Coach Jack Cosgrove and his staff have worked diligently trying to keep the University of Maine football program perennially competitive in the Colonial Athletic Association.
That challenge likely will be a little more difficult for the foreseeable future.
UMaine on Tuesday released its 2015 schedule, one that includes two games against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents. The Black Bears, of the Football Championship Subdivision, will open their season with consecutive games against FBS teams.
UMaine kicks off the campaign with a Sept. 5 game at Atlantic Coast Conference member Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, then heads for New Orleans after a bye week to take on Tulane of the American Athletic Conference.
The perks of playing a higher-level opponent in front of a large crowd at a big-time facility are obvious for the student-athletes.
“It presents the challenge of playing those teams and raising the aspirations of the young people on our football team,” said Cosgrove, whose team went 5-6 in 2014. “How they handle everything is how I read them and when we talked about this, it was a group that was genuinely excited about opening up the season with two FBS teams.”
The biggest benefit for the university in taking on FBS opponents is the financial reward. UMaine athletics director Karlton Creech said the department will bring in approximately $750,000 in guarantees for playing Boston College and Tulane.
It is a trend that is likely to continue.
“As long as it remains an option, I’m going to really look hard at two FBS games every year,” Creech said on Tuesday.
“The money associated with those games helps us with our budget each year,” he said. “We’re not going to do anything to put our program at a serious disadvantage, but it gets our brand around the country and it gives us a presence from a marketing standpoint.”
For the last 11 years, UMaine has matched up once per year (twice in 2013) against an FBS opponent from some of the nation’s larger conferences. The Black Bears are 2-10 in those games, the victories coming at Mississippi State in 2004 and against Massachusetts in 2013.
Last September, UMaine played at Boston College for the second time in three years and lost 40-10.
Cosgrove, who works with Creech on football scheduling, said playing FBS opponents remains part of UMaine’s philosophy.
“At this time in Maine football history, obviously the financial gain that we get from playing these games will help us in our pursuit of excellence as a program,” he said.
“It’s not something everybody’s doing, especially in an 11-game year, but looking at the landscape, Maine football has got to be more assertive than most programs,” said Cosgrove, referring to UMaine’s budget constraints.
From a competitive standpoint, there are usually a handful of games every year in which an FCS team knocks off a FBS opponent. And in spite of the challenges UMaine will face playing road games at Boston College and Tulane, Creech believes the contests are in line with the Black Bears’ big-picture goals.
“We’re not going to be favored in any of these games, but our goal is to win the CAA conference championship and position ourselves to be in the FCS playoffs and give us a chance to win an FCS championship,” Creech said.
UMaine’s 2015 schedule also includes an FCS nonconference home game against Ivy League member Yale, where former Black Bear assistants Steve Vashel, Dwayne Wilmot and Kevin Cahill are on the coaching staff.
That Oct. 17 game is among five home contests at Alfond Stadium. UMaine also will host Rhode Island (Sept. 26), Stony Brook (Oct. 24), Towson (Nov. 7) and Elon (Nov. 14) in CAA action.
The Bears’ other games are Oct. 3 at Richmond, Oct. 10 at Albany, Oct. 31 at Villanova and Nov. 21 at New Hampshire.