University of Massachusetts football to join Mid-American Conference, sources say | cleveland.com
This move will give the MAC two seven-team divisions. How those divisions will be divided will be a topic for discussion at the upcoming league meetings in May. One possible move is sending Bowling Green back to the West Division, where the Falcons would be paired with their natural rival, Toledo. That will leave the four most recent MAC additions (Akron, 1992; Buffalo, 1998; Temple, 2006 and UMass) in the East with Miami, Ohio and Kent State.
UMass To MAC: How Will The Football Divisions Look? - Hustle Belt
But there's just no perfect cleave. If you wanted to do the first seven members chronologically, you'd have to leave someone out because the seventh and eighth members are CMU and EMU. Ohio and everybody else? Too inclusive; the Buckeye State has only six members. Bird-based mascots vs. everyone else? Nope, only six bird mascots.
Thoughts on UMass to the MAC " Eagle Totem
Logistically, it does raise a few questions. Having two football-only members at the eastern end of the conference is a bit of a problem, and while there are several solutions, none seem particularly good. One option is to just add UMass to the East Division, making an even less balanced 8-6 split.
The Mac Daily - Major coverage for a major conference.
The MAC is going to have to decide on several options. Will it keep an 8-game schedule? If so, it needs to decide on having each team play the other six teams in its division and only having two cross-division games per year or would it rather go with a 5/3 move and skip one team in each division. The other option is to go to a 9-game MAC slate. The bonus is that each school could play everyone in its division and still see 3 cross-division foes. The downside is that each MAC team would lose a nonconference game and the potential pay-out that comes with it.
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The Greatest Team Nobody Knows Of - The Spectrum - Sports
There is a team on campus that has a realistic shot of bringing a national championship home to Buffalo. However, they don't receive any scholarships and most students wouldn't recognize any members of this squad. This mysterious powerhouse is none other than the UB men's rugby team.