Saturday, April 23, 2011
'Of course this is bad for BC ...'
Reader AM agrees UMass's new big-league football program is a threat to BC. But he notes UMass faces its own problems:
Reader AM agrees UMass's new big-league football program is a threat to BC. But he notes UMass faces its own problems:
Of course this is bad for BC, which has pursued a strategy of being the big-time college "franchise" in New England. UConn put a serious crimp in the plan - now this (although the MAC is not an AQ league).
What's more interesting is UMass's position. I believe that every single non-AQ-league football program (I tried to phrase that to exclude Notre Dame and BYU) loses money; so will UMass, especially because (like BC, actually) they're in a league that doesn't offer much in the way of natural rivalries. And is there any other case where a university plays most or all of its home games so far from campus? (I foresee some VERY drunk student fans at both ends of the trip.) The incoming president of UMass, I believe, was president at Towson when they built some pretty much empty athletic facilities, so sooner or later there'll be a proposal for a big stadium in Amherst. And the BC folks will lobby for that.
