Why did I think UMASS was joining for football as well? Was that just a rumor I never followed back up on? Cant say I’d feel great about being independent in this era. They must also being following that dangling carrot.
They are joining for Football, and everything else. Full member.
They’re official next season I take it? Their schedule is like half MAC half buy games. I’m excited for basketball. Frank Martin is gonna be a blast.
Relative to MAC basketball having UMass is like having Memphis in the AAC. They won't win the MAC every year but be consistently dangerous. That said who would want to leave the MAC at this point with UMass entering. The SBC is a little stronger in football but wrong cultural fit. The AAC is undergoing another big raid and its an urban league unlike college town MAC. There is nowhere better to go and the MAC could land Western Kentucky to make it a Top 10-12 basketball conference.
I'm sure they've tried and numbers in CUSA are more robust than the MAC, but with our powers combined... (I am Captain Planet)... Western makes more sense in the MAC than all that travel to Texas and New Mexico, Florida. Of course we've beaten the MTSU horse to death, but they also would be a nice MAC addition. At this point, I think that ship as sailed though. Delaware is heading to CUSA next season. That's another one where I think the MAC potentially just didn't have the better presentation of value.
I'm all about adding as many teams as possible to insulate the MAC from the outside.