The college football season may be coming to a close, but that hasn’t slowed down the University of Massachusetts Minutemen.
UMass plans to upgrade its football program to Football Bowl Subdivision status, according to the Boston Herald's Steve Buckley.
If a move to the Mid-Atlantic Conference is made, UMass would face schools like Temple and Miami of Ohio.
So far, a MAC spokesman told the Herald that the conference is "exploring" the idea of adding UMass. If it happens, the team would play a provisional FBS schedule in 2011 and 2012 before making the leap to FBS status in 2013.
UMass athletic director John McCutcheon also told the Herald that the school is looking into playing more home games at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, despite their recent slaying by New Hampshire at the home of the Patriots. The "Colonial Clash" took place on Oct. 23 at the Razor and featured the Wild Cats steamrolling the Minutemen 39-13 in front of 32,848 rabid fans. The two teams are scheduled to meet there again next year.
Currently, the Minutemen play their home games at Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium. It holds 17,000 fans, yet the FBS rules dictate that teams must average 15,000 fans per game or risk being demoted to FCS. Because achieving that average is obviously difficult with a 17,000-person capacity, McCutcheon and the school are looking into a variety of options, including expanding or possibly replacing McGuirk Stadium, according to the report.
