The Minutemen almost seem set up to fail, and what’s worse, they’re set up to fail in a way that makes zero sense. It would be one thing if UMass was sending its football team out to get its brains beaten in every week for the good of its other sports, but it harms them.
It’s been a bad time to be a fan of football in and around New York. Over the past few seasons, the least embarrassing team to play in New Jersey has actually been Rutgers.
Take a look at the top 10 teams in the College Football Playoff, and you’ll see some familiar names in the mix. However, there’s a few more that are far less associated with being a blue blood.
Indiana at No. 5 overall. SMU with an inside track at a top-four seed. BYU still undefeated and in the top 10.
This was supposed to be an intriguing basketball game between a pair of up-and-coming squads with bright young coaches.
Instead, nobody really knows what the emotions will be like for this season opener.
It’s not that Michigan State is a great, or even a good team. The Spartans are middling. But they’re at home, and this game comes right before Indiana faces the Michigan-Ohio State double.
Oregon seems to have gone to another level since its win over Ohio State. The Ducks now have a clear path to the Big Ten title game with Ohio State out of the way, and they’re going to be favored in every game they play the rest of the way, barring a screw-up before then.
The Cardinals have actually never beaten Clemson, despite having some pretty good teams and playing the Tigers every season as ACC members. It just so happened that Louisville joined the ACC right at the time of Clemson’s rise to a national power, and the Cardinals found themselves playing second or third fiddle pretty quick.
James Franklin just can’t catch a break in this matchup. This is the one team that Franklin hasn’t been able to solve in Happy Valley, and now he’s got to go in against Ohio State with his starting quarterback at 50% at best.
The playoff has laid out everything Boise State ever wanted: a clear, unimpeded shot at the title. All the Broncos have to do is run the table, and it’s theirs.