![]() When asked by media Tuesday, Bell made it a point to not speak his mind. The two most important figures of the Minutemen’s football program, Athletic Director Ryan Bamford and head coach Walt Bell have not had much to say about the matter. “I cannot stress enough, the work didn’t start in the last two or three weeks, we’ve been doing it for months and years, and now all those relationships that I’ve been able to build, our university has been able to build, we’re hoping that we can plant on those to get ourselves into a conference,” Bamford said.SOURCE: Conference USA is in negotiations with New Mexico State, Liberty and UConn (football only), has learned. Bamford added that UMass’ athletics budget has increased from $34 million to $40 million over the past five years, and the football budget has gone from $7.5 million to $10 million, half a million of which is spent on marketing. He said UMass has put $65 million into facilities and infrastructure, $40 million of which went to the football performance center completed in 2014. So we’re trying to make sure that we’re hitting on all those relationships that we’ve built, on all those seeds that we’ve planted over the last five years to see if they come to fruition.”īamford pointed to the monetary investment made in the program since it moved to the FBS level. Now with all this realignment, there’s opportunities. “We’ve been doing that work behind the scenes to push conference membership. So, from really Day 1, we’ve been selling the idea of UMass football as a member of a conference,” Bamford said. We don’t want to be an independent long-term, that’s not a viable path for us. But, I’ve said this from the beginning, that was always a short-term process for us. “We’ve been able to make schedules, which has been good, we’ve been able to get some visibility on NESN and FloSports, and we’ve been able to build a roster and recruit to being an independent. While UMass has existed as an independent for more than a half decade, it’s not sustainable as a permanent plan. ![]() “We have to have a partner, we have to have somebody that wants to take us as a football-only member.” The fact that our Olympic sports have had success there, winning more championships than anyone else,” Bamford said. We have deep, deep roots in the Atlantic 10. We’re very happy with the Atlantic-10 relationship, we’re a charter member. “We’re only going to bring our football program into a conference at this point. UMass was a football-only member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) for three years after making the jump to the FBS level in 2013 and is looking for a similar arrangement this time to keep the remainder of its sports in the Atlantic 10 (and Hockey East). “That’s why I haven’t been as visible presence because I’ve been 24/7 attacking this thing the last month or so, and especially last week as this thing has really started to pick up steam.” I need our fans to know that,” he said Sunday in a video posted on Twitter. “I am not resting, I’ve been going 24/7 to attack this thing. With all of the moving pieces, UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford has tried to put the Minutemen, an FBS independent since 2016, in the mix. There are currently just five Conference USA members committed to the league long-term. UConn is considering joining as a football only member, while the other two would join the league in all sports. UMass doesn’t want to be the last program left standing in the latest round of college football conference realignment.Īfter six Conference USA schools bolted for the American Athletic Conference last week, The Athletic’s Chris Vannini reported Thursday that Conference USA is in negotiations with New Mexico State, Liberty and UConn – all independents like the Minutemen.
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