This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
As a college football independent, BYU makes a lot of scheduling announcements. After all, the Cougars have to schedule 12 opponents per year, instead of three or four like teams that belong to a conference. Today's announcement is not one of the better ones — at least in the eyes of many Cougar fans. BYU said today it will play the University of Massachusetts four times between now and the end of the 2019 season. The first two games are in Provo; the final two are at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., which is the home of the NFL's New England Patriots. The Cougars and Minutemen will meet on Oct. 8, 2016 and Nov. 18, 2017 in Provo. The 2018 games is on Nov. 10 and the 2019 game is on Nov. 23. UMass is currently a member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) in football, but will become an independent in 2016. "With UMass joining BYU as an independent football program in 2016 this series makes a lot of sense for both schools," said BYU director of athletics Tom Holmoe in a school news release. "It will be a great experience for our team to play at Gillette Stadium—home of the New England Patriots —in front of the BYU faithful in that part of the country."