UConn–UMass football rivalry
Encyclopedia
| UConn-UMass rivalry | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| History | |
| First meeting | Massachusetts 36, Connecticut 0 (1897) |
| Last meeting | Massachusetts 62, Connecticut 20 (1999) |
| Next meeting | August 30, 2012 |
| Number of meetings | 71 |
| All-time series | UMass leads, 36-33-2 |
| Largest victory | Connecticut, 71-6 (1956) |
| Current streak | Massachusetts, 1 |
| Longest UConn win streak | 6 (1955–1960) |
| Longest UMass win streak | 8 (1897–1922) |
The UConn-UMass football rivalry (also known as the U Game to some followers) was an annual college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
rivalry game played between two New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
universities: the University of Connecticut
University of Connecticut
The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...
and the University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts
This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...
. The rivalry has been dormant since UConn transitioned to FBS following the 1999 season. It will be renewed once more in 2012 as UMass will travel to Connecticut to play the Huskies in the season opener.
History
The first game played between the two schools took place on November 6, 1897, in Amherst, MassachusettsAmherst, Massachusetts
Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...
. Massachusetts
UMass Minutemen football
The UMass Minutemen football team is a collegiate football team that has finished its last season in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision and the Colonial Athletic Association in 2011. UMass began play in 1879 and have since appeared in three National Championship games, winning the title in...
won the game by a score of 36-0. At the time, UMass was known as Massachusetts Agricultural College and Connecticut was officially Storrs Agricultural College. They had formed a loose association with other public colleges in New England such as present day New Hampshire
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire , United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire. The university is...
and Rhode Island
University of Rhode Island
The University of Rhode Island is the principal public research university in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Its main campus is located in Kingston. Additional campuses include the Feinstein Campus in Providence, the Narragansett Bay Campus in Narragansett, and the W. Alton Jones Campus in West...
for the purpose of scheduling football matchups between the schools.
The colleges continued to schedule matches intermittently until after World War I, when they began to play on an almost-yearly basis through the mid-1920s. The series was discontinued until 1932, when the schools again met each year until World War II saw both universities disband their football teams. The schools would not match up again on the gridiron until Connecticut
Connecticut Huskies football
The Connecticut Huskies football team is a collegiate football team that competes in NCAA Division I-A and the Big East Conference. Connecticut first fielded a team in 1896, and participated in Division I-AA until 1999. The Huskies began their two-year Division I-A transition period in 2000, and...
joined Massachusetts in the Yankee Conference
Yankee Conference
The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. It once sponsored competition in many sports, but eventually became a football-only league...
in 1952. UConn and UMass played every season from that point on until UConn began their transition to what was then Division I-A in 2000.
UMass leads the all-time series 36-33-2. Massachusetts dominated the rivalry early, winning the first eight and 13 of the first 15 meetings between the two universities. Connecticut went on a streak of their own after that, winning 14 of the next 16 games. The 1960s again belonged to the then-Redmen of Massachusetts, as they lost only two games that decade. In the remaining years of the rivalry, the series was much more even, with neither team able to put together a winning streak of more than four games.
In April 2011, UMass announced plans to join the Mid-American Conference
Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference is a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I college athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twelve full member schools are in Ohio and Michigan, with single members...
and move up to the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of college football in the country. Prior to this decision, the two schools had scheduled a game for August 30, 2012. This game will still be played, the first meeting between the schools in 13 years. There has been no official announcement regarding the future of the rivalry, despite the UMass joining UConn in the FBS.
Game results
Winning team is shown in bold font. Years of a Connecticut victory are in blue. Years of a Massachusetts victory are in maroon. Years with a tie are in white.|}