Game Day: Stony Brook @ Massachusetts Saturday, September 26, 2009

I started writing my second post about the quote, but I'll postpone it for a while as I'm going to Amherst today for the game, Stony Brook @ 15 UMass and Foxboro tomorrow to see Matty Heisman (HA!) vs the New England Patriots.

I don't know much about Stony Brook, other than the fact there one of the SUNYs. They just moved to the Big South Conference a few years ago from the Northeast Conference. Without even knowing the teams in either conference, I'd guess Stony Brook just added a lot to their travel expenses. So why? At first I guessed it would have to do with playoff eligibility. Though neither conference currently has an autobid, the Big South will next year. However, looking it up on Wikipedia, it appears both conferences will have one next year. That's why you shouldn't speculate kids.

Reading their press release from when the move was announced, it appears both the school and the conference thought it was the right move as both were up and coming and heading for success. Stony Brook also claims playing down south more will help with recruiting, which I suppose is true.

At any rate, NEC, Big South, SUNY Stony Brook or SUNY Albany. It's all the same, and the same is inferior to the Minutemen. UMass wins this one big. I'm going with 44-7, which was the final score of the Albany game.

Around The CAA
Here are other CAA games this weekend and my predictions:
Rhode Island @ UConn- I'm pulling for the Rams, but the Cons will destroy URI. It has nothing to do with how good UConn is. URI is that bad, I'd always pick who they were playing against to win.

Dartmouth @ UNH- UNH will win and make the Ivies realize the superiority of the CAA.
I'm actually rooting for Dartmouth though, as I dislike UNH and I have a friend who went to Dartmouth.

VMI @ Richmond- The Champs will beat Virginia Military Institution (I had to look it up), making the CAA 2-0 against the Big South this weekend.

Northeastern @ Villanova- Villanova wins this conference game. See Rhode Island-UConn commentary...except I'm not rooting for the Huskies.

Hofstra @ Western Michigan- Come on Hofstra! We need this to stay .500 against FBS after URI gets destroyed.

William & Mary @ Delaware*- Another conference match up. This is the game most likely to be an upset (Delaware winning). If it were any other team coming off a year like Delaware just had, I'd pick W&M without thinking twice. Or, if William and Mary were home, I'd go with them, but Tubby Raymond is a tough place to play... screw it. I'm going with William & Mary just to piss off Delaware fans.

*Edit- This game is actually at William and Mary. For some reason, the CAA webpage lists the home team first. How foolish is that? I'm still going with William & Mary, and still keeping the analysis I gave above, again just to piss off Delaware fans.

UMass Tailgater: "The games aren't that fun, because our team sucks." Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Let me start this post by saying like most UMass fans, my number one source for UMass sports news is the webpage http://www.umasshoops.com/. The entire site is a pretty good source for UMass Basketball.

If your not big into basketball, fear not. There's a message board with threads on all the main UMass teams: Men's hoops, women's hoops, football, men's hockey and men's lacrosse. If those aren't your thing, there's also a thread for other UMass sports, where in my experience softball and men's soccer seem to be the dominate topic of conversation, though there's mention of everything from women's crew (who last I checked had won something like 11 or 12 A-10 championships in a row) to baseball. The moderator is sort of on the strict side, so everything posted has to be backed up with sources, which I like. You know for the most part, you won't be reading rumors. Just the facts.

So, like most days, I'm on the umasshoops football board, and I saw someone posted this artical written by a Harvard student. He went to the football game on Saturday with his friends who go to UMass. Or more accurately, he went to a tailgate that occured outside the football game. In it, he talks about how awesome UMass tailgates are, and how they far exceeded his expectations. I thank him for his praise. However, I take issue with the one thing written about the football team itself:

No one was really talking football, since, just like at Harvard, nobody
goes to the games.

“The games aren’t that fun, because our team sucks,” one tailgater succinctly explained.

But we don’t have that excuse. Despite a tough loss to Holy Cross in Worcester last weekend, the Crimson is primed for another strong football season.

So, before I begin with my assault on this, let me make one thing clear. I don't blame the author. If I was invited to a school and someone at the tailgate told me what he was told, I'd believe them. Why wouldn't you? So, now that we're clear that I don't blame the author, I'm going to defend the Minutemen. As I have a lot I want to say on this topic, I'm going to do it over at least 2 posts...maybe three depending on how long post 2 is. The first post will address the accusation, that the Minutemen suck. The second and third posts will address why those associated with UMass might feel the team sucks and will look at possible solutions. Without further ado, I begin.

UMass plays in the premier FCS conference, the CAA (formerly the Atlantic 10). This conference is responsible for such current NFL stars as Tim Hightower (Richmond), Marques Colston (Hofstra) and Joe Flacco (Delaware). Aside from these three name brand players, many NFL teams have CAA players. I can't say I follow all former CAA stars, but off the top of my head, I do know the Patriots have Brandon McGowan, a saftey from Maine. I also know former UMass players are currently in Miami (WR Brandon London), Jacksonville (Long Snapper Jeremy Cain) and New York (S James Ihedigbo, who from my encounters with him is a great guy inspite of being a Jet). I'd be willing to bet your favorite NFL team has at least one CAA player, despite it being an FCS league. I just checked Joe's Steelers, and it turns out they have Willie Colon, a right tackle from Hofstra. Just for kicks, I also checked the Steelers main historical rival, the Cleveland Browns. They have two: WR Ray Ventrone of Villanova and DB Mike Adams from Delaware. Check your team. If they don't have a CAA player, leave a comment below.

So that's great. The CAA has it's fair share of NFL players. However, in my opinion, NFL players aren't the measure of how good a conference is. I think the best measure of an FCS conference would be playoff appearences. FCS has a 16 team playoff. There are 8 automatic bids, of which the CAA champion receives one. That leaves 8 at large bids. According to Wikipedia, there are 125 FCS teams (which is much more than I thought there were). The Ivy League decided as a whole academics was more important than football, and bans its 8 members from participating in the postseason tournament. That leaves 117. SWAC teams have there own championship game and other traditional rivals and sometimes opt out of the playoffs, but they're eligible to compete if they don't have a conflict. Even if we kick out all 10 teams, that's still 107. If we take out the 8 autobids, we're left with 99 teams fighting for 8 spots.

In 2007, the CAA received 3 at large bids and an autobid, for a grand total of 4 playoff teams. This either set the record for most teams from a conference making the playoffs or it tied it. It doesn't really matter, because the next year, the CAA broke it by receiving 4 at large bids and an autobid, for 5 total playoff teams. That's right. Out of those 99 teams fighting for the 8 spots, the CAA got 4 of them. (For the record, there are 12 CAA teams. 1 gets an outbid, so that leaves 11 CAA teams in the 99).

Ok, so the CAA sends a lot of teams to the playoffs. Big deal. How do they do?

I'm glad you asked. Since I started following 1AA/FCS in 2003, A10/CAA teams have played in 5 of the 6 championship games. The only year the conference missed out was 2005, and I blame UNH for choking that year, losing at home in the second round though ranked number 1 in the nation. Of the 5 times I mentioned, the conference has come home with 3 championships. That's pretty good. Appalacian State won the other three, so if it weren't for them...but I digress.

Who cares about FCS. The only thing that matters is FBS!

The CAA also has success playing FBS opponents. I believe I've already mentioned the FBS victories Richmond (beat Duke), William & Mary (beat Virgina), UNH (beat Ball State) and Villanova (beat Temple) have secured this year. UMass took Kansas State to the brink, and lost the game. JMU lost to Maryland in overtime. True, Northeastern got demolished by BC, but every conference has a bad team. That means the CAA is currenty 4-3 (SEE EDIT BELOW) against FBS teams and 2-2 against BCS opponents. All of the were on the road. I know an FBS team would probably never come play in a CAA stadium, but I'd be interested to see what the record would be if half were at home and half were on the road. I think it's safe to assume that the CAA could hang with the non-BCS FBS conferences.

So, we've established that the CAA is a really good conference. What does this have to do with UMass?


Since 2006, UMass has won 2 A10/CAA conference championships. Since I started following in 2003, UMass has won 3 conference championships. In 2003, they were co-conference champs with Delaware. In 2006, they won it outright. In 2007, they were co-champions with Richmond.

Not only that, but consider this fact I stole from the UMass game notes for Saturday's game against Stony Brook. Since the start of the 2006 season, the Minutemen are 21-2 at home. That's amazing. 21 wins to 2 losses. And remember, they're playing in the premier conference in FCS. Before losing to eventual national champion Richmond last year, UMass had a 16 game winning streak at home, which apparently at the time was second in FCS (San Diego, 28) and third in Division 1 (Oklahoma was second with 21). And I'll stress this: UMass plays in the best conference in FCS. It's not like a bunch of creampuffs are coming out to Amherst every week.

There are two more facts I'll steal from the game notes. First, UMass has had 7 winning seasons in a row. I don't know when that tailgater began his association with UMass Football, but if this team goes about .500, that will be five consecutive classes at UMass who have never known a losing season (or a .500 season for that matter).

Lastly, since 1998 when UMass won the national championship, all while playing in the premier FCS conference, UMass has gone 82-43. According to the game notes, that's the best in the conference. That's right. Going back more than a decade, UMass has been the best team in the best conference.

How can you say the team sucks? How can you justify that, being right outside the stadium on game day? How can you call them "our team" and say such terrible unfounded things? It's baffiling. This isn't Northeastern. This program is respectable. No. Calling them respectable is short changing them. It's a boarderline National Powerhouse. It's right there on the cusp of being one of the all time great FCS programs, and believe me, it's done it with minimal support from the Massachusetts Legislature, the UMass Alumni and the UMass Student Body as a whole.

In my next post, I'll give my theory as to why he or she said it. And by my theory, I of course mean a theory I read on umasshoops by another poster (ShadesOf96and98) that made a lot of sense to me and I am adopting.

EDIT: I just realized Towson lost to Northwestern, so the record is 4-4 against FBS teams, 2-3 against BCS teams.

Giants vs Patriots Friday, September 4, 2009

The Giants actually played their first team offense and defense for a good portion of the game last night, though Eli only played one series. David Carr came in relief of him and played with the first team for a while. In retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised. Coughlin played all his starters in a "meaningless" game week 17 in 2007 against the Patriots.

The Giants first team is a lot better than the Patriots 2nd string. When Carr and the first stringers came out at the end of the first, it was 21-0 Giants. The Patriots second stringers are better then the Giants, and the Patriots rallied to win 38-27. As always, the Giants were pretty well represented in New England. I don't know if the New Jersians...I mean Yorkers drive up or if its carry over from before the Patriots existed. I'm told New England was Giant country back then, and just thinking about it makes me want to throw up a little bit. At any rate, the Giants are probably the team that travels best to Foxboro... with the obligatory nod to the Steelers who also travel pretty well.

So, given that there were a lot of Giants fans, I was shocked and surprised at two things. The first was I saw more Patriot fans wearing Jerseys with the Super Bowl XLII patch on it. In fact, surprisingly I saw not a single Super Bowl XLII champion hat or tee shirt or blanket or anything.

Even more surprising, especially considering the 21-0 pounding the Giants were given the Patriots at one point, was I heard no "18-1" chants until one guy said it as he was leaving the stadium with less than a minute left. In his defense, his friend (wearing a Randy Moss Jersey) screamed "Hey, hey, hey, Goodbye" as they were leaving the section, so he was provoked. I figured that would be the new "1918." Dare I say it... are New Yorkers becoming classy? Probably not. I'm thinking the fact that there was no 18-1 chants and the Giant fans in attendance were all classy proves that they are probably from New England and never switched allegiances when the Patriots were founded.

Moving along, in CAA news, Villanova upset FBS Temple. Watch out Kansas State. You're next.