"We are looking toward conference alignment and affiliation — that's certainly a goal for our football program, and we are going to continue to work toward that end," UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford told The Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday.
So there is a kinship, of sorts, between these college football programs with very little else in common as they play the first game of a contracted four-game series on Saturday at LaVell Edwards Stadium (noon MT, BYUtv). The Cougars (6-4) and Minutemen (2-8) will play again in 2017 in Provo, then meet twice at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.