As I said in the closing line of my last post on this topic, I will present a theory which was originated by another poster on umasshoops.com. The poster's screen name is ShadesOf96and98 and here's an edited version of what he wrote:
"Even the best FCS teams are '(crappy)' in the eyes of many, many people who like football.
Yes, we are an elite FCS program, but unless a day comes when we are FBS and playing
FBS schools in an FBS-sized stadium, our brand of football will always be '(crappy)' in the
eyes of many people whether we're winning football games or not. I dont agree with it, most of
the people on here dont agree with it, but it is what it is and always will be"
So I read this, and it made a lot of sense to me. Who cares about FCS? There could be readers who come for Joe's NFL analysis and skip my 1-AA posts. Frankly, I'd be surprised if that weren't the case. And while we're being frank, it's not just this one tailgater who feels this way. Although UMass is arguably the most successful college football program Northeast of Delaware (and I'll include Delaware just to piss off Bluehen fans), I'd be willing to bet a vast majority of Massachusetts residents as well as UMass students and alumni would read that quote and accept it as fact.
I was planning to expand this, but we all get it. Instead, I'll skip right onto my third point: where do we go from here?
So we're faced with three possible reactions to the tailgater's comment. We can acknowledge that the FCS sucks and so do the teams, or we could advocate for UMass to move up to FBS, or we could advocate for a change in public opinion about the FCS. As you can probably tell from my last post, acknowledging FCS sucks is not an option. That leaves us with moving up to FBS or changing our opinion.
What about going FBS?
I see one guarenteed benefit: I'd get to play as the Minutemen in NCAA 2012. When consuls got better (i.e., PS2 was replaced with PS3, Game Cube with Wi, and XBox with XBox 360), EA sports took out the 1AA/FCS teams. If you buy PS2 versions of the game still, I'm told the FCS teams are there. That makes sense, right? Better consul=less teams.
What are other possible benefits? Maybe, just maybe, we'd get to play BC every year. That would be admittedly cool. Right now when the two meet the cards are always stacked in BC's favor. They have more scholarships and are always home. With the playing field leveled I think UMass would take 1 of every 3 from the Eagles, and I'm most definately selling the Minutemen short with that prediction. Bigger basketball fans than I would probably want to play UConn every year too and might consider that a benefit. I personally am indifferent towards Huskies (the UConn ones...I despise the Northeastern ones) so this rivalry would do little for me, but we'll call it a benefit.
So, there are your benefits- video games, BC and UConn.
Now let's look at drawbacks. If I asked people to raise their hand if they remember the last time they heard "BC Eagles" and "National Champions" used in the same sentence with respect to college football, do you think I'd get a lot of hands? I'd guess no, cause they've never won any, or even played for any to my knowledge. It's true I might get a few hands as the facts don't stop the school from claiming it won a title in 1940. I've seen the pennant hanging in the concourse of Alumni Stadium with my own eyes. Here's their side of the story. The NCAA and everyone outside of Chestnut hill disagrees.
Now, raise your hand if you remember the last time "UMass Minutemen" and "National Champions" were used in the same sentence with respect to college football. For some strange reason (see 1998), more people will raise their hand. In fact, if you look at this site, UMass, while only winning 1 NCAA Division 1 Championship, has played in 3 Division 1 Championship games. Three more then my graduate alma mater, Boston College. You do have to hand it to BC though. Unlike UMass, they're undefeated in National Title games.
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So, while I'm having fun at the expense of BC, let's get serious for a second. Is anyone stupid enough to think that if UMass made the jump, they'd do better than what BC has done? Anyone? Do we think the Minutemen would be in a BCS conference competing in the conference title game? How would we even get into a BCS conference? What ties to we have, aside from playing with in the same hockey conference as Providence and Boston College? Providence doesn't even play football, and I don't see the Eagles helping out UMass.
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People seem to throw the MAC around as a possible conference to join, and others want the entire CAA to move up together. If we join the MAC, we lose all our rivals, and I enjoy hating Delaware and UNH. If we move up with the CAA, it automatically becomes the worst conference in FBS in the perception of everyone. And remember, BCS championship game participants aren't chosen based on what they do on the field. They're picked based on perception.
Regardless of which way UMass moved up, the best we could hope for is a really good team team that only loses a game or so a year but is ignored because of the conference affiliation, sort of a east version of Boise State. I can't even begin to imagine how frustrating that must be, never getting a shot to prove yourself on the field. I'd stop watching UMass football. Well, probably not, but still, I'd want to. I guess it wouldn't be all bad though. If we ever became the Boise State of the east, we could paint our field maroon. That would be awesome.
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Even if we get into a BCS conference, the best we'd be able to do (again in my opinion) is what the Eagles have been able to. Is BC really in the position UMass wants to be in with respect to football? The Eagles are also runs every year. Sure, they're better than the non-BCS schools, but they're a joke when compared to the Pac10, Big10 and SEC schools. The way I see it, the Eagles have the same shot Harvard does every year at winning a title, and Harvard abstains from the playoffs on moral ground. Thinking about it this way, I can't really fault the Eagles for pretending they won a championship in 1940.
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I don't believe in purgatory, but FBS seems like it's the closest thing to it.
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That means we're left with one choice, and that's to accept who we are and embrace it. That's what I'm doing, and I invite all of Massachusetts to do the same. The next homegame is October 17th. It's homecoming against UNH. The game has HUGE playoff implications (when's the last time a BC fan could say that about homecoming?). If any UMass alum or Massachusetts residents read this, I hope you'll consider joining me at Warren P. McGuirk Alumni Stadium.
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