LS71 wrote: Mon May 19, 2025 9:06 pm
Hockey has been in the NCAAs 5 of the last seasons including a national championship and is in the country’s best hockey conference, yet that success is completely overlooked in this article.
I think it’s fair to say that UMass hockey has a better chance at another natty than football has at making a play-off.
Not that I wouldn’t love to see football be successful but it’d be better for football to aspire to hockey’s current success than to bemoan basketball’s fall from grace.
Catching up on some older posts and this one caught my eye.
LS71 - Hockey is a great sport but it is not going to pay any bills. Yes of course Football should aspire to have the success of Hockey more so than hoops - that is obvious based on simple performance and appearance metrics. Basketball should aspire to be like their Hockey program as well.
UMass needs Basketball to be relevant in concert with Football relevance to be sellable to a better conference at this point. Umass (and UConn for that matter) are not in a TV or Recruiting hotbed that would attract P4 needs. UConn cannot even get a sniff from P4 with a top 20 Basketball Program. I would argue Umass needs to be even better than "normal" for that attention because of those Media and Regional Talent shortcomings. Hockey is a nice desert to add to the meal, but P4 Hockey is barely an afterthought in the athletics landscape.
In order for this to work, MAC needs to get better as much as Umass does. 3 or 4 FBS wins in the WORST G5 conference means nothing at this point in the game. Worse still is coming in last in the worst conference and that outcome is on the table right now. Anyone who cannot acknowledge that is simply lying to themselves.
I honestly have no idea what to expect this year, nor do I really know what the ramifications are for any of the possible football (or basketball) outcomes this year.
- If they suck and only win 2 or 3 games (including the FCS game)... can that be sold as progress? Maybe???
- If they surprise and win 4 FBS games but are still near the bottom of MAC - is that enough to energize the Umass fan base?
- Does Football NEED to be better (record) this year to be considered on the right path? I don't know?
To me - Basketball 100% NEEDS to be better this year (in overall record). Taking this kind of step backwards in overall schedule strength and an overall record similar to last year will be brutal for the program and IMO should be enough to relieve Frank from his position. But then what? They will be in an abyss with hoops.
IMO Football has a little rope to play with here.. they are already one of the worst programs in the country. Establishing a new baseline may be OK this year. I expect a little more than that, but I can see it falling that way this year but still coming out of that feeling optimistic.
