Sunday--May 27th, 2012

Phil Steele has a chart on his blog listing the number of returning lettermen vs letterman lost. UMass comes in a #44 nationally with 42 lettermen returning, 17 lost, 71,19% 59 total. The Minutemen come in on the lower range of total letterman because of the lower number of scholarships in FCS. As Phil Steele notes there is also a wide variation in how schools award letters.

Rankings for teams on UMass' 2012 schedule are:

• #10 Central Michigan
• #19 Ohio
• #27 Buffalo
• #28 Miami of Ohio
• #36 Bowling Green
• #39 Northern Illinois
• #58 Indiana
• #67 Michigan
• #69 Vanderbilt
• #94 Akron
• #102 Western Michigan
• #110 UConn

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Football Scoop has a story and a link to a USA report on athletic director's salaries. They missed John McCutcheon. Vanderbilt who is on our OOC schedule this year, had the highest paid AD ----- David Williams at $2.56 million.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jim O'Conner/ US Presswire image

Rant Sports says with Hakeem Nicks injured, Victor Cruz is now the #1 receiver for the Giants.

ESPN New York says Cruz is adjusting to his new status with the Giants-----as a veteran.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Seattle Times has a nice human interest story about former NFL and MAC QB Jon Kitna's new gig as a high school math teacher.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------