A Little National Discussion of “The James Madison Question”

The last great one remaining from the VT game.

First, some no strings-attached good news on this mid-summer weekend.  As expected,  JMU Senior Linebacker Stephon Robertson was announced as part of the preseason watch list for the Buck Buchanan Award given annually to the best defensive player at the FCS level.  He finished 8th overall and was second among underclassmen last year so his inclusion on the watch list was anticipated and he’ll have a great shot this year.  Though we’re guessing NFL scouts will agree with us that he truly a rare talent at this level, his success may be tied to the team’s performance more than most.  This award seems to go to one of two categories.  Either a player who racks up insane stats in a weak conference or a the best defensive player on one of the very top teams.  An unranked Dukes team from the CAA makes landing in either of those categories difficult, but if anyone can do it, we’d bet on Robertson! (and of course we hope that means JMU will surprise everyone this year and rocket up the polls)

Second, we’ve been quieter than usual on angst-producing posts the last month or so.  Mostly due to alternating vacations and summer malaise, but also because we’re trying to stay calm on the realignment issues (and personally I’m trying, and mostly failing, to gain a little of Rob’s more mature perspective on these things).  That said, when a fairly well-known and respected member of the media that cover college athletics writes about something he labels “The James Madison question” we feel obligated to make sure our readers have seen it.  Doesn’t happen often, but this week ESPN’s Andy Katz penned a piece primarily discussing how many conference’s are coming the realization that 10 is a great number of members from a hoops perspective.  But amidst the “full round-robin schedule” love for the hoops teams was quite a bit of CAA, and specifically James Madison discussion.  We encourage you to read the entire article for what is there and what’s between the lines.  Katz doesn’t necessarily know any more than all of us do, but he’s definitely plugged into the college athletics scene, ESPN’s willing to let this speculation roll, and he is the guy who started leaking the ODU to CUSA news last year a few weeks before it was official.

Overall, there’s really nothing new here.  While I chose to boo CAA Commish Tom Yeager’s statement that “I’m not too concerned at this point” on Twitter regarding the chances of JMU leaving, the truth is what the hell else is he going to say?  Hopefully JMU’s NOT sharing any decisions with him and he has ZERO input anyways and he’s not going to come out and say, “yeah, we’re really nervous we’re going to be further decimated by losing one of our last flagship members.”

Another thing we found interesting is that Katz phrased JMU’s quandary as “James Madison is figuring out what to do with football.”  In other words, Katz at least suggests that the Dukes could make a football only move.  Strange as it sounds since we haven’t previously advocated for that, at this point that would really sound like a pretty good move.  The truth is, I think most fans would even come around to a Sun Belt or MAC move rather quickly if it was football only.  Hoops, with this great group of underclassmen, wouldn’t even have to suffer through a year of postseason ineligibility.

Finally, Katz states as follows: “What’s next in realignment? The James Madison question will need to be answered…”  Probably shouldn’t read into it, but at least he seems to think JMU really is the next domino to fall in realignment nationally no matter the decision.

Who knows if he has anything, but nice to see some smoke on a national outlet for once.