The University of Maine football team will play at Massachusetts in 2017 and 2019, UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford announced Thursday.

The games are scheduled for Nov. 11, 2017, and Aug. 31, 2019. The site of the games is listed as being “in UMass territory.” The last time the schools met, in 2013, the game was played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the New England Patriots. The Black Bears won that game 21-14.

The Black Bears and the Minutemen were previously rivals in the Atlantic 10 and the Colonial Athletic Association, when UMass was still competing at the FCS level. The Minutemen moved to the higher FBS level in 2012. UMass holds a 41-17-1 advantage in the all-time series against Maine.

Our goal to play an FCS opponent every year makes sense for our future as we try to secure a minimum of six home games each season,” Bamford said in a news release. “Scheduling a regional opponent like Maine – a former FCS rival – is good for New England college football and our fan base.”

The Black Bears are playing FBS opponents Boston College and Tulane this fall, and have a game scheduled at Connecticut in 2016.

Those games are important to UMaine because the larger schools provide a guaranteed payment in order to secure an additional home game. In 2013, Maine was paid $160,000 by UMass.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.