In April, UMass announced that it would be moving from Div. 1-AA to Div. 1-A and joining the MAC in 2012.
And the Minutemen will waste no time in testing their mettle at the top level of college football by facing a member of the toughest conference in the country. OK, I know, you’re saying it’s just Vanderbilt, but don’t sleep on what James Franklin is doing with the Commodores when it comes to recruiting.
Anyway, where was I... oh yeah, The Tennessean is reporting that the two schools are closing in on an official agreement that would amount to a four-game home-and-home x2 series that would begin in 2012. Two of the games would be played at Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL’s New England Patriots. The other two, including the first one next year, would be played in Nashville.
While the dates aren’t yet finalized, the paper reports they would be spread out over a period of five or six years.
“They asked us to generate the contracts, so we are generating them and putting that together,” vice chancellor of athletics David Williams told the paper.
Suffice to say, the two schools have never met in football.