Ten Years Is Enough: It's Time for New Leadership at UMass Athletics

For the past decade, those of us who care about UMass football (alumni, students, donors, and fans) have been asking for the same thing: competent leadership with a real vision. Instead, under Athletic Director Ryan Bamford's ten year tenure (hired March 2015), we've watched our major sports programs crumble and our most dedicated supporters pushed away. We're not asking for national championships tomorrow. We're asking for basic competence, accountability, and a commitment to excellence that our flagship university deserves.

Our Programs Are in Freefall

Let's start with football. The 2025 season wasn't just bad, it was historically awful. We went 0 and 12. Zero wins. The first completely winless season in program history. Since 2015, we've lost over 100 games. That's not a rebuild. That's a collapse.

And it's not just football. Men's basketball, once a program we could be proud of, has become an afterthought. We haven't made the NCAA Tournament or even the NIT in ten years. A full decade without any postseason play. The mismanagement extends beyond wins and losses. After Bamford fired Derek Kellogg in 2017, his choice for the next head coach, Pat Kelsey, backed out of the job minutes before his introductory press conference. Media, fans, and the band were already in the room when the announcement was cancelled, exposing a vetting and hiring process completely lacking in due diligence. This isn't bad luck. This is a failure of leadership.

It's Not Just Losing. It's a Lack of Professionalism

Beyond the losses, basic administrative failures have subjected the university to national criticism. The most recent example: the "Flagship Cup" incident in 2025, where the athletic department heavily promoted a new rivalry trophy but failed to have the physical trophy ready when the opponent won. The university literally had to hand over a photo of the trophy. This followed other missteps, including initially trying to cancel individual Senior Day introductions for graduating players, only reversing course after public outcry. These aren't just mistakes. They reflect a deeper lack of attention to detail and respect for the program.

Ryan Bamford's December 9th Presentation: More of the Same

On December 9, 2025, Bamford delivered a "State of the Program and Strategic Vision" presentation to alumni and donors via Zoom. Instead of offering accountability and bold solutions, the presentation drew swift criticism from fans, alumni, and media for its poor quality and defensive tone.

The presentation was full of excuses, blaming "deferred maintenance" from 2011 to 2013 (over a decade ago) while conveniently ignoring his own 21 and 103 record since 2015 (a 17% win rate). He announced a $25 million stadium overhaul and $3 million NIL budget, which sounds impressive until you realize it's nowhere near what's needed to compete even in the MAC, let alone nationally. He even admitted a proper $250 million stadium rebuild "will never happen," as if that wasn't already obvious.

The most tone deaf moment? A slide pleading for more donations to the "Champions Club" after an 0 and 12 season. He promised "measurable success in a few years" without any specifics, while asking exhausted fans and alumni to keep pouring money into a program that has given us nothing but disappointment.

The presentation didn't inspire confidence. It deepened the distrust. Alumni are canceling season tickets. The message was clear: more waiting, more vague promises, and zero accountability.

Sabotaging Support and Bloated Costs

In today's college sports world, NIL support is everything. Instead of working with the passionate alumni who built the "Midnight Ride Collective," Bamford's department actively undermined them until they shut down. The move to bring NIL "in house" was nothing more than a power grab that left our football program with fewer resources and alienated the very donors we desperately need.

Here's where it gets truly absurd: Bamford recently hired Thorr Bjorn as "Senior Deputy Athletic Director" specifically to oversee football operations. Bjorn's contract? Five years at roughly $395,000 per year. Combined with Bamford's own salary of $830,473 (even higher when you include incentives), we're paying well over $1.2 million annually for two administrators to oversee a winless football team.

Think about that. Over $1.2 million dollars a year in administrative salaries alone, and we can't win a single game.

UMass Has Become a Revolving Door of Coaches Set Up to Fail

Bamford has hired and fired three different head football coaches in ten years. Each time, he's blamed the coach. But here's the real issue: these coaches were set up to fail from day one.

As an FBS Independent, the AD is responsible for scheduling games. And what does Bamford do? He books games against powerhouses like Missouri, Georgia, and Mississippi State for a program with one of the smallest budgets in FBS. It's like sending a high school team to play the pros and then acting surprised when they lose.

Even worse, he fired two UMass coaching legends: Mark Whipple and Don Brown. These coaches were brought in specifically to engage, excite, and build support with the alumni base. There were noticeable sparks showing that it was working. Hiring these coaches started to bring back the alumni and gave the program a real sense of direction. But Bamford fired them both anyway, creating massive friction with alumni and in some cases diminishing the program altogether.

The timing of Don Brown's firing was particularly destructive. Bamford fired him on November 18, 2024, right before UMass played Georgia on the national stage, and the year before UMass was set to enter the MAC, a conference that Brown himself played a large factor in helping the university get into. Then he hired Joe Harasymiak with virtually no time to build a competitive team.

The impact was devastating. The early signing period had already begun when Harasymiak was announced, leaving him with just days to secure commitments. UMass had no staff led offers or visits in place under Brown, so Harasymiak's team had to scramble to salvage verbal commitments with quick pitches. The result? Only 5 additional high school signees were added during the February 5, 2025 National Letter of Intent signing day. The 2025 freshman class totaled around 21 high school recruits by December 2025, still modest compared to programs that had a full recruiting cycle.

The firing triggered immediate chaos. Seven players entered the transfer portal on opening day (December 9), creating massive depth issues. Harasymiak described the first weeks as "wild" and "nonstop," involving "difficult conversations" with returning players just to keep the "believers" on board. Without time for in person evaluations or relationship building, recruits decommitted or flipped to other programs, directly contributing to the talent gaps that led to the 0 and 12 season.

Harasymiak couldn't even finalize his coaching staff until mid January 2025, and off field recruiting staff additions didn't come until early May 2025. This slowed personalized outreach and forced reliance on his prior networks rather than building a UMass specific pipeline. In other words, Bamford set up yet another coach to fail before he even had a chance to succeed.

How Athletic Failure Hurts the Entire University

The damage doesn't stop at the athletic department. UMass is the flagship public university of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but our athletic dysfunction is dragging down the entire institution's reputation on the national and world stage.

We have so much to be proud of, but it's being overshadowed. Since 2015, 13 of our varsity programs (62% of our teams, excluding football) have won Atlantic 10 conference team or individual championships. Eight teams earned NCAA tournament bids since 2020 and 2021, including back to back Hockey East titles. Our women's basketball program has been a standout success story, consistently competing at a high level and representing UMass with excellence. Meanwhile, our university has achieved remarkable scientific breakthroughs in recent years: groundbreaking research in polymer science, advances in immunology and vaccine development, and cutting edge work in renewable energy and climate science that puts us at the forefront of innovation.

But football's struggles overshadow these achievements. When prospective students, faculty, donors, and researchers look at UMass, they see a university that can't manage its most visible program. Athletic success (or catastrophic failure) shapes public perception of academic quality, institutional competence, and overall prestige. A decade of losses sends a message: this university can't compete, can't organize, can't lead.

This matters for recruitment and retention across the board. High achieving students want to attend schools they can be proud of. Faculty members consider institutional reputation when choosing where to build their careers. Alumni engagement and giving (which supports academic programs, scholarships, and research) is directly tied to pride in the university. When the athletic department becomes a punchline, it erodes that pride and weakens the entire UMass community.

And here's the kicker: athletic department failures can threaten funding and support for other sports programs. When football hemorrhages money and goodwill without any plan for success, it puts pressure on the entire athletic budget. Our successful programs (hockey, women's basketball, soccer, and others) shouldn't have to fight for resources and recognition while being overshadowed by mismanagement at the top. These teams and our world class research deserve to be the story, not footnotes buried beneath football's failures.

Proof That Success Is Possible

We're also competing with other state flagships like UConn, URI, and UNH, and we're losing that battle too. UConn just finished their 2025 season with a 9 and 3 record, building on their 2024 success and proving they're a program on the rise with renewed excitement among their fans. They're doing this as an FBS Independent, just like UMass, proving that success is possible for a Northeast program even without conference affiliation.

Even more striking is the success of James Madison University. Like UMass, JMU was a competitor in the FCS. They transitioned to FBS in 2022, just ten years after UMass made the same move. In their 2025 season, JMU finished 12 and 1, won the Sun Belt Conference championship, and earned a spot in the College Football Playoff as the No. 12 seed. That's right, a program that moved to FBS three years ago is already competing in the playoff, while UMass just completed its first winless season in program history.

JMU's rapid success proves that the transition from FCS to competitive FBS football is absolutely possible with the right leadership, vision, and execution. While our peers invest strategically and see results, we're stuck in an endless cycle of dysfunction that makes Massachusetts look like it can't support a competitive flagship university. That's unacceptable for the Commonwealth's premier public institution.

Why I'm Speaking Up

I played on the UMass Football team from 1996 to 2001. I was part of the national championship team and two conference championship teams. I've been a season ticket holder for many years, and I looked forward to watching UMass compete each season. My entire family has supported this program far beyond my signature on a roster. Being a Minuteman is part of who I am.

The last 12 years have been nothing short of "kicking the can" down the road with broken visions of a competitive future, facility upgrades, NIL funding, and alignment with fans, alumni, students, and political support. I am beyond tired of Ryan Bamford's same old playbook.

While I still watch the games each week, I (like many others) have canceled my season tickets and paused any future donations until real change is made. I used to be proud to say I played for UMass. Now I have to follow up with "Oh, back when we were good."

I can't even imagine what it's like to be a student at UMass right now. Three graduating classes have come out of this university without a single winning season. Think about that. Students who enrolled as freshmen in 2021 will graduate in 2025 having never experienced a winning football season.

UMass is the Flagship University in Massachusetts. I think it's time we start acting like it again.

Enough Is Enough

We've been patient. We've given it time. Ten years is more than enough time to show results, or at least show progress. Instead, we have empty stadiums, alienated alumni, and a broken culture.

We're calling on the UMass Board of Trustees, UMass President Marty Meehan, and Chancellor Javier Reyes to remove Ryan Bamford as Athletic Director.

UMass Athletics can't move forward until we have leadership that respects our history, engages our community, and has an actual plan for success. That starts with making a change at the top.

If you believe UMass deserves better, sign this petition. It's time for accountability. It's time for change.