UMass Minutemen - Football

Football

The UMass football team competed at the NCAA Division I FCS (formerly I-AA) level until 2012, and won one national title in that subdivision in 1998. The Minutemen were national finalists in 1978 and 2006. It joined the FBS (formerly I-A) in 2012. UMass has competed in four football conferences over its history, the Yankee Conference, the Atlantic 10, and the Colonial Athletic Association, which are basically three incarnations of the same conference, and now the FBS Mid-American Conference. UMass has captured a total of 22 conference championships, the most recent one being a share of the CAA title in 2007.

The 2006 season was the final season under which the football team competed in the Atlantic 10, as the A-10 Football Conference disbanded after the season with all current teams moving to the CAA. They defeated Montana, 19–17, to advance to the championship game (first since 1998). UMass fell to Appalachian State in the national championship game by a score of 28–17 and finished the season with a record of 13–2.

Historically, the program has competed in three major bowl games, compiling a record of 1–2. In 1964, UMass played in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Florida, losing to East Carolina, 14–13. They then played in the 1972 Boardwalk Bowl in Atlantic City, New Jersey and defeated UC Davis, 35–14, in a game played inside the Atlantic City Convention Center. Also, the 1979 Division I-AA title game was then known as the Pioneer Bowl and was played in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Minutemen fell to Florida A&M in that game by a score of 35–28.

UMass football has sent several players to the NFL. Some of their most successful players there include quarterback Greg Landry, running back Marcel Shipp, and tight end Milt Morin. Class of 2010 members that went on to the NFL include offensive lineman Vladimir Ducasse and wide receiver Victor Cruz. Cruz and safety James Ihedigbo, also a UMass product, competed in Super Bowl XLVI.

On November 30, 2010, the Boston Herald reported that the Mid-American Conference was exploring the possibility of adding the Minutemen for football. This would upgrade UMass from the FCS to the FBS. This report was later confirmed by an article in The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), going on to report UMass will become a member of the MAC in 2012, and bowl-eligible beginning in 2013.

In April 2011, UMass confirmed that it was moving to the FBS and play in the MAC beginning with the 2012 season. The team also announced it would play its home schedule at Gillette Stadium during renovations at McGuirk Stadium, and be bowl-eligible in 2013. The 2011 team remained in the CAA Conference of the FCS. The school cited the changing landscape of the FCS, especially in the Colonial Athletic Association, with Hofstra and Northeastern dropping their football programs in 2009, Rhode Island considering a move to the lower-profile Northeast Conference, Georgia State and Old Dominion joining the CAA, and Villanova considering a move to the Football Bowl Subdivision's Big East Conference.