Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports
There is a lot of different ways a university could make their athletic departments more competitive. Some of these include trying to find the right coach for the job, building state-of-the-art facilities or finding other innovative ways to become relevant on a national stage.
All of the likely maneuvers in the journey to relevancy, however, are rooted in money — as in how much loot is a school willing to spend to compete with other programs?
It looks like the University of Massachusetts Minutemen (UMass) has set that number around $63 million, some of which is going to a new football stadium while $28.5 million of it will go to a new basketball center.
The basketball building is set to be named the “Champions Center”. Like many new arenas being built for universities, the Champions Center will serve as a building on campus in which more than just hoops will be involved. Outside of the obvious men’s and women’s basketball teams using it, there will be a slew of new workout areas, film rooms, study rooms and so much more.
The new project is slated for completion around the fall or summer of 2014, meaning it could only be a matter of time before UMass thinks they have enough fancy things to start going after top-tier recruits all around the nation.
As for the breaking of the ground, several different UMass affiliated sites are saying the foundation of the Champions Center will begin at some point during this summer. As with every university, football has taken center stage and that stadium is already under construction.
Joe is a Senior Writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @JosephNardone
