UMass Ranked #8 Pre-Season by Sporting News

Matt Dougherty of Sporting News has completed a journalistic tour-de-force by ranking all 122 teams in Division I-AA. Read it here .

There are many ways to parse his list. Here's one:

The UMass schedule by Dougherty rank.

• #25 Colgate
• Navy is I-A
• #59 Villanova
• #8 (mid-majors) Stony Brook
• 28 William & Mary
• #43 Towson
• #61 Rhode Island
• #67 Northeastern
• #4 New Hampshire
• # 39 Maine
• #37 Hofstra

Interesting. I think he underrates the best Patriot League team (Colgate) and the duo of Maine and Hofstra would fare well against many of the teams ranked ahead of them.