UMass Football Asked to Leave the MAC

Insert joke here...

No seriously. The University of Massachusetts and the Mid-American Conference will part ways in 2015. And aside from the requisite jokes being made due to the ineptitude of the Minutemen football program, there's actually a reason for this.

UMass was a football only member of the MAC, the basketball team plays in the Atlantic 10.

According to ESPN.com, UMass was asked to be a full-time member of the MAC, but decided to pass. The problem: The Atlantic 10 is a basketball only conference. And the MAC, well, they wanted all or nothing from the Minutemen.

Read more from ESPN.com RIGHT HERE

So...this has little to no impact on the MAC. They will become a 12-team conference. No big deal, even scheduling in 2016.

UMass has a bigger problem. Perennially one of the worst teams in the FBS (Division 1), they are a bad team now with no home. The school wants to stay where they are, the problem is, where do they go? Most of the smaller College Football programs in the Northeastern U.S are FCS (1-AA) teams. There are several that play in FBS, but they are all in power conferences. None of which would have any interest.

Not a huge story on the Sports landscape here, but an interesting one never the less and one that further enhances a question we often ask: What happens to the non-power schools in the FBS after the playoff and split happens?

And no, there's not a simple answer....

UMass Football: Fighting To Be Bad

((ht: deadspin.com))

Hmmmm....this may explain a few things.

A video, posted by the Daily Hampshire Gazette, has raised more than a few eyebrows in and around the University of Massachusetts campus.

The "Hype" video in question, show various shots of UMass football players wrestling, punching and appearing to square off and fight each other.



No, Brad Pitt nor Edward Norton were anywhere to be found.

The video, shot during the teams winter 2012 workouts, appears to have been produced by the schools video staff per instructions by coach Charley Molnar.

And according to the Gazette, a group of former players is very upset and petitioning to stop the "Improper Treatment of Current Players".

Read more from Gazettenet.com RIGHT HERE

Of course, none of this justifies the Minutemen being one of the FBS level patsies for the past couple of seasons. They finished near the bottom of our "Bottom of the Barrel" poll last season.

And in 2013, the suckiness has continued as the team is 0-4 and averaging 7 points a game. And Molnar is still the coach.

And despite Molnar's defense of his method's in the article, perhaps, considering how bad they've been, things might need to change. Though we'd be surprised to see that actually happen.

Watch the video yourself and see if this is the right way to learn how to play football:

Classy Moves For UMass Spring Game

The HQ admittedly gives the UMass football program a lot of grief because, well frankly, they're a very bad Division I football team. The Minutemen were a solid I-AA program that saw the dollars of the big money conference contracts...

And they're getting slaughtered...

But, in the wake of what has happened over the last week in Massachusetts, the team and school are doing a really classy thing for their spring game...

UMass is doing a really cool thing...

UMass football head coach Charley Molnar, offered everyone the chance to ran in the marathon a chance to `Cross The Finish Line' at the Spring game. The runners who attended the spring game on campus got to take a lap around the field, and cross the finish line which will be set-up at the 50-yard line.

"Competing in the Boston Marathon is a lifetime achievement and something to be celebrated," said Molnar who has run everyday for the past five years. "These runners deserve to finish what they started and we hope we can provide that for them. We want them to have that feeling of coming down the home stretch to the sound of applause and to have their friends and families greet them as they cross the line."

In addition, the team shares in the grief and celebration of those whose lives were lost during the criminal run of the Boston Marathon bombers. Special stickers are on the back of the player's helmets and the names of those lost and the phrase #BostonStrong makes its way onto the player's backs.

So, huzzahs to the folks in Amherst for all their thoughts on Saturday...