Conference Announcement Coming Soon? Who Knows
First, let’s begin Friday with some actual sports news. Softball has made it to the championship round against Hofstra out on the Island today. Game 1 is at 1 p.m. and JMU has to win two to win it as they enter with a loss while Hofstra is undefeated in the double-elimination format. Now that they’ve made the finals against the top seed, there’s at least a reasonable chance that the second seeded Dukes, who have been on the fringes of the Top 25 all year, could earn an at-large bid to the women’s NCAA tourney, but I’m sure they’d agree punching their automatic ticket with a big (and last?) CAA trophy would be a lot better way to go. Good luck ladies!
But we also wanted to take this Friday in mid-May to throw another log on the conference realignment fire. We’ve tried to avoid this the last few weeks as this topic only incites riotous, baseless, and largely inappropriate behavior from the hardcore fans while simultaneously boring, confusing, and alienating many casual Dukes fans. I’m certainly guilty of some of this misguided anger, while Rob usually takes a more mature long view of the whole situation. That said, there are a couple of dates coming up that could be turning points for a decision that are worth mentioning no matter how much the administration says they are waiting for the full study from the consultants to be completed. We’re not experts on either of these and surely you all can fact check us in the comments, but this is our understanding:
June 1 – This seems to be the date that if you’re still in FCS on this date, you are eligible for the FCS Football playoffs the following fall even if you announce a move to FBS so long as any additional scholarship players you may add beyond the FCS limit do not play. This is what happened with ODU last year. Though the CAA made a conference decision to enforce their “not eligible for CAA titles while transitioning” rule, thus preventing ODU from claiming the official CAA football crown, the Monarchs were eligible from an NCAA standpoint for an at-large bid which they earned easily. Not sure how much sway this has in any decision JMU may make, but you can bet Mickey is rightfully lobbying hard for this scenario and it certainly would be nice to have at least one sport (and the most visible) that isn’t frozen out during any transition period.
July 1 – This seems to be the date that if you haven’t announced a move and transition, you are frozen out from making any move till the following year. In other words, June 30 is the end of the NCAA year so if no decision comes by then, JMU would not be making any moves till the 2015-16 year. That said, this also seems to be the date the CAA is scheduled to make a distribution of a good chunk of the money it’s been hoarding from the NCAA tourney runs the last few years (including that forfeited by VCU when they left) and the exit fees from those smarter schools that have already left. You can bet the coinciding dates are no accident and you certainly can’t blame the CAA for setting it up this way, but it obviously puts JMU in a quandary.
What it means? Who knows, but our guess is if nothing happens by July 1, nothing is going to happen till late spring 2014 and we’ll get back to monitoring the situation. That said, JMU’s been on there own at times apparently directionless course in this regard before, so we’ll just get our popcorn ready. And after all, this decision is about the long-term direction of JMU Athletics, and to at least some extent JMU as a whole, and making the best decision possible is the most important factor.
We’re definitely looking forward to hearing if there’s anything to be gleaned at next week’s Coaches Caravan event. (Though we doubt we’ll hear anything but “we don’t know” from Mickey and Brady and we’re just guessing there’s no Jeff Bourne w/in a hundred miles of these events this year)
I know, I know. There/their. Damn damn damn. Ugh.
I’ll bet that the saga of the “Bourne Complacency” will continue!
Inaction = Incompetence.
#tiredofinaction #donedonating #bethechangereally?
I agree with Toby. Until they finish “monitoring the situation”, they are not getting a dime from me. I wouldn’t want to distract them.
So assuming you guys who “aren’t giving a dime” don’t have priority football season tickets to renew?
Well, I have priority season tickets for football…
I just renewed for the 2013 season…and I DON’T KNOW WHY.
I bet JMU will give (if they haven’t already) the Sun Belt the message, “Thanks, but no thanks”, in hopes of an outside chance that C-USA expands to 16 football member schools. If they do, they need to select 2 additional schools, one of which is highly likely to be Louisiana-Lafayette because their loyal fanbase will help shore up the loss of Tulane and the New Orleans market. The 16th member spot will be up for grabs, and while ODU’s Selig appears to be a great reference and supporter of JMU.
I think C-USA would be the best option.
If NOT C-USA, I would take the Sun Belt over the MAC.
Granted the Sun Belt is not in JMU’s student/alumni geographic base (VA, MD, DC, DE, PA, NJ, NY) but then again — what conference lies in that geography?? The Big 10, the ACC, the AAC — well we’re not getting in there!
I’m not sure where JMU Officials thought they were going when they spent 62 million on a new football stadium. I sometimes think that they had delusions of grandeur and thought they had a shot of getting into the post Virginia Tech Big East (supplanting Villanova with a shiny new stadium).
Any school that spends 62 million on a new stadium with room to grow is SERIOUS about football. Aside from Penn State, JMU’s student/alumni geography isn’t exactly at the top of the college football fanbase.
(Can anybody tell me last time, Pitt, Temple, Rutgers, Syracuse, Maryland had a huge sellout??)
JMU can do a lot worse than having App State as a travel partner.
Games against the GSU’s & Troy wouldn’t be too bad either.
It beats traveling to Maine, NH, Akron, NIU, etc in November!
I don’t see how the MAC could be any better?
I am sure Jeff will be on fact finding missions!
Regarding giving & tickets, I pride myself on staying focused on the big picture and not getting too worked up over conference re-alignment rumors. However, I had the season tix renewal page up all afternoon and couldn’t bring myself to hit the button to process my payment until I was on my way out the door. And unlike in past years, renewing didn’t get me excited for the season. I actually had a little bit of buyer’s remorse. I hope I feel bad about that looking back months from now.
the mac is ok; good hoops and good football on a fairly consistent basis. plus i can get to several schools in less than 5 hours….
With you Rob.
11th Year of Season Tix here – some years that button is harder to click than others.
From my perspective, 11 years is a pretty good sample size. Sure, there are better years than others in the record books but I’ve never had buyer’s remorse once I’m sitting in P-Lot, Godwin Field, etc., drinking a beer or bourbon with buddies/friends/kids/wives.
2004 and 2008 were memorable in the stands but looking back, I can’t tell you any of those years were better or worse than others, there were some great Saturdays in all of them.
I don’t blindly agree with everything going on and the decisions being made but JMU still manages to put together a pretty damn good product on and off the field every year. Until that stops, I’ll probably keep hitting the button.
Conference Announcement coming soon??? NOPE!!!
Definitely NOT from Conference USA.
Apparently Marshall doesn’t want us there & ODU probably no longer sees it in their best interests to have us in as well.
READ:
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x1430512008/No-news-of-C-USA-expansion-a-positive
Hello…Sun Belt? You still there???