HAMILTON, N.Y. – What a mess.

It probably should not have come as a surprise to anyone that Saturday’s Division I-AA first round playoff game at Colgate University’s Andy Kerr Field was played in conditions similar to those that wiped out the dinosaurs, because there was no question that the contest was doomed from the start.

Ever since the nice folks on the I-AA selection committee decided the only way they could make sure chairman Wayne Hogan’s Montana Grizzlies would be playing in front of Grizzly Nation was to deny the Minutemen the home game they earned, UMass fans have had an uneasy feeling in their guts.

So while 9-3 Montana hosted Western Illinois despite having allegedly lost to cross-town rival Missoula (Mont.) High School, the 10-2 Fighting Minutemen were busy putting their lives on the line trying to navigate their way through the land of lake-effect snow and little else just to arrive at their first-round date.

Does that sound like the life of a conference champion? I think not.

Regardless, there was still a football game to play, yet therein lies the problem for those who follow the Maroon and White. Despite being victimized by administrators, the weather and a near-death experience, the white-on-white Minutemen not only had a legitimate chance to down the Raiders, they should have handily beaten the Patriot League champions had the game been played on anything but four inches of snow and mud.

Call me partisan, jaded or a homer, but in the opinion of a writer who has witnessed every snap of the 2003 season, the Minutemen are superior to the toothpaste crew in every single facet of the game.

Don’t believe me? In looking at the final statistics, UMass bested the ‘Gate in total yards, rushing 38 times for 100 yards in Siberia, and coming one square out short of equaling the Raiders’ air yardage.

So call me a complainer, a whiner or whatever. Sure, I’m required to be impartial, and I think I’ve done a decent enough job of it all season long despite covering a team of whom I will admit I am a diehard fan. But this is my 100 percent, totally honest, impartial, journalistic, I-know-I’m-right opinion of what I saw through the foggy windows of the Kerr Stadium Press Box (which, if I may add, is the lone impressive aspect of the entire Colgate athletic facility), and let me tell you, it’s frustrating.

Needless to say, the 2003 campaign was a great one despite its sour ending, and these Minutemen have a lot to be proud of. In a matter of weeks, they will likely find out their future in regards to a move to Division I-A, and in case you didn’t recognize Colin Stoetzel in the picture that dominated the Boston Globe’s Sunday sports section, word is getting out about how good this program truly is.

Still, I won’t deny that this loss really hurts. For the first time since the semester began, there will be no Minuteman football this Saturday, and that will take some getting used to. But before we know it, August will be here and a new Day will dawn in Amherst, one loaded with the nation’s premier backfield, and all memory of what was truly a snow job will (hopefully) be forgotten.

Mike Marzelli is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].