The Empty Seats Of UMass’ MAC Future

Via the official New England Patriots Twitter feed, here’s a shot of UMass officials, MAC types, Pats execs, and the Minutemen’s terrifying mascot at UMass’ new MAC home, Gillette Stadium. See all those empty seats behind them? Get used to those. Native New Englander The Gurgling Cod sums up local concerns about the leap from CAA, and everyone it’s going to leave behind (namely, the entire student body):

The Minutemen will be playing home games 95 miles from their campus. There are rivalry games where the away game is closer (GA/Ga Tech, for instance). Short term, you alienate a student fanbase, and long term, you have alums that don’t care about football. Seems like a steep price for playing Temple on Tuesday night. Not only is their new home field 100 mi from campus, but it’s also twice as far from UMass campus as UConn’s home field, itself a robust 20 miles from UConn’s campus. Like they say, you can’t get there from here.