The UConn–UMass rivalry is a sports rivalry between the UConn Huskies of the University of Connecticut and the UMass Minutemen of the University of Massachusetts.
Football
The UConn–UMass football rivalry is an American
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
rivalry between the
UConn Huskies football team of the
University of Connecticut and the
UMass Minutemen football team of the
University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The rivalry was dormant from the 2000 season, when UConn moved to
FBS, until 2012, when UMass traveled to
Rentschler Field 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, Massachusetts
Amherst () is a New England town, town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,263, making it the highest populated municipality in Hampshire County (althoug ...
.
Massachusetts won 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 and
Rhode Island 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
UConn joined Massachusetts in the
Yankee Conference 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 38-37–2. 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 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. UMass later became a FBS Independent school starting in 2016.
The Huskies won the latest matchup against the Minutemen during the 2023 season in Amherst, MA.
On October 31, 2022, UConn and UMass extended the rivalry games through 2027.
Game results
Men's basketball
Results
Men's ice hockey
Results
See also
*
List of NCAA college football rivalry games
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:UConn-UMass football rivalry
College football rivalries in the United States
College basketball rivalries in the United States
College ice hockey rivalries in the United States
UConn Huskies football
UConn Huskies men's basketball
UMass Minutemen basketball
UMass Minutemen football