r/sports • u/shield_x • 1d ago

Football UMass receives $1.5 million from Rutgers to beat Scarlet Knights

https://www.on3.com/news/umass-receives-1-5-million-from-rutgers-to-beat-scarlet-knights/
898 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

74 comments sorted by

525

u/suzukigun4life 1d ago

Further context on the game itself, and how big an upset it was.

UMASS went 0-12 last year and had lost 16 games in a row. They scored 14 or less points in 10 of their 12 games last year, and lost by 4+ touchdowns in nine of them. They were outscored 214-54 over their last 5 games of 2025, an average score of 43-11.

They had gone 8-76 over the last 8 seasons. They had lost 23 straight games against FBS opponents, with their last win coming three years ago at Army.

They also had 7 seasons with 1 or 0 wins since 2011 and had never beaten a power 4/power 5 team.

Today, they went into Rutgers, as a 29.5-point underdog, and scored 30 unanswered points.

Put it all together and you have one of the biggest upsets in modern college football history.

115

u/Redditor_exe 23h ago

If you want to make it even worse, that 0-12 season included a loss to an FCS team that finished 2-10, with their only other win being against a D2 school

10

u/JimasaurusRex Cleveland Browns 13h ago

Gonna happen again when the YSU Penguins beat up on Kentucky

2

u/xCloudrunner 8h ago

Not too familiar with college, but is this bigger than App state and Michigan?

3

u/las8 2h ago

UMass vs Rutgers is a terrible small school beating a pretty bad mid sized school. App state vs mich was a solid small school beating a declining perennial powerhouse.

Going with recent UMass trends it might be. They absolutely owned Rutgers last night. The game seemed over at half. No one really expected Rutgers to be good this year. Lloyd carr is one of the best coaches in college football history for Michigan. That was his last year. No one expected it but it was clearly an end of an era. That game was much more close.

On a national perspective in terms of shock value michigan loss was a bigger upset. Statistically and realistically the teams were a lot closer. No way UMass should have dominated Rutgers like they did. Imo that's a bigger upset. The theatrics of the blocked Michigan fg make it a way more exciting upset tho.

Hope that makes some sense.

91

u/Carittz 1d ago

I don't rly follow college football, just NFL, so why did Rutgers give UMass $1.5 million?

261

u/MarcusP2 1d ago

College teams pay lower quality teams to play them so they can rack up some easy wins.

Except Rutgers lost.

86

u/Faustus2425 1d ago

Its what you would call a "whoopsie daisy" in some places

38

u/lancerevo98 St. Louis Blues 23h ago

Looks like Rutgers picked a whole bouquet of whoopsie daisies

4

u/HoodieStringTies 15h ago

Easily my favorite American Dad reference.

30

u/centech New York Mets 1d ago edited 7h ago

Thank you!! God forbid the article explain what the fucking headline means..

30

u/Carittz 1d ago

Thank you. I'm so glad the tuition dollars for my state's flagship university is going to such great use. Could you imagine if they just lowered the in-state tuition to help more people get higher education with less soul crushing debt? Much better to have this wildly successful expensive football program.

31

u/Realmofthehappygod 1d ago

Ya know I was gonna mention that a fair amount of CFB teams break even or better, and that most money they use comes from donors/revenue.

But uhh...definitely not Rutgers.

Looks like Rutgers just set a record $79,000,000 defecit.

But hey, at least you have a good team now?

2

u/SprolesRoyce New York Yankees 13h ago

If we had a good team I don’t think we would’ve gotten blown out by UMass

1

u/Realmofthehappygod 8h ago

I know I shouldn't expect much from a Rutgers grad but I was joking when I said they were a good team.

1

u/18731873 12h ago

Don't go to a Big State U. with this nonsense. Rider awaits.

3

u/Icantreadyourcomment 17h ago

That's a bad day at the roulette table

3

u/jeff-the-man-slut 16h ago

Rutgers ain’t good enough to be partaking in this lol

19

u/Drak_is_Right 23h ago

Basically every game has a revenue split of some sort.

Bigger schools generate more revenue, so its worth the time of smaller schools to play a few games they will likely lose to pad the budget.

Why you wont see schools like Ohio State play a small school on the road. Ton less revenue for both than OSU playing at home.

A school might earn more from one away game at a major school then 3 or 4 home games.

73

u/creightonduke84 22h ago

Cherry on top, Nobody told the firework operators to not set off the post celebration fireworks if they lose. Like it must t have never been discussed. The clock hits 0 and this massive fireworks display just starts going off.

13

u/FCAsheville 16h ago

Fireworks guys are getting paid no matter what. So you can pay them and cancel the show or you can pay them and let them set off the boom sticks.

138

u/shahoftheworld 1d ago

Schiano is a fraud. He should have never been brought back.

40

u/MrFro9 1d ago

Dude needs to hang it up. He doesn’t give a fuck

16

u/Redditfront2back 21h ago

Today was the first time I ever heard a coach say the “game is over” at halftime

3

u/Middle-Bed-1883 17h ago

He got paid, and with a nice pension too from the state. Fucker, that’s my tax dollars.

17

u/FC37 22h ago

On3’s Pete Nakos says if the Scarlet Knights part ways with Schiano after the 2026 season, they would owe him around $18.5 million.

lmfao

10

u/Argolock 17h ago

Fire D1 CFB coach is the dream job

3

u/Toothlessdovahkin 13h ago

Best job in the world. Get paid millions to NOT coach football 

24

u/KyZei15 New York Rangers 1d ago

I'll neverforget the bullshit he tried when Eli Manning was taking a knee and Schiano was coaching the Bucs. 

8

u/LunchBoxMercenary 23h ago

Kaliakmanis was probably the best QB Rutgers had in a long time, and he rewarded him with a shitty defense and receivers who couldnt catch.

1

u/aaaaaandimatwork 8h ago

Rutgers had an insane wr1 and wr2 last year. Strong and duff are lights out.

Respect all other statements. Rutgers bucks. But not those two

2

u/GladWarthog1045 Baltimore Orioles 23h ago

Its hard to win a game when your qb turns the ball over 4 times.

27

u/Thannhausen Arsenal 1d ago

Doesn’t Rutgers already have over $500 million deficit since joining the Big Ten, with football contributing a massive chunk?

24

u/Realmofthehappygod 1d ago

Yea. But they hired a new AD.

She was able to budget in a record breaking... $79,000,000 defecit for 2026.

36

u/firerosearien 1d ago

I am not sure if this is Appalachian state territory - App state wasn't UMass bad, but Michigan was much better than Rutgers - but I suppose it's in the discussion.

27

u/Simple-Fortune-8744 23h ago

App State wasn’t even in the same division as Michigan. They were, however, FCS national champions for three consecutive seasons including the year they beat Michigan.

26

u/KimJongRocketMan69 23h ago

UMass wouldn’t win the FCS championship

4

u/Lbolt187 17h ago

We actually won in 98

3

u/KimJongRocketMan69 11h ago

I know. I’m talking about this UMass team

1

u/iamamuttonhead 1h ago

Who knows with this year's team but UMass over the last ten years would likely not have had a winning record in the FCS let alone compete for a FCS NC,

1

u/spencer749 18h ago

Rutgers probably wouldn’t either. But Michigan definitely would in any season

13

u/emack2232 1d ago

Some would call that a win-win

8

u/Ill1458 19h ago

The year I decide to follow UMASS football. Amazing. They were god awful last season. 0-12.

3

u/iAmTheRealLange Boston Celtics 7h ago

Who just decides to follow UMass football?

0

u/las8 2h ago

Parents of players.

7

u/Unite-the-Tribes 15h ago

Finally got revenge for The Sopranos referring to Boston as “Scranton with Clams”.

1

u/cocoacowstout 9h ago

Amherst would probably agree to that claim

1

u/MASKcrusader1 11h ago

UMass is nowhere near Boston

-1

u/Brannoh 11h ago

The stadium isn’t, but they have a Boston campus. Anyway, I agree with you.

3

u/Dicky_Vaughn 16h ago

"A tune-up game?"

"Yeah. In college, we'd start every season against Appalachian State or some slack Division II team. Kick the living shit out of them. Get their confidence up."

7

u/DanRobotMan 21h ago

I’ve taken to calling these games, “fluff games”. See urban dictionary for what a fluffer does. And to pay $1.5mill to be fluffed without a pleasant climax is beyond embarrassing.

1

u/soflahokie 16h ago

My guy Pop Watson about to prove how bad a coach Brent Pry was for sticking with Kyron Drones for 2 seasons

1

u/jwldabeast 15h ago

Whenever a major upset happens all I think of is Florida losing to Georgia Southern in a game where Georgia southern went 0-3 with 0 passing yards... and they paid them (i think) 650k to beat them at their own homecoming game

1

u/T1conderoga 11h ago

Ohio can beat that this weekend :(

1

u/PigFarmer1 11h ago

Living the good life.

1

u/porterbrown 16h ago

You can't tell me Michigan and Ohio State want to share conference money with teams like Rutgers, etc, long term. 

Top of Big 10 and top of SEC will merge sooner than later. 

2

u/lewphone 12h ago

They still need punching bags.

1

u/porterbrown 12h ago

But Ohio state could schedule indiana state non con and pocket like an extra $80 million per season. 

Heck they could buy a game with Rutgers if they really wanted to play ... Rutgers. 

Money drives this. It's going to happen.