← Previous Post: | Next Post:

 

Reassess? What does the Boston Globe Editorial Board Mean?

[T]he special treatment for the top conferences raises important questions for state taxpayers and UMass Amherst. The Minutemen moved up two seasons ago to the Football Bowl Subdivision, the same level as Ohio State, Alabama, and Texas. But with the team still drawing only 15,000 fans a game to Gillette Stadium, the Globe reported last December that the university will have to cover $5.1 million of the team’s $7.8 million budget this season, much more than originally anticipated. Now that the sand has shifted once again under the foundation of college sports, with new incentives for top players to go elsewhere, it would be prudent for UMass to reassess. Without further changes by the NCAA, there is no chance UMass will be able to stand on an equal playing field with the Ohio States, Alabamas, and Texases of the college sports world.

Er, it seems to mean that U Mass should end its farcical, bankrupting football program. As at the University of Hawaii, there’s no there there, but the nothingness still costs a fortune, and that means soaking taxpayers, students, and students’ families.

But in both cases – U Mass and Hawaii – there’s no way they’re going to shut down the football programs. That would be prudent, and prudence is not what these two places are about. (Follow all their shenanigans on this blog by putting their names into my search engine.)

Margaret Soltan, August 25, 2014 3:08PM
Posted in: sport

Trackback URL for this post:
https://www.margaretsoltan.com/wp-trackback.php?p=45388

2 Responses to “Reassess? What does the Boston Globe Editorial Board Mean?”

  1. charlie Says:

    What’s ridiculous abut this endeavor is that U of MA has no history of football excellence, the state has too small a recruiting pool of hs talent needed to create a competitive team. No football powerhouses exist in the Northeast, Syracuse stopped being relevant years ago, Temple is a doormat, Boston College is at best mediocre, not a single college/uni in and around New York has a football program of note. UMass admins were either too stupid, or too corrupt, to realize their athletic ambitions were impotent from the start. But someone thought that a renovated stadium, a coach from Notre Dame, and some overheated PR copy would be the viagra needed to get this junk working….

  2. Mr Punch Says:

    The trouble with this editorial is that it makes the wrong argument. The right one is that the separation of the power conferences effectively precludes aspirants such as UMass from participating in big-money TV contracts – whether or not they can field good teams.

    UMass never had a hope of matching the schools mentioned, among the very few that turn a profit on their overall athletic programs; what has changed is that UMass now has virtually no chance of breaking even on football.

Comment on this Entry

Latest UD posts at IHE

Archives

Categories