Central Florida, UMass will be UMaine football team’s next FBS opponents

The University of Maine football team will again play two Football Bowl Subdivision teams next season as the Black Bears will travel to play the University of Central Florida at Bright House Networks Stadium in Orlando on Sept. 30 and the University of Massachusetts at McGuirk Stadium in Amherst on Nov. 11.

UMaine will receive a $350,000 guarantee from UCF and $250,000 from UMass, according to UMaine Sports Information Director Tyson McHatten.

It will be the third-straight season the Black Bears will play two FBS teams.

UMaine lost to the University of Connecticut 24-21 and Toledo 45-3 earlier this season.

UMaine is one of the few Football Championship Subdivision teams that plays two FBS opponents.

“It’s obviously something the kids and the coaches look forward to,” said UMaine head coach Joe Harasymiak. “I don’t think it’s ideal to play two FBS teams but it’s something we need to do. The guarantees are the deciding factor. We’re going to play the games at different times of the year so we’ll see how that goes.

“It’ll be nice to get to Florida and to play a familiar opponent in UMass. That will be a bus trip so that will be good and I’m sure we’ll get a lot of fans there,” he added.

UConn is in the American Athletic Conference along with UCF, and Toledo is in the Mid-American Conference where UMass used to be until they went independent this season.

In 2015, UMaine lost to Boston College 24-3 and Tulane (Louisiana) 38-7.

Central Florida had gone to three-consecutive bowl games before going 0-12 last fall. The Knights went 12-1 in 2013 and knocked off No. 5 Baylor University in the Fiesta Bowl 52-42.

They are 2-2 this season under first-year head coach Scott Frost, a former offensive coordinator at the University of Oregon. Their two losses have come to Michigan (51-14) and Maryland (30-24 in double overtime), which are both undefeated.

Michigan is the No. 4 team in the country in the latest Associated Press poll.

UMaine is 0-2 all-time against Central Florida, losing in 1995 and 1994.

UMass is 1-3 this season with a win over Florida International (21-13) and losses to Florida (24-7), Boston College (26-7) and Mississippi State (47-35).

UMaine and UMass are former Yankee Conference and Colonial Athletic Association rivals.

UMass leads the series 41-16-1, but UMaine won the last meeting in 2013 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, 24-14. It was UMaine’s second-ever victory over a FBS school. The Black Bears had beaten Mississippi State 9-7 in 2004.

The Minutemen were 3-9 last year and 4-9 in 2014.