The UMass Minutemen will play football in Fall of 2020, the school announced on Monday.
According to the announcement, UMass “…intends to schedule and play a limited number of football games this fall.”
The Minutemen postponed their 2020 season on August 11 due to the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Due to a “positive review of the football program’s stringent COVID-19 safety protocols and rigorous testing regimen,” UMass is planning its return to the gridiron sooner than expected.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches and staff has always been our first priority,” said UMass director of athletics Ryan Bamford. “Since returning to campus in June, the members of our football program have been vigilant in following the policies and safety protocols instituted by the state, our university and athletics department, helping us reach a high level of confidence that we can safely conduct a truncated season this fall. Further, our recent work to generate a schedule in the spring semester, similar to our other fall sports, indicated that fall 2020 provided the best opportunity for our football student-athletes to take the field this academic year.”
UMass has conducted more than 1,800 COVID-19 tests over the past 13 weeks to members of the football programs and have received only two positive results.
“Today is a great day for Massachusetts Football,” said UMass head football coach Walt Bell. “Everyone associated with our program is excited to play football this fall. We have successfully created one of the safest environments in college football since June and our young men deserve the opportunity to compete in 2020. We are grateful to our campus leadership for supporting academic and competitive opportunities for our student-athletes and staff to do what they love in a safe manner.”
UMass will announced their opponents, game dates, and sites as they are scheduled. Below is UMass’ original schedule for the 2020 season, which was completely scrapped:
- 09/03 – at UConn
- 09/12 – Troy
- 09/19 – UAlbany
- 09/26 – at Appalachian State
- 10/03 – at New Mexico
- 10/10 – Temple
- 10/17 – at Akron
- 10/24 – FIU
- 10/31 – OFF
- 11/07 – New Mexico State
- 11/14 – at Auburn
- 11/21 – Army
- 11/28 – at Liberty
Future UMass Football Schedules
Might be rough to piece together a schedule. I guess there’s quite a bit of FCS teams out there to play. Plus they can play Army (originally on their schedule) if Army can’t reschedule the BYU game.
UMass could put together a schedule by just waiting for a game to get canceled and offering to fill in at the last minute.
They definitely can take a “have plane will travel” approach. They also have the ability to use Gillette to pull BYU or other schools in… There are enough teams out there with only 8, 9, 10, 11 games that surely with help, they can play right up through December 19.
.
Will UConn change their mind next too?
i can see six games easy
Army,
Liberty,
BYU,
RICE
FCS
FCS
I think it is too little too late without a conference.
Arkansas State just cancelled on Tulsa. I wonder if Umass would like to fly out here for a Saturday game?
UMass hasn’t been practicing.
There is absolutely nothing for UConn, New Mexico St, or Old Dominion to play for in the Spring, unless they are planning to play an FCS schedule. If I were them, I would seriously look at playing 5 or 6 games this fall.