UMass Director of Athletics Ryan Bamford held a “State of the Program and Strategic Vision” Zoom meeting on Monday, showcasing a slideshow in a webinar format to football alums and donors.
Photos of the slides made their way onto the social media platform X, sparking a conversation about the lack of substantial changes on the horizon. User @ohsnapholdup posted the photos to that account, providing context on what was said during the meeting.
One of the main topics of the meeting was going over the upgrades coming to McGuirk Alumni Stadium. A slide titled “Design Considerations — Architectural Interventions” showcased five different areas that will be altered.
The five areas included railing upgrades, seating upgrades, façade upgrades, a new ticket booth with entry gates and restroom enhancements. Multiple graphic mock-ups were shown to paint a more accurate picture of the changes.
UMass claimed it will be modernizing the stadium, hoping to improve the fan experience, update the stadium façade, landscaping and entry aesthetic and to create opportunities for return on investment.
In search of donations, one slide read “Bottom Line: We need more help than ever before. Be part of the solution.” The slide included pictures of the “Champions Club,” “Scholarship Society” and season tickets, all pointing to a UMass football helmet labeled “How Can You Help?”
Bamford highlighted how important football success is to universities across the nation, including the quotes, “Football is the financial backbone of college athletics,” from the Knight Commission and “Football is the front porch of the university — it shapes how the public sees the institution,” from Southern Methodist University President Dr. Gerald Turner.
For fans still questioning the move to the Mid-American Conference, the “Alignment and Investment” slide explained how “Football-centric conferences bring much more media value than basketball-focused leagues in the college landscape.”
That slide included 22 dollar signs ($), all listed in a row for effect.
With the Atlantic 10 not having football, Bamford noted that the MAC and NCAA revenues double from the conference in 2026-2027, and are expected to be three times as much by 2030.
Doubling down on how important football is, the presentation claimed that UMass made $12.6 million in indirect marketing value from the university’s football game against Notre Dame in 2015, while the hockey team’s national championship run in 2021, which included four games, netted just $4.8 million in indirect marketing value.
Although it happened 14 years ago, Bamford spoke about UMass’ move from the FCS to FBS level, claiming the program “fell behind.” He mentioned the team struggled to a 16-17 record over their last three seasons in the FCS.
According to the slideshow, UMass held the lowest coaching pool in the FBS in 2012 ($750,000) and seventh lowest in 2015 ($1.43 million), along with the fourth lowest football operations budget in 2015.
To explain how the football program is now headed in the right direction, Bamford went through the recent years of recruiting history. The 2026 recruiting class contains 21 players after early signing day, where the Minutemen averaged just six early signings over the past four seasons.
The slideshow also noted that since head coach Joe Harasymiak was hired back on Dec. 4, 2024, UMass has signed 10 of the top 20 ranked FBS commits in the program’s history, according to 247Sports.
Bamford also went in-depth on the players that his team lost in the transfer portal after last season. He noted that of the 25 players who left, 15 didn’t record a statistic, nine weren’t on a Div. 1 roster this season and six were on an FBS roster.