“I think it’ll be a cool experience and one that our players will find enjoyment and satisfaction in being able to take on that challenge.” That’s little more than coach diplomacy, perpetuating the idea that on any given Saturday, the underdog can bite. These kinds of games are rarely close. Missouri is one of three Southeastern Conference opponents UMass will play this year. The Minutemen visit Mississippi State on Nov. 2. Three weeks later, they play at Georgia, which has lost a total of seven games in the last six seasons. “Our locker room is super excited to play these three games this year,” UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford said. “Yeah, they’re challenging. It’s an uphill battle. Those guys go into it thinking, ‘We’ve got a shot to put ourselves in a place where we can compete with the best in the country.’ Any 18-to-22-year-old kid wants to do that.” Since moving to the Football Bowl Subdivision, the top level of NCAA football, in 2012, UMass hasn’t beaten a ranked team (0-11) or an SEC team (0-10). So why do they keep playing them? Money, for the most part. Guarantee games, or buy-games, have long been a college football staple. The idea: A big school gets an easy home win, and the ticket and concession money that comes with it, and a small school gets paid to play. According to the Associated Press , at least 60 such games will be played this season, with FBS teams handing out some $75 million. There are also dozens of FBS vs. Football Championship Subdivision games on the schedule, with smaller payouts. Wins, of course, are not guaranteed. Just this season, Notre Dame paid $1.4 million to lose to Northern Illinois , Florida State doled out $1.3 million for a loss to Memphis, and Mississippi State spent $1.2 million to get beaten by Toledo — a school UMass will face annually when it joins the Mid-American Conference next season. The most famous guarantee game, in 2007, saw No. 5 Michigan lose to Appalachian State in front of more than 109,000 fans. App State walked out of The Big House with a $400,000 check. UMass won’t earn anything for the Mizzou game. It is part of a home-and-home series that brings a marquee opponent to Amherst to “build the brand as a young FBS program,” Bamford said. Come Saturday, he is hoping to see one of the largest crowds ever at McGuirk, which last sold out a decade ago. Mississippi State was a two-for-one, with UMass heading to Starkville twice. The Bulldogs played the Minutemen at Gillette Stadium in 2016 (for no fee) and hosted them the following year, reportedly for $325,000 . UMass will receive $375,000 for this game, which in 2018 was postponed from 2020 to this fall. Georgia, according to a contract signed in 2019, will pay UMass $1.9 million for its visit to Athens. When UMass played there in 2018, it took home $1.5 million. Georgia also paid compliments to UMass wide receiver Andy Isabella, who set a record for catches by an opponent (15, for 219 yards and two TDs) at Sanford Stadium. “It’s the reason he gets drafted in the second round of the NFL draft,” Bamford said of Isabella, who was selected 62nd overall by Arizona the following spring. “He burned three [defensive] backs who went in the first three rounds of the draft.” The Bulldogs, ranked fifth at the time, blew out the Minutemen, 66-27. They are No. 5 in the latest AP poll, and have won two of the last three national titles. It will be a stunner if the return game Nov. 23 is competitive. Maybe another under-the-radar UMass player will command the spotlight. But the cash will definitely help UMass’s budget. UMass spent some $58.44 million on athletics in 2023, including $11.22 million on football, according to Knight-Newhouse data . Bamford estimated his department will take in close to $2 million in profits during the first year of its MAC agreement, after making $500,000 as an Atlantic 10 affiliate (in non-football, non-hockey sports). As an independent, UMass made $350,000 annually in trickle-down College Football Playoff payouts. That will rise to $1 million once it joins the MAC. “Being an independent has been an absolute albatross for us,” Bamford said, pointing to challenges of scheduling and recruiting without a conference banner, and lack of shared revenue. As a MAC member, Bamford expects to play one guarantee game annually (and it will be early in the season, with conference games down the stretch ). Funds from buy-games are earmarked for football, Bamford said, but they create financial room elsewhere. Good thing. There’s a major project on his mind. “We have to invest in our stadium,” Bamford said. “Our chancellor knows it. I know it. Our leadership at the [state public university] system level knows it.” Content creator GFed, who does unauthorized video tours of empty stadiums, said that while the rolling hills of the Pioneer Valley are pretty, the stadium “doesn’t do it justice.” He called the bland concrete structure “the worst in the country,” adding that the surrounding lot resembled a “junkyard.” Indeed, there are few comforts at 60-year-old McGuirk, which didn’t have running-water bathrooms until five years ago. It recalls an “East Warsaw municipal facility,” joked Yahoo Sports writer and UMass alum Dan Wetzel, who shared a video on his irreverent College Football Enquirer podcast . Wetzel, a Norwell native who lives near Detroit, digs at his alma mater with love. Branding is important in college football, so until the stadium gets an overhaul, why not embrace the gritty image? “Just call yourself ‘The Junkyard’ and make it a thing,” Wetzel said in a phone chat. “Have fun with it.” UMass, the incoming junk merchants of the MAC, taking SEC money to the bank. Why not?
CONTINUE READING
