UMass to join FBS, MAC in 2012

By Ray Bennett
Wednesday April 20, 2011

The University of Massachusetts football program is considered on of the best in the NCAA Division I's Football Championship Subdivision. Beginning in 2012, the Minutemen will take the next step into national recognition.

On Wednesday, the Mid-American Conference officially announced, in addition to joining the Football Bowl Subdivision, that UMass will become it's fourteenth member for football starting in the 2012 season. Currently, the team plays in the Colonial Athletic Association in FCS.

The Minutemen will not officially begin as a full time member of the conference until 2013 as NCAA rules state that a team moving to the FBS must play a partial schedule of teams of the same subdivision for two seasons, beginning this year and in 2012.

In addition to moving to FBS, UMass will play their home games at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA in 2012 and 2013. This move allows the school to upgrade their current on-campus stadium, McGurik Alumni Stadium, to Division I FBS attendance standards. According to NCAA rules, teams that participate in the FBS level need to have a yearly attendance of over 15,000 for two seasons. McGurik currently has a maximum capacity of about 17,000. The school will pay for the stadium renovations from revenue generated from the games played at Gillette. Gillette Stadium is the current home for the NFL's New England Patriots.

The program will also receive an increase of the amount of football scholarships that the school offers. Scholarships at UMass will increase from 63 to 85 starting in 2012.

The Minutemen are just the third team in the past few years to leave the CAA. Many believe that the move to FBS was due in part by Northeastern and Hofstra ending their football programs just recently.

Not only does the Minutemen's move to the MAC help the conference as a mid-major power in football, it also helps their academic standing in the NCAA. The school was recognized as the 56th best academic school in the world by The Times World University Rankings in 2010.

UMass becomes the second football-only program in the MAC along with Philadelphia-based Temple, whose football program joined in 2007 after years in the Big East and as an FBS independent. Both school's play their other sports in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Including Temple, The Mid-American Conference has schools based in the Great Lakes region. The other twelve schools, which are full-time members of the conference includes Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo and Western Michigan. All schools for football in the MAC are public universities.