UMass rebuilt almost its entire roster after a 0-12 disaster. Bowling Green survived a coaching change and a portal exodus of its own. Neither team has anything to prove nationally, but somebody's going to feel a lot better about the offseason after this one.
Bush’s Picks
MASSBGSU
MASSBGSU
OverUnder
Best BetBowling Green
Bowling Green has won every meeting in this series and just throttled UMass 45-14 last time out, and the Falcons kept more continuity on defense than UMass kept anywhere on its roster. UMass's turnaround hinges on a transfer QB who's never taken a snap in this uniform, which is a lot to lean on against a team that's owned this matchup. Backing the home side here is about program stability, not talent gap.
Massachusetts
+Joined MAC full-time, fresh start for program
+Brought in transfer QB Pop Watson from Virginia Tech
+Returns Griffin, Gray and Dowling on offense
−Finished 0-12 in 2025, winless season
−Nearly entire two-deep turned over via portal
−0-5 all-time against Bowling Green
Bowling Green
+Leads all-time series 5-0
+Beat UMass 45-14 in last meeting
+Defensive continuity in George, White, Bradley, Pringle
−Finished 4-8 in 2025 under new coach
−Lost 30-plus players to transfer portal
−QB situation still being solved via portal
This one closes out the 2026 regular season the same way 2025 did: Bowling Green and UMass, same building block of the MAC schedule, same low stakes on paper. The Falcons have won every single meeting in this series, and last year's edition wasn't close — a 45-14 beatdown in Amherst that put an exclamation point on a winless UMass season. Both programs spent the offseason trying to make sure that doesn't happen again, just from very different starting points.
UMass basically started over. Head coach Joe Harasymiak brought in roughly 27 transfers and signed 21 recruits in one of the program's best classes on record, and the headline addition is Virginia Tech transfer QB Pop Watson, who's penciled in as the starter after reportedly building chemistry with a new offensive coordinator this spring. RB Rocko Griffin, WR Donnie Gray and TE Max Dowling are still around to catch and carry the ball for him. It's a lot of new pieces asked to erase a 16-game losing streak in a hurry.
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MASS Massachusetts
BGSU Bowling Green
Bowling Green isn't exactly stable either. Eddie George's second season follows a 4-8 debut after Scot Loeffler bolted for the Eagles' staff, and the Falcons lost over 30 players to the portal this winter — bad enough that one BG outlet called the roster "ravaged and gutted." What George kept is mostly on defense: Eriq George, Dalyn White, Myles Bradley and Dorian Pringle, who's back from a torn ACL, give the front seven some actual continuity while the offense gets patched together again.
Massachusetts Minutemen
Nov 17?vs Akron—
Nov 10?@ Toledo—
Nov 3?vs Ball State—
Oct 23?@ UConn—
Oct 16?@ Buffalo—
Oct 9?vs Miami (OH)—
Oct 2?vs Eastern Michigan—
Sep 25?@ Sacramento State—
Sep 19?vs Stonehill—
Sep 12?vs Sacred Heart—
Sep 3?@ Rutgers—
Bowling Green Falcons
Nov 20?@ Toledo—
Nov 10?vs Kent State—
Oct 31?@ Western Michigan—
Oct 16?vs Ball State—
Oct 9?vs Sacramento State—
Oct 2?@ Miami (OH)—
Sep 25?vs South Florida—
Sep 19?@ Iowa State—
Sep 12?@ Nebraska—
Sep 5?vs Tarleton State—
Recent form.
The series history is lopsided enough that it's worth remembering these two programs have produced some absurd offensive numbers when they've met — Bowling Green once put up 725 yards in this matchup. That's not who either team is right now, with both sides breaking in new quarterback rooms, but it's a reminder this game can get out of hand in either direction once someone's defense cracks.
Neither team is playing for a division title or a marquee bowl bid here — this reads like two rebuilding rosters trying to find out who they are by the time Week 14 rolls around. For UMass, it's about proving the portal spend and a new QB actually translate to wins. For Bowling Green, it's about not letting last year's 4-8 turn into something worse while the roster keeps churning.
