves but a handful of options. Obviously, the American would be the best choice because of the fact that they would have natural rivalry with UConn. Secondly, it would be the Sun Belt because they are sorely lacking another member to have conference championship game. With both of those conferences, they would not really want to have all of their sports in them because of the travel concerns. This is why they are leaving the MAC because of the fact that the majority of the MAC schools are in the Midwest and travel costs would be quite burdensome. The only other alternative and it might not be as palatable is to downgrade to FCS and back to the Colonial Athletic Association. If they want to remain at FBS, the AAC is their best option, even though traveling to places like Tulsa, SMU or Tulane might be quite burdensome. Nonetheless, with the victories in the national title games from the Connecticut men and women in basketball, the addition of UMass will make this league that much stronger in basketball.
http://www.umassathletics.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/032614aaa.html
Filed under: News, Discussion and Rumors
