https://theathletic.com/2885974/2021/10/...-and-more/

Bowling Green, Buffalo, and Kent State also got some votes.

Quote:HARDEST GROUP OF 5/INDEPENDENT JOBS

UConn
Points: 115
First-place votes: 6

UMass 
Points: 97
First-place votes: 11

Another Northeast school, UMass was the second-leading vote-getter among Group of 5 programs. One agent told The Athletic that it was the only job he ever advised a client to turn down.

“I think UConn and UMass are on the fence if they should even have football,” said another agent.

The program generates about $9 million in revenue, according to the Boston Herald. The Minutemen moved up from FCS to FBS in 2012 but haven’t had the success UConn has seen in the somewhat recent past, going 20-86 since the move to college football’s highest level. Mark Whipple, who won an FCS national title at UMass in 1998, returned and had the best run of FBS success with eight wins in two seasons in 2017-18, but Walt Bell is 2-20 so far.

Some surveyed pointed to apathy about the program on campus and across the state. Both UMass and UConn are independent, but one Group of 5 head coach cited the Minutemen’s resources, which are “less than what UConn has with the ability to pay coaches.”


New Mexico State 
Points: 47
First-place votes: 4


Akron
Points: 25
First-place votes: 2

Many coaches polled omitted MAC programs because of the competitive balance and cyclical nature within the league. But Akron, with just one winning season since 2005 and a 3-21 record for current coach Tom Arth, was the exception.

The environment, one Power 5 assistant said, “just seems terrible.” But the Zips also have some unique challenges in Ohio.

“A good two-star recruit who may have a scholarship offer to play football at Akron might decide to play football at Mount Union and win a national championship,” a Power 5 administrator said. “You’re not winning any championships at Akron.”

The Zips did play for a MAC title in 2017, Terry Bowden’s second-to-last season, and qualified for a bowl. But they’ve been to just two bowls since 2005, the year of their lone conference title.


Louisiana Monroe 
Points: 20
First-place votes: 2

Rice
Points: 17
First-place votes: 1

UTEP
Points: 15
First-place votes: 0

Hawaii
Points: 13
First-place votes: 1

Other notable Group of 5 vote-getters: Eastern Michigan, FIU, San Jose State, Temple, Middle Tennessee State

On Eastern Michigan: “Everyone who is an EMU fan is a Michigan fan first. They have to schedule around Michigan games. If Michigan plays at noon, they have to play at 7 p.m. And the town is a rough town; people knock them for that. They do not pay very well.” — Agent

Eastern don't get ranked. Wow. Congrats Eagles!

NIU, Toledo, WMU, CMU, Miami, Ohio, and Ball State only MAC teams that didn't get any votes. Surprised Ball State didn't get any votes.

(10-13-2021 05:04 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  https://theathletic.com/2885974/2021/10/...-and-more/

Bowling Green, Buffalo, and Kent State also got some votes.

To be fair Florida State got votes. I think UB getting a single vote as "the hardest place to coach" shows the tremendous strides Buffalo has made since hiring Warde Manual -> Danny White...

I didn't post the P5 section of the article since this is a MAC/G5 board. Honestly, I could care less about any P5 schools too.

Thanks for the quotes epasnoopy, which did post on the UMass board. Bottom 3 teams are independent, a connection?

Athletic quote responding to

Quote:Some surveyed pointed to apathy about the program on campus and across the state. Both UMass and UConn are independent, but one Group of 5 head coach cited the Minutemen’s resources, which are “less than what UConn has with the ability to pay coaches.”

Most have been done before the UMass-UConn game, which Matt Brown attended and wrote the following article.
What would football success at UMass even look like? I flew over to find out
LINK

Quote:...but this school has fans. Even during a holiday weekend when many students left campus, and even though the Minutemen hadn't won a game since 2019, the student section was mostly full, and the stadium hit about 75% capacity Thanks to a rich history at the FCS level, to say nothing of the school's success in other sports (UMass is the defending national champs in men's hockey, for example), there's already a developed fanbase that's used to showing up. There are families that can say they've been UMass fans for generations. That's not for nothing.

There are fans that have been showing up for years, even though they've had so precious little to cheer for. A group of tailgaters summed up the situation for me. "We'll still keep coming, even if the team is bad," they told me, because they love football, the tickets are affordable, and they can have fun with their friends. "We know we aren't going to win a national title or anything. But we know we can be at least average."

"We just want to be Rice. Nobody asks if Rice is going to drop to FCS, right? They're bad, but they're not a national story because they're bad."

(10-13-2021 06:24 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  I didn't post the P5 section of the article since this is a MAC/G5 board. Honestly, I could care less about any P5 schools too.

Yep. Couldn't care less about the "difficulties" that P5 teams supposedly have.

(10-13-2021 05:22 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  Eastern don't get ranked. Wow. Congrats Eagles!

Akron (for football) & Eastern hardest in the MAC & I'd argue everyone else is about the same. Maybe Kent as well.

(10-14-2021 10:18 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  There are fans that have been showing up for years, even though they've had so precious little to cheer for. A group of tailgaters summed up the situation for me. "We'll still keep coming, even if the team is bad," they told me, because they love football, the tickets are affordable, and they can have fun with their friends. "We know we aren't going to win a national title or anything. But we know we can be at least average."

I wish more MAC fans were like that. Western has one L in-conference & suddenly it seems half the fanbase is 'done till next year'

(10-15-2021 07:15 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  

(10-14-2021 10:18 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  There are fans that have been showing up for years, even though they've had so precious little to cheer for. A group of tailgaters summed up the situation for me. "We'll still keep coming, even if the team is bad," they told me, because they love football, the tickets are affordable, and they can have fun with their friends. "We know we aren't going to win a national title or anything. But we know we can be at least average."

I wish more MAC fans were like that. Western has one L in-conference & suddenly it seems half the fanbase is 'done till next year'

Expectations can be a terrible thing sometimes. The other thing is UMass was FCS not that long ago so FBS football is a relatively new thing.

(10-15-2021 08:28 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(10-15-2021 07:15 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  

(10-14-2021 10:18 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  There are fans that have been showing up for years, even though they've had so precious little to cheer for. A group of tailgaters summed up the situation for me. "We'll still keep coming, even if the team is bad," they told me, because they love football, the tickets are affordable, and they can have fun with their friends. "We know we aren't going to win a national title or anything. But we know we can be at least average."

I wish more MAC fans were like that. Western has one L in-conference & suddenly it seems half the fanbase is 'done till next year'

Expectations can be a terrible thing sometimes. The other thing is UMass was FCS not that long ago so FBS football is a relatively new thing.

With that said, with no conference affiliation and struggling to gain traction in FBS, would they be better off trying to compete for a national championship in FCS? I’m guessing fans thought the jump to FBS would be be much better, but not everyone has the success of an App. State or Coastal Carolina. Steve, what is the consensus of your fanbase?

(10-16-2021 07:38 AM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  

(10-15-2021 08:28 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(10-15-2021 07:15 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  

(10-14-2021 10:18 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  There are fans that have been showing up for years, even though they've had so precious little to cheer for. A group of tailgaters summed up the situation for me. "We'll still keep coming, even if the team is bad," they told me, because they love football, the tickets are affordable, and they can have fun with their friends. "We know we aren't going to win a national title or anything. But we know we can be at least average."

I wish more MAC fans were like that. Western has one L in-conference & suddenly it seems half the fanbase is 'done till next year'

Expectations can be a terrible thing sometimes. The other thing is UMass was FCS not that long ago so FBS football is a relatively new thing.

With that said, with no conference affiliation and struggling to gain traction in FBS, would they be better off trying to compete for a national championship in FCS? I’m guessing fans thought the jump to FBS would be be much better, but not everyone has the success of an App. State or Coastal Carolina. Steve, what is the consensus of your fanbase?

I can't imagine it is easy to find enough football talent in the northeast to be successful. Boston College, Temple, Syracuse, Rutgers, etc. have had more losing seasons than winning seasons the last 20 years it seems.

Most of the successful FCS teams that make the jump to FBS are surrounded by tons of good HS talent, even if they get the 3rd and 4th tier players.

I think this is also the reason for NIU's success. There are limited FBS programs in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Northwestern and Illinois recruit nationally and Northwestern has academic standards (although they do recruit players that would never get into their school if it were not for football). So NIU has free range to recruit all the 2nd and 3rd tier talent in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

(10-16-2021 09:14 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(10-16-2021 07:38 AM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  

(10-15-2021 08:28 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(10-15-2021 07:15 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  

(10-14-2021 10:18 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  There are fans that have been showing up for years, even though they've had so precious little to cheer for. A group of tailgaters summed up the situation for me. "We'll still keep coming, even if the team is bad," they told me, because they love football, the tickets are affordable, and they can have fun with their friends. "We know we aren't going to win a national title or anything. But we know we can be at least average."

I wish more MAC fans were like that. Western has one L in-conference & suddenly it seems half the fanbase is 'done till next year'

Expectations can be a terrible thing sometimes. The other thing is UMass was FCS not that long ago so FBS football is a relatively new thing.

With that said, with no conference affiliation and struggling to gain traction in FBS, would they be better off trying to compete for a national championship in FCS? I’m guessing fans thought the jump to FBS would be be much better, but not everyone has the success of an App. State or Coastal Carolina. Steve, what is the consensus of your fanbase?

I can't imagine it is easy to find enough football talent in the northeast to be successful. Boston College, Temple, Syracuse, Rutgers, etc. have had more losing seasons than winning seasons the last 20 years it seems.

Most of the successful FCS teams that make the jump to FBS are surrounded by tons of good HS talent, even if they get the 3rd and 4th tier players.

I think this is also the reason for NIU's success. There are limited FBS programs in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Northwestern and Illinois recruit nationally and Northwestern has academic standards (although they do recruit players that would never get into their school if it were not for football). So NIU has free range to recruit all the 2nd and 3rd tier talent in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

Polish Hammer, no way, period.

epasnoopy, our primary recruiting area is 8 hours from campus and includes the talent rich DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland area. Penn and New Jersey are also good areas for us. We will always get some talent from Mass, as the freshmen QB pressed into service and a few others.

(10-16-2021 07:57 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  

(10-16-2021 09:14 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(10-16-2021 07:38 AM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  

(10-15-2021 08:28 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(10-15-2021 07:15 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  I wish more MAC fans were like that. Western has one L in-conference & suddenly it seems half the fanbase is 'done till next year'

Expectations can be a terrible thing sometimes. The other thing is UMass was FCS not that long ago so FBS football is a relatively new thing.

With that said, with no conference affiliation and struggling to gain traction in FBS, would they be better off trying to compete for a national championship in FCS? I’m guessing fans thought the jump to FBS would be be much better, but not everyone has the success of an App. State or Coastal Carolina. Steve, what is the consensus of your fanbase?

I can't imagine it is easy to find enough football talent in the northeast to be successful. Boston College, Temple, Syracuse, Rutgers, etc. have had more losing seasons than winning seasons the last 20 years it seems.

Most of the successful FCS teams that make the jump to FBS are surrounded by tons of good HS talent, even if they get the 3rd and 4th tier players.

I think this is also the reason for NIU's success. There are limited FBS programs in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Northwestern and Illinois recruit nationally and Northwestern has academic standards (although they do recruit players that would never get into their school if it were not for football). So NIU has free range to recruit all the 2nd and 3rd tier talent in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

Polish Hammer, no way, period.

epasnoopy, our primary recruiting area is 8 hours from campus and includes the talent rich DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland area. Penn and New Jersey are also good areas for us. We will always get some talent from Mass, as the freshmen QB pressed into service and a few others.

Pennsylvania always has good talent and only has State Penn, Pitt and Temple for FBS schools which is why they always seem to have quality programs from FCS on down.

Dear MAC Fans,
I am one Eastern fan who does not support Michigan before Eastern.