Another June 1st Has Come and Gone
Well, our annual FBS/FCS post is upon us, but I need to begin with an apology. In case you didn’t know, that was clearly me (Todd) losing my friggin’ mind on Twitter about this subject on Saturday night and I owe an apology to Rob, always the more levelheaded of the two of us on this matter, for dragging him into this and screwing our generally halfway-decent reputation. But also to anyone who’s ever believed what we hoped to do when we started this project six years ago – to be a more thoughtful, less reactionary, less vitriolic landing place for JMU fans than some of our message boards – I sincerely apologize. It doesn’t mean I’m not angry about the subject. It doesn’t mean my anger isn’t fading into simple disappointment and apathy about JMU sports. But that doesn’t excuse crossing the line and I apologize.
Words I need to live better by.
Now about that anger and disappointment. Unsurprisingly another June 1st – the date for announcing conference moves – has come and gone and JMU remains #CAA4lyfe. Not to worry, as the Dukes administration will be quick to remind us, there’s always another June 1st. But with UAB’s announcement that they’ll be bringing football back, thus closing the potential opening in CUSA, that means the only spot remaining in FBS land is the SunBelt, a door JMU appears to have already slammed shut.
This was going to be a long, extended piece, but no one really cares anymore and I just don’t have the energy to rage any longer. The Dukes administration has truly institutionalized me I guess, so I’ll just stick to the high points in editorial fashion (i.e. without deep-dive links and exhaustive research you wouldn’t expect from us anyways) and move along to another exciting year in the CAA.
Revenue
-Guarantee Games – West Virginia announced last week that after this year’s game with Youngstown St. they will be discontinuing all FCS games going forward. They join Maryland (and the whole B1G for that matter) as a frequent and recent “guarantee game” sponsor for JMU that will no longer be playing these games. And yet I thought it said somewhere in the shiny new packet of complete and utter bullshit that we previously defended [link] I received last week called the JMU Athletics Strategic Plan 2015-2020 [link] that “Achieving Guarantee Game Revenue” was a key facet to JMU gaining “sustainable revenue.” Look, college football nerds will love this year’s trip to Dallas to play SMU, but if you think the Mustangs are attracting casual JMU fans the way the locals that now won’t play us do, you’re kidding yourself. Don’t say you weren’t warned when the only guarantee games left are trips to Norfolk (ODU), Boone (App. St), Atlanta (Georgia St., already rumored to be on CUSA’s shopping list after paying dues in the SunBelt), Charlotte, Myrtle (Coastal Carolina), or Lynchburg (Liberty) for us to get our ass kicked by former “rivals,” or worse, nobodies.
-G5 money – Here’s the money made by the G5 conferences (non-power) in the first year of the college football playoff per the Charlotte Observer: MWC: 20.7 M, CUSA: 15.2 M, AAC: 14.1 M, MAC: 12 M, Sun Belt: 11.5 M.
And here’s the money made by the CAA last year: Oh wait…
But don’t worry, JMU will stay competitive and I’m sure some combination of JMU officials and CAA commissioner-for-life Tom “Sepp” Yeager have a plan to deal with Cost of Attendance issues and keep up with even some other FCS schools, including in-state new rival Liberty.
-Subsidization – According to USA Today, JMU is #2 in the NATION for percentage of Athletics subsidized by student fees. Just let that sink in. Tell me one game in the last three years where there were more than 2000 students in the stands in the 4th quarter – it doesn’t exist. Now think about that ranking again. In other words, students are being forced to pay for a product they don’t give a shit about. Look, we’ve been huge apologists for this stat for years. Yes, the top of this list is littered with Virginia public schools because privates don’t have to report and Virginia has better transparency laws on this than other states (i.e. schools can’t quietly and shadily subsidize Athletics out of tuition money they way they can in most states and therefore the number is inflated), because JMU includes line items like the whole MRD’s and debt service on Bridgeforth Stadium in their “Athletics” number unlike other schools and when those are removed, as they will be in meeting Virginia’s new cap on this percentage, JMU’s percentage drops to a sort-of more defensible 60% or so, and because we hoped they had some plan for increasing revenues to combat this problem (here’s a hint, they don’t). But this is at best completely unacceptable and at worst a FIFA-esque level of graft for a product that isn’t helping the University.
Entrance/Exit Fees
When JMU’s brilliant former President Linwood “not on my watch” Rose allegedly told CUSA they could kiss his ass four years ago when ODU got the call, the cost to exit the CAA was something around say $0 and the cost to enter CUSA was $1M. Today those numbers are $1M to leave the CAA (which JMU voted for even right when GMU was leaving and they first started to realize they were in deep shit) and $2M to join CUSA, not that JMU will EVER be doing that. I don’t even need to speculate, read between the lines, or feed you bull shit to tell you that’s a failure to know what the hell was going on.
And oh yeah, what about former in-state, non-football rivals VCU and GMU you ask? Well, the Atlantic 10, their new conference, is doing just fine after sending three or more teams to the NCAA basketball tournament during EACH of the last three years individually. No how many teams the CAA has sent during that same timeframe? Three total. But don’t worry, both JMU AD Jeff Bourne and CAA Commish-for-life Sepp Yeager told the Daily News Record that the CAA is on the cusp of turning the corner and almost right back where it was before the defections.
Average Per Game Attendance Numbers at New BFS
2011: 25,002
2012: 22,783
2013: 21,011
2014: 19,816
Look, you can spin that ANY way you want and throw in a billion caveats, but the truth is the truth. Fans really clamor for that FCS gridiron action. We don’t know the Duke Club or club seat retention numbers just yet, but I don’t think we’ll need a slide rule, much less any supercomputer, to see a trend
Watered-Down FCS
Now that the MEAC and SWAC have made the very reasonable (from a survival and revenue standpoint) to abandon the FCS playoffs altogether in favor of a much more lucrative ESPN “Bowl” game type matchup to conclude their seasons, the FCS is down to something like 80 teams TOTAL who are playoff eligible (Ivy doesn’t participate). And that’s before you even begin talking about WHO those teams are (here’s a hint – less than 10 are relevant in any way and that’s generous) and of course a full 24 of them make the playoffs.
Lost Momentum
-2004 – now – I really have no words.
-What the Duke Club reps were saying in private and at Coaches Caravans? Just two years ago, everyone we heard from inside JMU Athletics and the Duke Club was saying essentially that “it’s just a matter of when, not if” about JMU finding a new conference home. The line now is all the way 180 degrees back to the end of the Rose administrations, “JMU is well positioned when the right opportunity presents itself but there’s unlikely to be anything in the near future.”
Other Schools Nearly Guaranteed to Pass JMU
Liberty, Coastal ‘fucking Carolina, Eastern goddamned Kentucky (these two are the Sun Belt’s rumored new targets), NDSU (although they are one of the two or three FCS schools that make money as-is so they may not have to).
Where that leaves us?
Us? Just Monitoring University? Who cares.
But seriously, here’s how I feel. The revenue is what matters. And the utter failure to think ahead is JMU’s own fault even if the primary person or persons responsible are no longer in charge. CAA/FCS is fine, but at the current price tag, it just isn’t. Jump up anywhere that will have you or stay but SLASH costs. If that costs us on the field, so be it. I truly don’t care if JMU wants to move up or not, but they need to own that shit either way and deal with the consequences. I for one would rather give money to truth (i.e. We don’t want to move up) even if others disagree. It’s the lying/misleading in the ask that’s destroyed the last of my patience.
I know Rob and I agree that we believe under Alger JMU really does want to move up, but the opportunity they want isn’t there. It was under Rose, but it ain’t now. And we think they simply believe the money doesn’t work out in the Sun Belt. It probably doesn’t, but neither does the status quo. Move anywhere that will have you and hope to change things/move again, or stay and cut. That’s our position.
If you made it this far, thank you.
Exactly.
At best we’re being mislead, at worse downright LIED to. All from a group that keeps asking for more and more money.
I’ve had enough. I am angry, but honestly, I mostly find myself caring less.
I go back on forth on the FCS/FBS thing, but the arguments presented here seem more like a case for dropping football than for increasing the investment and going FBS.
And I might be wrong, but other than the diehards who currently support the program, I don’t think many alums see any difference at all between the Sun Belt and CAA. Again, I could be wrong, but I think the alums who seem destined to stay away until JMU is “big time”, have unrealistic expectations and won’t come around until JMU is on the same level as VT or UVA, which ain’t ever gonna happen.
Finally, I really don’t want to be characterized as anti-FBS. I’m not. I’m just anti-constantly bitching about FCS. There are legitimate arguments to be made for FBS. I’ve run out of patience for those who instead rely on telling me why FCS is bad and leave it at that.
“I’m not. I’m just anti-constantly bitching about FCS.”
Amen. As if the Sun Belt is some holy grail where we will play football on golden unicorns and tailgate with the strength of a thousand suns.
I understand the desire to move up, but not the unbridled anger and passion a select group of internet yellers churn up. Realignment is never “done.”
Nope. Couldn’t make it though the whole thing.
Great post. I just want some actually honesty from the JMU administration. Right or wrong I just don’t believe any statement from Alger/Bourne as it relates to JMU’s athletic department. Seriously if you desire to gain ‘national’ recognition —- athletics is the front porch for JMU. Anyone reading this blog already knows all the positives about JMU and it’s academic programs. Athletics are the avenue to get ‘new’ folks engaged and excited about what is going on at JMU.
A $35 million budget for FCS/CAA football is just absurd as is a stadium like BFS.
Yeah, it is the tease that is so frustrating. I mean… I guess I’m preaching to the choir now… but it seems counter-productive to keep mentioning this move and give people’s hopes up when seemingly little to nothing is done to effectuate the move, then ask for more money to maintain the status quo… I’m with you man. I just can’t wait to see Vad and Co. on the field this fall.
JMU is FBS in terms of ticket prices, donations, and attendance.
I guess for me it comes down to value and honesty. I’m paying for an FBS product. The leadership @ JMU has used this move to drum up donations and support since the stadium design was released in 2008.
Speaking for myself (and the out of towners I know), the product isn’t keeping up with the cost. And yes, ANY FBS home schedule is more appealing to me than this year’s schedule.
KSB — agree 10000%.
I said two years ago when we did not move up ( if we REALLY did have the chance), that the music was going to stop and JMU would not have a chair. Seems as if this has come to pass. I don’t know why we had to “monitor the situation” while the ODU’s, App States, GA Southerns, and of course, Charlotte made the leap of faith. It’s the old story, the administration was looking for the perfect spot and waited too long. He who hesitates is lost, Jeff. Only way I see this happening in the next five years is if schools form another conference, or if a conference will take JMU and Delaware/Liberty/ Villanova in a package deal.
Another side to this is I wonder what the coaches are telling the recruits? All of these 3 stars we are getting either means Withers and Co. are the greatest recruiters in the world, or they are telling them we will move up.
Speaking of Withers, if JMU has a great year and there is still not an invite to FBS forthcoming I think he will be gone to an FBS school, and some of these 3 star recruits will transfer.
It is very frustrating to sit back and watch other schools make the jump and we just “monitor.”
By the way, great point about students leaving the game at halftime. If they don’t care about it why is anyone else supposed too?
Your position is shared by me! It’s time to take the first opportunity and figure things out- if we can claim that sunbelt does not make sense – what does staying in CUSA and wasting another year do for our “national branding” initiative?
I swore I’d stay out of this, because I’m really not anti-FBS, but I think several of the pro-FBS arguments lack rigor. To go or not-go is a legit and interesting debate. But there seems to be an assumption that any negative trend is tied to or caused by JMU being FCS and all will be fixed by jumping to FBS.
For instance, yes attendance is down over the past 4 years. Do we really know that it’s caused by JMU being in the CAA? Might other factors have actually caused the dip? Like for instance, the fact that the team underpeformed to such a degree that the progam’s all time winningest coach was fired. Was the drop in attendance a sign of frustration about being stuck in the FCS? Or was it due to the fact that team team was relatively disappointing? Maybe it was both. Maybe the fact that the average JMU fan can watch more games on tv or stream them online has hurt attendance. We really don’t know for certain, so let’s not assume that everyone who isn’t at Bridgeforth on Saturdays is staying at home with pitchforks in hand protesting the fact that JMU plays FCS football.
Again, I’m really not anti-FBS. I think it would be a lot of fun for me as a fan. I also think that there are legitimate arguments to be made for not making the leap.
And while I personally don’t feel lied to (or even misled) by the JMU administration, I agree with Todd that the lying/misleading is destroying my patience. I think there are a lot of people who cherry pick figures to create some mandate for an FBS move, when in reality they just want JMU to go FBS just because it would be a hell of a lot of fun for them personally. They should own that.
I agree with TOM. Withers & Co. will put a top-quality FCS product on the field this year and next. If a move to FBS does not materialize by then … EW and his solid recruits will exit.
Let’s just sit back and enjoy some winning football …
Fear not; we’re only 18-24 months (from September, 2011) away from moving up:
http://jmusportsblog.com/?p=2986
The reality is that we had an opportunity to go FBS last year via the Sun Belt and declined it. History will judge whether that was the right call, but it sure as hell isn’t looking good right now.
What I want is a straightforward statement from the administration that (1) we declined to pursue our only possibility for FBS (Sun Belt) because the administration didn’t see it as a good fit; (2) we nonetheless are very interested in other FBS options, such as MAC or CUSA; and (3) in the interim we want to be the best FCS program in the country. What’s wrong with that? Instead, we’re treated to constant denials, at best, and more typically just carefully parsed PR bullcrap successfully fed to, and regurgitated by, the Daily News-Record on the infrequent occasions in which this topic still comes up.
Does Jeff Bourne read these pages?
Rob, Thanks for your level headed responses. I really think that your position is shared by a majority of alumni. One of the problems with our 24 hour “news” cycle and blogs is the need to talk about things that are not really news because we need to talk about something. I am just tired of talking about this until something actually happens.
I would much rather hear if anyone knows anything about the JUCO player (Shakir Brown) who is transferring to JMU. That actually is news.
Ok, so I want to give a student’s perspective. First of all, yes I stay at most of the games, full game through and care about the team as much as you (Hell, probably more, because of the tuition hikes since you guys were in school).
Second, the average attendance was around 22,000 if you factor out the Thanksgiving game vs. Elon. Previously I said I attended most of the games, and this was the only home game I didn’t attend. Why? I, along with the 6,000+ other students who usually come to the games, wanted to go home and see my family for the one week of the whole semester I could. I do believe that the lack of quality opponents on the field might factor into it. Face it, Harrisonburg is in the middle of nowhere, and not much people want to venture into the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains to see a game where JMU is guaranteed to smash the living hell out of lowly Elon, whom barely anyone in the area has connection to. VT played UVA that weekend too, and sure, Blacksburg is also in the middle of nowhere, but it’s a storied rivalry with a big name and an annual game that people want to see. If we are talking about a move to Conference USA, or even FBS for that matter, play ODU in every Thanksgiving weekend like VT-UVA, and I’ll guarantee wide interest in the game. Rivalries keep people in the seats when it matters.
If I have any other thoughts, I’ll comment later.
Also, JMU needs to sell some cheap, shitty beer at BFS. That’s what the Juniors/Seniors are leaving to do anyways. Put some Natty Lights in the hands of the upperclassmen and the alumni, and they’ll probably stick around.
Within 4 years, JMU athletics went from exciting, to anticipation, to angry and frustrated, to being a joke. Such a downward spiral that seems to have no bottom.
I’m late to the party it seems, but I wanted to chime in anyways. Attendance is down big time in FBS too, so it’s not just FCS land that’s feeling that hurt. I also agree with the mediocre product of the past few years hurting attendance. The switch from MM came a bit late to save that, and fans this past year (myself include) were hesitant to get back on the train with full confidence. There is a lot more energy and excitement about the program, you could feel it at the playoff game (despite a smaller than preferred crowd). Again, continuing to put a fun and successful product on the field will help turn that around. Those last few MM years were very frustrating and very rough.
To some degree I’m think they might be testing the waters with this era. If Withers and co. can revive pre mediocre years interest in the program with some playoff runs they might be more inclined to risk a jump. Realignment is never done, and I still feel that with the P5 conferences trying to distance themselves more and more we might see a “new” FCS with the best current FCS programs and the lower-tier FBS programs.
Kyle, you may be right about the FCS/FBS change. The P5 conferences have become powerful and not willing to share. You may find that the P5 conferences will be treating the lower tier FBS teams like they have treated FCS teams…only playing them at home…no more home and home series. This makes a move to FBS much less appealing.
I have never been so disappointed that I am now with any organization. The JMU administration, in the area of conference affiliation, is an embarrassment. Sorry, but waiting for all the moons in the universe to align is now how to run an organization. This administration needs to grow a pair and take some risk.
Completely agree, Mike. I have lost all faith in this administration’s ability to lead and make tough decisions. JMU has utterly failed in this regard. It’s an absolute shame.