Deal Done! The Minutemen are Coming!!

So, the deal is done.  It appeared obvious from the day it started last November, and now it has been consummated.  Massachusetts will play football in the MAC.

A few basic facts.

They start in 2012, but cannot compete for the title or a bowl game until '13.
They cannot compete for the CAA or FCS title in '11.
They will also play two home games and two away games against MAC teams in men's and women's basketball.

A couple of other notes.

First, this school has had a lot of success at the FCS level...and, my contention has always been that teams at the top levels of FCS could easily compete with teams near the bottom of FBS.  And UMass has clearly had success...

The maroon and white have captured 22 conference championships and appeared in eight NCAA FCS/I-AA Tournaments. Program highlights include winning the 1998 I-AA National Championship, playing in three national championship games and appearing in the postseason three times in the last decade. In 2010 UMass had seven alumni playing in the National Football League including second-round NFL Draft selection Vladimir Ducasse of the New York Jets.

They played UM the week before BG did this year and almost one; I am certain they are better this very minute than Temple was when they joined the MAC.

The other exciting thing is that UMass will be playing their home games (or almost all of them) at Gillette Stadium, home of the Patriots.  This is, at one leve, pretty amazing.  Foxboro is 90 miles away from Amherst...I highly doubt any D1 football team has ever consistently played so far from its home.  Anyway, there may be some transportation for UMass students...it does show how badly UMass wants to be a FBS program.

I have been contacted by a UMass blog, Minutemen Nation...looks like a great addition to the MAC blog space.  They had a post today covering the initial announcement at Gillette today...  He starts the post with this line...

Today was arguably the greatest day in the history of UMass Athletics.

He also said this...

It was Holub who initially approached McCutcheon with the challenge of moving our football program to Division 1-A in an effort to increase the image of UMass as the flagship school of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

So, they're pumped.

I wrote yesterday, I think this is a good thing for the MAC...I don't have the issue for football-only members that others do...

Coach Clawson was trapped in a media scrum, and had this to say about the MAC's new addition