Since Massachusetts moved to the Bowl Subdivision five years ago, the Minutemen have eight victories and 40 losses, have averaged less than the NCAA minimum attendance of 15,000 for their homes games and were essentially kicked out of a conference.Instead of giving up its major college football aspirations -- as some on the Amherst campus would prefer -- UMass is sticking it out and going it alone, becoming an FBS independent this season at a time when that has never been more challenging.Scheduling is harder. Bowls are tougher to access. Television exposure is more difficult to find. Revenue often has to come at the expense of wins. Even Notre Dame has given up some of its treasured independence for the stability of partial conference affiliation with the Atlantic Coast Conference.UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford knows having an independent football program is not a long-term solution. With the Big 12 looking at expansion, the trickle down could open up a spot in a conference for the Minutemen soon. Or not. Regardless, Bamford believes the lonely road is worth traveling to stay in college footballs top tier.With a little bit of risk theres great opportunity and great reward there, Bamford said this spring.Faced with a similar stay-or-go choice, New Mexico State decided it will become an independent in 2018 after the Sun Belt Conference ends its football-only relationship with the school.Idaho, however, went the other way after being ousted by the Sun Belt and is prepared to head back to the Championship Subdivision after the 2017 season and join the Big Sky Conference, a natural geographic fit. Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said geography and finances were working against the Vandals, but the school could have made it work in the FBS with a conference home.Independent, in my opinion, was not a good situation, Spear said.For New Mexico State, geography and finances were reasons to stay in the FBS. Dropping down would have put rivalries with New Mexico and UTEP, located only about 30 miles away from Las Cruces, New Mexico, in jeopardy. Also, being in the FCS would have put New Mexico State at a disadvantage against its rival state school in other areas, athletic director Mario Moccia said.We benchmark ourselves against them on virtually everything. State funding comes into play. Competition for students comes into play, he said.Plus, New Mexico State needs the millions it makes playing a couple of road games a year against Power Five teams to pay off debt and fund the athletic department. As an FCS school, those payouts would drop as much as 75 percent.In the 1980s, independence was common in major college football. Penn State, Miami, Florida State, Syracuse, South Carolina, West Virginia and Pittsburgh were among the high-profile independent programs. As conferences became the power points in college football in the 1990s, negotiating television contracts and aligning with bowl games, schools flocked to them for security. The money didnt hurt, either.Just three schools played as major college football independents last season: Notre Dame, Army and BYU, which is eager to join the Big 12.Notre Dames $15 million per year TV deal with NBC protects the Fighting Irish, but money cant fix everything. When Notre Dame moved all its sports but football and hockey into the ACC, the deal also called for Notre Dame to play five games per season against ACC teams. It also gave the Irish access to ACC bowl games.UMass transitioned to the FBS in 2012 and went 2-22 in its first two seasons as a football-only member of the Mid-American Conference. In 2014, the MAC invoked a clause in its contract with UMass that gave the school two years to either join the conference as a full member or leave.Most UMass teams compete in the Atlantic 10 and a full move to the Midwest-centric MAC made little sense. The FBS transition has gone so poorly that members of the UMass faculty senate in April pushed for a vote on a nonbinding motion to urge the university to return to the FCS or drop football altogether. The vote failed.When Bamford took over at UMass in March 2015, the most pressing issue was the schedule. UMass had one home game scheduled for 2016. The NCAA minimum is five.We were 15 months away from playing and Im saying, `Crap, how am I going to do this? Bamford said.Bamford was able to put together a six-game home schedule and six road games that will help compensate for the lost $850,000 MAC payout. UMass will receive $1.5 million to open the season at Florida, an additional $1.25 million to play at South Carolina and a combined $650,000 for trips to Hawaii and BYU.UMass also has a home game against Mississippi State to be played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the NFLs Patriots. That game, along with a game at Gillette against Boston College, should help UMass reach the 15,000 minimum attendance it needs to hit this season after averaging 11,124 last season. Over three seasons, UMass average FBS attendance is 14,347.This seasons schedule helps the bottom line for a program with an $8 million budget that includes about $5 million in student fees and state funds. It wont help the inexperienced team coming off a 3-9 season.Were overloaded some, theres no question about that, said UMass coach Mark Whipple, in the third year of his second stint at the school. Theres reasons for that. I understand those reasons.Idaho spent a season as an independent in the FBS in 2013, waiting for a spot to open up in a conference after Western Athletic Conference football dissolved. The Vandals played at Arkansas, Mississippi and Florida State and lost by a combined 187-52.Youre being unfair to your student athletes and your coaches, Spear said.Bamford and the UMass administration believe striving for potential gains in prestige and revenue that can come with FBS football is worth it. The football program simply needs to be good enough to get into a conference. The American Athletic Conference, with UConn and Temple, is the perfect spot for UMass. But with no recent football success, UMass is not necessarily a perfect match for the AAC if it loses members amid Big 12 expansion.If nothing else, UMass seems to have an athletic director who embraces the challenge.Im so competitive and I love the fact that people dont think we can get this thing going, Bamford said. That it drives me Ive never had anything drive me like it does.---Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP Air Max 1 France Pas Cher . -- Kyrie Irvings last-minute 3-pointer helped seal another victory for Cleveland -- and the Cavaliers longest winning streak since LeBron James left. Air Max 1 Soldes . It was Kerbers third final of the year after losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in Monterrey in April and to Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in Tokyo two weeks ago. The 10th-ranked German improved her record in finals to 3-5. http://www.franceairmax1.fr/ . "It was nerve-wracking, but we pulled through," said Collaros, who threw four touchdown passes to lead the Toronto Argonauts (8-4) to a 33-27 win over the Calgary Stampeders (9-3) in front of 28,781 fans at McMahon Stadium. Vente Air Max 1 . Pettersen, winner of last years Evian Championships, had nine birdies and three bogeys, holding off a series of challengers led by Marion Ricordeau of France. The second-ranked Norwegian made her season debut after missing the LPGA Tours opening event last month in the Bahamas because of a shoulder injury. Air Max 1 France . On June 12, just as the sun sets on the magnificent historical city of Sao Paulo the inventors, innovators and purveyors of “joga bonitowill” open their campaign. The opponent, Croatia and all its football might and will. As opposites do attract we are set for a corker of an opener. WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Wake Forest is one win from effectively locking up a bowl berth. A visit from Virginia shapes up as the Demon Deacons best chance to earn it.Wake Forest (5-3, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) plays host to the Cavaliers (2-6, 1-3) on Saturday.The Demon Deacons are in pretty good shape -- they entered November with five wins for the first time since 2011, also the last time they played in a bowl game.But if they dont take care of Virginia, they may not make it to the six-win mark.They face No. 5 Louisville and No. 3 Clemson in consecutive weeks before ending the regular season against a Boston College team that showed North Carolina State last week that its no pushover .Were not concerned with who we play in two weeks, three weeks, safety Ryan Janvion said. We have a chance to beat anyone on our schedule. Its not about who we play, its about how we play and what we do. Its not about the other team, its not about what they do. So were focused on Virginia, and were not thinking about anything else but beating Virginia this week.And for all the progress Wake Forest has made in Dave Clawsons third season, it also has shown its not immune to the confounding losses that marked the past four years in Winston-Salem. The Demon Deacons are coming off a 21-13 loss to Army in which they struggled in the red zone and threw three interceptions.The Cavaliers have lost three straight since beating Duke on Oct. 1, with two of those losses coming to No. 18 North Carolina and No. 5 Louisville. They seemingly had an upset of the Cardinals in hand before Lamar Jackson led them to a 32-25 victtory.ddddddddddddOur team is getting better with every time we play a game, first-year coach Bronco Mendenhall said. Its fun to watch the transformation happening. Its steady. Its methodical. But it is happening.---Some other things to know about the Virginia-Wake Forest game:BENKERTS BACK: East Carolina transfer QB Kurt Benkert will make his second career start on North Carolina soil for the Cavaliers. He threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns in the Duke victory, and is coming off his first three-TD game since then when he did it against Louisville.WOLFORDS WOES: Wake Forest QB John Wolford has six interceptions and one touchdown in his last three games, while throwing it a season-high 43 times against Army. Clawson says the Demon Deacons threw 11 deep balls in that game but completed only one, and understandably wants more explosive plays through the air. We are not where I want us to be, he said.VIRGINIAS D: Maybe the Demon Deacons can get their offense fixed against a Virginia defense that ranks among the ACCs worst. The Cavaliers are no higher than 11th in the league in any of the four major defensive stat categories, and are last in points (32.6) and yards (462.5) allowed per game.THE SERIES: Wake Forest and Virginia played every year from 1980-2003 before the divisional split led to more infrequent meetings. Its the first time theyve met since 2012 and their first meeting in Winston-Salem since 2008.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org China NFL Jerseys Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys NFL Jerseys Cheap Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Online Stitched Hockey Jerseys Wholesale Baseball Jerseys Football Jerseys Outlet College Jerseys For Sale Cheap MLB Jerseys Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys For Sale Wholesale NFL Jerseys ' ' '