College Football Apathy In New England Has Obvious Reason

The UMass Minutemen will travel to State College, Penn., and take on the Penn State Nittany Lions this Saturday in a college football game.

That is kind of ridiculous, especially considering one team hasn’t lost a game this season the other has won exactly three since 2020.

You want to know what’s even more ridiculous? UMass will be receiving a $1.6 million check from Penn State for scheduling the game! That will put the total earnings for “The Flagship University of the Commonwealth” at more than $2.5 million this season, as it is only five weeks removed from entering SEC country and getting smacked by Auburn in September.

In case you were wondering, Penn State is a 41.5-point favorite, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.

The trend isn’t scheduled to stop any time soon, either, as UMass has six games scheduled over the next five seasons where the opposing school is contracted to pay out over $1 million, according to MassLive.

So, no, it is not surprising that New England is apathetic toward college football. Things need to change, though.

No Matchup Found

Click here to enter a different Sportradar ID.

We’re not just placing all of the blame on UMass, either. Boston College is the only school that represents New England in one of the five largest conferences in the sport. They’ve also gone a combined 14-23 in conference play over the last five seasons and haven’t won a bowl game since 2016.

Let’s expand things to cover the entirety of New England, shall we? UConn has a .241 winning percentage since the Big East folded its football operation following the 2012 season. They’re the only other FBS team in the region and are also making money hand over fist by playing national powerhouses. At least the Huskies have an incredible basketball program, though.

In short, all of the teams suck, so what’s the fix?

We’ll start with the fact two of the teams (UMass and UConn) are literally taking money to lose games. It’s a totally legal way to do things, but when you hear it presented like that, one could wonder why an investigation isn’t being opened up. We know they technically have a chance to win those games, but that’s like saying this story has a chance to win The Pulitzer Prize. It ain’t happening.

No Matchup Found

Click here to enter a different Sportradar ID.

Story continues below advertisement

The Minutemen and Huskies also don’t belong to a conference, with UMass dropping from the MAC in 2016 and UConn dropping from the AAC in 2020. Those were dumb decisions, as they’re now classified as Independents, which gives them the opportunity to schedule losses for a quick payday.

It seems like a smart strategy to make money, but in the long run, those big checks don’t do anything but replace the money these schools are losing by not being tied to a conference that can make their schedule and, oh, we don’t know, give them literally anything to play for. UMass and UConn aren’t making a bowl anytime soon, so why should anyone care about what happens in their Week 7 matchups? That wouldn’t be the case if they were currently in a conference title race.

In BC’s case, they just need to get things together. We’ve seen the Eagles be successful in the past, with Matt Ryan leading them to the No. 2 ranking in 2007. In the years since he left, they’ve cycled through head coaches and failed to win more than eight games in any particular season. He was good, but come on.

The region of New England deserves better out of its college football programs. The solutions to that problem are simple, it’s just on a select number of people to stop being selfish and do what’s best for their programs.

You know, the whole reason they have jobs.