Excellent reporting here by Connor Pignatello of the Daily Hampshire Gazette on the timeline of events that led to UMass joining the MAC.

https://www.gazettenet.com/Inside-the-ti...C-54314721

Wow, the MAC commish at a game and on campus in November.

Is there anything out there on their communication with CUSA?

Quote:Before taking the job at Miami last year, Steele spent 13 years at Xavier, including four years as an assistant coach when the Musketeers competed with UMass in the Atlantic 10.

“It’s going to push all of us, the schools that have been here, to do more, which I’m excited about,” Steele said. “When you add a program like UMass that has the brand, they have the facilities, they have the budget... it’s going to push people if we want to compete, which is good. It’ll only make our conference better.”

UMass intends to enter not only with the highest athletic department budget and men’s basketball budget, but also with the most NIL money.

“The MAC in basketball, from an NIL perspective, is doing very little,” Bamford said. “We’re going to go in and we’re going to be spending probably half a million dollars a year in NIL collective money for men’s basketball.”

https://www.gazettenet.com/MAC-basketbal...e-54314504

Another article talking about UMass having extra NIL money to work with.

That will keep recruiting going strong..