UMass walked into Thursday night carrying a 16-game losing streak and a winless 0-12 season behind it. Rutgers, meanwhile, was supposed to cruise as a 29.5-point favorite at home.
Instead, the Minutemen delivered one of the loudest shocks college football has seen in years, rolling to a 37-21 win that instantly turned Week 1 on its head.
The spread alone tells you how deep the upset ran. Rutgers was laying 29.5 points, and that makes this the biggest point-spread upset at the FBS level since Kansas stunned Texas as 31-point underdogs in 2021.
There was another painful layer for Rutgers, too. According to Brett McMurphy of On3, the Scarlet Knights paid UMass $1.55 million to come to New Jersey and play the game. That’s a brutal bill to swallow on top of the result, especially for an athletic department that has run up a deficit of over $500 million since joining the Big Ten in 2014.
For UMass, the win snapped a drought that had stretched to 677 days. The Minutemen had not won since Oct. 26, 2024, when they beat FCS Wagner.
And if you narrow the lens to FBS opponents, the skid was even more punishing. UMass had lost 23 straight against FBS competition entering Thursday, and it had owned the nation’s longest active losing streak at 16 games.
The victory also closed the book on a remarkable stretch that dated back decades. Since jumping to the FBS level in 2012, UMass had gone 48 years without a win against a current power-conference opponent.
The Minutemen did beat BYU in 2017, but that was before the Cougars joined the Big 12 as an independent. Rutgers ended that 48-year run Thursday.
In Other News...
UConn Just Turned Its Duke Schedule Reveal Into A Taunt
UConn unveiled its 2026-27 mens basketball nonconference schedule with a little extra swagger, and the Duke matchup sat right at the center of it. The Huskies leaned into the history of the rivalry, pointing to the 11-game series and the kind of moment that has made this one of college basketballs more compelling modern pairings: a recent Elite Eight win over the Blue Devils that carried all the drama UConn fans could want.
The schedule release doubled as a reminder that this isnt just another big-name date on the calendar. Duke is still the measuring-stick opponent in these kinds of announcements, and UConn made sure that last meeting still loomed large as the teams head toward another showdown next season. There is already a fresh chapter coming, and after the way the Huskies framed the rivalry, it is fair to expect the buildup to be part celebration, part needling, and all business by the time the game arrives. [Read more 🡒]
UConns LSU Matchup Just Got Easier For A Serious Reason
LSUs womens basketball roster took a notable hit just before the academic year began, and the ripple effect reaches all the way to a scheduled meeting with UConn. Sophomore Kate Koval is no longer with the program, leaving the Tigers thinner at a time when teams are still settling into new roles and rotations for the season ahead.
The departure comes in the wake of LSU adding a Russian recruit, a development set against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war and the personal toll it has taken on Koval. She had family ties to the conflict and hometown damage to reckon with, and her exit leaves LSU with one less established piece as it prepares for a demanding schedule that includes the Huskies. [Read more 🡒]
UConns 2023-24 Team Just Earned Rare All-Time Praise
A season that already stood out in UConn history just picked up another layer of validation. CBS Sports recently surveyed nearly 100 Division I mens basketball coaches to find the best team of the 21st century, and the 2023-24 Huskies came out on top in a field full of heavyweights. For a program that has spent decades collecting trophies, the kind of attention this group earned speaks to how complete and overwhelming that run felt from start to finish.
The Huskies went 35-3, swept the Big East regular season and tournament titles, landed the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and then rolled through March to the national championship. Coaches also kept other modern powers in the conversation, including Dukes 2000-01 team, Michigans 2022-23 squad and Villanovas 2017-18 group, but UConns latest title team clearly left the strongest impression. It is rare for a roster to enter the all-time debate so quickly, and even in Storrs, that kind of praise is usually reserved for the very best of the best. [Read more 🡒]