Hustle Belt - UMass faculty voices concerns with FBS footballMAC Football, MAC Basketball, MAC Recruiting, MAC Baseball and all of the other #MACtion hijinks in between - hustlebeltblog@gmail.comhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/50387/hustle-fav.png2013-02-01T13:04:15-05:00http://www.hustlebelt.com/rss/stream/37051632013-02-01T13:04:15-05:002013-02-01T13:04:15-05:00UMass faculty defeated motion to reject FBS
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-UvHMtDVcqxiYh0j_1oHzey9s74=/0x0:4000x2667/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/7474403/20120908_jrc_aa6_126.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Mark L. Baer-US PRESSWIRE</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By a vote of 19-18, the UMass faculty senate rejected a motion to recommend an abrupt end to UMass football playing in the MAC and the Bowl Subdivision for financial reasons.</p> <p>Let's make something clear: the faculty are virtually powerless to do anything other than rattle some cages. Nevertheless, they are going through the procedures to have their voice heard. Yesterday at a much-ballyhooed faculty senate meeting, some faculty members made an impassioned case to stop spending so much cash on the top division of college football, but when they went to vote, <a href="http://www.masslive.com/umassfootball/index.ssf/2013/01/umass_faculty_senate_motion_to.html" target="_blank">the motion was shot down 19-18</a>, with one abstaining vote.</p>
<p>Unlike the first meeting, where they couldn't even muster enough support to vote on the motion, UMass chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy reaffirmed the school's commitment to MAC and FBS football. And even if the senate passed the motion, Subbaswamy was under no obligation to consider it. But one notable omission from the voting: ardent FBS critic Max Page was out of the country and could not vote.</p>
<p>To summarize the reasons against UMass's football program in the FBS, based on <a href="https://twitter.com/harryplumer" target="_blank">@HarryPlumer's timeline</a>, is that the money can be better spent on other aspects of the university, that travel for MAC away games is too tough on student-athletes, that football causes too many concussions, and "NCAA instability." Some of these arguments kind of get at the underlying sentiment of sponsoring college football at all, not just being in a pricier subdivision.</p>
<p>So UMass football in the MAC is safe for now. It doesn't seem to be going back down anytime soon. (Sorry, Akron.)</p>
https://www.hustlebelt.com/2013/2/1/3941132/umass-football-faculty-fbs-voteMatt Sussman2012-12-13T10:27:02-05:002012-12-13T10:27:02-05:00UMass faculty desires FCS football
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2KCyDS5QY6gf-fXxDmz2wbqsUnc=/0x109:4000x2776/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/4918451/20120908_mje_bb6_818.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Mark L. Baer-US PRESSWIRE</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The University of Massachusetts faculty voiced their opinion on the large budget spent on their football team, which didn't draw many fans in 2012. While they have a point, it doesn't appear to change their MAC affiliation any time soon.</p> <p>A couple days ago, UMass-Amherst faculty made some waves when in their senate meeting they wanted to discuss their football team's direction of moving to the FBS, given that a faculty ad hoc committee gave a report on the subject. You can read <a href="http://www.masslive.com/umassfootball/index.ssf/2012/12/breaking_down_what_the_umass_faculty_senate_fbs_discussion_really_meant.html#incart_river" target="_blank">more about the report here</a>, but one of the Internet Operator Game conclusions drawn from this is that perhaps UMass is having second thoughts about leaving the FCS and into the MAC.</p>
<p>As an athletic program, they're not. In fact, the opposite may be true; some UMass prospective athletes have apparently been told by coaches that <a href="http://maroonmusket.com/2012/12/possibility-of-big-east-a-recruiting-pitch/" target="_blank">they're eyeing a move to the Big East</a>, a recruiting tactic not unlike some Temple coaches a couple years back.</p>
<p>But the faculty does have a point when they raise concerns about some of the financial shortcomings in the way of attendance. UMass faculty senate secretary Dr. Ernest May said that alumni "<a href="http://www.amherstbulletin.com/home/3330777-95/football-program-committee-million" target="_blank">voted with their feet and their silence was deafening</a>" regarding the 10,901 fans who attended UMass' five home games on average.</p>
<p>The fact that they're playing all home games 100 miles from campus is a pretty strange idea, and even though they can bus students from one side of Massachusetts to the other, rather crippled the on-campus tradition of rolling out of bed on a Saturday, walking across the quad and going to the game. I think they should have been able to play their games at McGuirk Stadium, but apparently the facilities were not FBS-worthy, which is why they're spending millions on bringing them up to snuff. They <a href="http://www.masslive.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/04/umass_football_could_play_on_c.html" target="_blank">can play games as UMass again in 2014</a>, but not all of them.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what's so FBS-unworthy about the current McGuirk Stadium. The capacity is 17,000, which would make it the smallest in the MAC (Ball State's Scheumann Stadium is at 22,500), but capacity shouldn't be a deal-breaker. However, there's not much they can do it about it now. Ideally they'd burn their lease agreement with Gillette and return to campus for 2013, but perhaps for the better I am not in charge of making snap decisions about MAC football arrangements.</p>
<p>As for what the faculty senate's attempt to move football back to FCS, the most they could've done was pass a motion urging the school to work on a plan to exit out of the Bowl Subdivision. They didn't even have enough votes to move for a vote on the motion. But they got their voice heard, as evidenced by <a href="http://bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/12/12/umass-football-plagued-attendance-problem/g7gKSRY6HhclPTsOgc9tpM/story.html" target="_blank">all the articles written about it</a>, including this one.</p>
<p>And it should be known that nobody seems to be contending that the UMass football team isn't "good" enough to play in FBS. They were roundly beaten by several teams, but as far as I can tell that was never the faculty concern.</p>
https://www.hustlebelt.com/2012/12/13/3762214/umass-football-faculty-senate-fbsMatt Sussman