The Begining of Spring Practice -- 04/03/09

Well, Spring Practice is finally here; it's the real start of 2009 UMass football. The weather is slated to be gloomy and raw, but at least it's a new year.

Not-so-good is the news that UMass has had its athletic budget cut by $600,000. The Minutemen lose Men's and Women's skiing and each sport has to cut their own budget by about 7 to 10%.

Now would be an excellent time for all UMass Sports fans to step up and make some sort of contribution to the Athletic Dept. I continue to recommend Friends of Football to UMass football fans. Every penny of the Friends membership goes to UMass football and also provides a constituency for the football program. But contributing any amount anywhere will help keep UMass teams competitive.

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Yesterday I blogged about 2009 opponent Stony Brook. They have quite a OOC as they have added a game at North Dakota on October 10th.

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JMU made money during the 2008 playoffs. That was after paying the NCAA a combined $300,000 for home bids. The figures do not seem to include concessions, which could sweeten the pot further.

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Speaking of financial woes, the Lehigh Football Nation Blog points out things are bad all over theNortheast.

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To end this blog post on a cheerier note: Boston Patriots Cheerleader tryouts.

A Boston Globe staff image.

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