The New York Times carried a story at the end of the year under the headline Big Dream, Rude Awakening about schools moving up from the FCS to the FBS. Much of the story centered around the University of Massachusetts, whose attendance went down after moving up to the FBS and playing its games 100 miles from campus at Gillette Stadium. From the story:
There were only 6,385 fans in a stadium that seats 68,756 as UMass lost, 42-21, to Central Michigan to finish the season 0-5 at home. UMass finished the season 1-11 over all and was outscored by opponents, 482-152.The story also included the following about the reaction to the move:
There was enough unease among the UMass faculty that the faculty senate created a 18-member ad hoc committee charged with overseeing the move to F.B.S. football. On Dec. 11, the committee delivered an interim report that maintained that UMass was now spending $8.2 million on football annually, including debt payments on a $34.5 million facility improvement. That total, the report said, is significantly higher than anticipated and more than twice what UMass spent on football before the F.B.S. transition.
