The unpleasant tendency of newspapers to cite statistics – and put them in high-profile editorials – has yet again reared its ugly head. The Boston Globe casts a rational eye at the U Mass football program and makes the obvious call: kill it.
So, you know, here’s the paper of record for that team’s city saying shut it down.
UMass had to assure many more football scholarships, meet minimum attendance requirements, and make facility improvements. But instead of leaping into glory, UMass hurled itself into a money pit. A program that cost the school $3.1 million in 2011 in direct support and student fees is projected to cost $8.6 million next year — even after projected revenues are taken into account — according a recently released faculty report. The school has precious little to show for it, with a 5-31 record in the last three years and a fan base in suspended animation. The Minutemen averaged 16,008 fans this season, barely more than last year’s home game average of 15,830.
Pushing athletes to enhance the university’s brand on the field often leads to problems in the classroom, and that pattern held true at UMass Amherst.
… Football losses are nearing $10 million a year… [T]axpayers can’t be expected to pay for an extravagant football program indefinitely, especially as the changing economics of college football make it even more expensive for UMass to stay competitive.
Franchement, here’s the worry on the part of the school. U Mass Amherst has arguably the most violent student body in America. The post-game riots there are terrifying. But if you take away that important emotional outlet for the large numbers of drunken bullies who go to school there, who knows what they’ll do instead? (Put amherst in my search engine for many posts about that school’s long history of riots.)
January 11th, 2015 at 10:57AM
Here’s a significant stat the Globe didn’t cite: In the northeast (through MD/DC), of the top 25 “national universities” in the US News rankings, only two play FBS football (BC, Penn State). It’s not really a route to or marker of big-time status.
January 12th, 2015 at 2:25AM
UMAS football has nothing to do with students. they play their HOME games 160 miles from the campus..
January 12th, 2015 at 11:15AM
Thanks for the post, Mr. Punch. That’s the problem with NE football. It mostly doesn’t exist, outside of the pro game. MA isn’t a hotbed of high school football, the few blue chip recruits aren’t attending UMASS, meaning they have to spend money to get out of state players. NE FBS football makes little sense, as other regional unis have come to realize….
August 1st, 2015 at 8:33AM
[…] of America’s most violent universities, with an incredible track record of student rioting, recruits its star players with an eye toward […]
December 4th, 2015 at 5:35AM
[…] contraire, the situation at U Mass, with its new law school (LOLLOLOLOL) and way gussied up football program and ongoing tradition of […]