Massachusetts

The 1998 national championship — Mark Whipple's team, the I-AA title in its last year before the FCS rebranding — is the compass the program still navigates by. UMass knows what it looks like to win at the top of a level. The argument since the 2012 FBS move has been which level, and at what cost. Nine years as a homeless independent, playing road games that amounted to paid losses with no stakes and no standings, were the price of the ambition. The MAC return in 2025 was the first real structure in a decade.

The first season back was a winless one. Joe Harasymiak's debut year, 0-12, the program's bleakest record since making the FBS leap. But the framing matters: this was a roster being rebuilt from the ground up, a staff in its first year, a program playing real conference games for the first time since 2015. The floor was found. Harasymiak is back for year two with the same case every honest rebuild makes — the ladder is now visible, and the bottom rung is a conference win.

The 2026 question for UMass is not whether the program belongs in the MAC. It already answered that by rejoining. The question is whether the second-year roster can win the game that hasn't been won yet in this era — a MAC conference victory, the first step toward bowl eligibility, a height the program has never reached since going FBS. One win turns the story from endurance to progress. That's the only referendum that matters this fall.

UMass is 4-2 through six games, with four wins already after none in 2025: Rutgers (37-21), Sacred Heart, Stonehill and Sacramento State. The MAC win is still the one it hasn't had. UMass lost 38-14 at home to Eastern Michigan on October 3 as 5.5-point favorites, then 20-19 at home to Miami (OH) on October 10.