W2WF: UMass

College football looked very different in 1980. Sibling rivalries permeated regionalized schedules, and conferences resembled nothing of the spectacles unfolding on national television in 2021. It was all very local, and the schools owning the current headlines weren't naturally the top dogs of the day.

Boston College, for example, was independent and played a smorgasbord schedule against Army and Syracuse. It played Yale in a non-conference game, and the final two games on the schedule were annual matchups against UMass and Holy Cross. The game against UMass was a particular painpoint in the 1970s, but the back-and-forth nature of the matchup took an undercard backseat to the front page…