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.
Vad Lee was a beast on the field for JMU last year. We all know this. He not only led the Dukes back to the playoffs, he set school records for passing yards, completions, passing touchdowns, and total offense. Which makes it all the more impressive that he might be having a greater impact off the field.
Lee and his former high school football teammate Myer Krah have both been fortunate to play football in college. Lee at JMU obviously, and Krah at the Naval Academy. After winning a North Carolina state championship together at Hillside High School in Durham in 2010, the two decided they wanted to give something back to their community. They collaborated with their former coach, to create the “All in Scholarship.” They started in 2013 by raising $500 that was awarded as a scholarship to a Hillside graduate who used the money to attend Elizabeth State University. The amount awarded has doubled each year, so that this year two $1,000 scholarships were offered to individual graduates attending UNC and Campbell.
In addition to creating the scholarship, Lee and Krah have also created the “All In Reunion” that brings back former Hillside players for a celebration. It’s sounds like a great event that really has a positive impact on the community. You can read all about it here. It’s definitely worth your time and will give you yet another reason to be proud Vad Lee is a Duke.
14. James, 13. Montana State, 12. Liberty, 11. Northern Iowa, 10. Youngstown State, 9. New Hampshire, 8. Chattanooga, 7. Coastal Carolina ..
— Craig Haley (@CraigHaley) May 26, 2015
It’s still May (and only 99 days until JMU football season), but the preseason predictions are starting to officially roll out. Or in this case, be revealed via Twitter. Craig Haley is the man in charge of Athlon’s FCS Top 25 Poll which will be published in this year’s college preview magazine. Earlier this week he gave fans a sneak peak at his rankings. The “James” you see in the tweet above, refers to our lovely alma mater, James Madison University. Haley has the Dukes picked 14th.
North Dakota State is Haley’s deserved and obvious number one pick at this point. JMU was one of four CAA Football teams to land in the Top 20. Villanova, New Hampshire, and Richmond were ranked 5th, 8th, and 20th respectively. The Dukes are set up pretty well schedule wise, avoiding New Hampshire and getting both the Wildcats and Ticks at home.
The Dukes will be breaking in new coordinators on both sides of the ball, but have one of the top QB’s in the nation in Vad Lee. Preseason polls are notoriously flaky (yet still fun!), but a top 15 ranking for JMU seems about right. JMU got rolling last year and had a stretch where it was playing like a true contender. A disappointing playoff loss to Liberty ended things and revealed that the Dukes weren’t quite at the level we as fans had hoped however. With Lee coming back and the entire team a little more settled into the Everett Withers regime, this could be the year for a deep playoff run. Go James!
It was a bad day for FIFA. Fourteen officials from international soccer’s governing body were arrested on corruption charges by the US Department of Justice. Seeing as how the United States is now treating FIFA as a criminal organization like the mafia, you’d forgive any corporation that had poured millions of sponsorship money into the cesspool of an institution it if it went running for the hills.
One such corporation is McDonalds. Fear not though, shareholders of the Golden Arches. Ronald, Grimace, the Hamburgler and the rest of the powers that be know just what to do. They’re not rushing to judgment or making any hasty decisions. They’re taking a page out of the JMU administration’s book and “monitoring the situation.” Very closely to be precise.
I see no way this strategy won’t work. There is zero downside. Unless of course you consider thousands of people a few dozen folks collaborating to objectively analyze the situation and formulate a cogent plan to effect change spending years bitching about it on message boards, to be downside. I mean if that’s downside, then the precedent set by JMU’s experience means that Mickey D’s is hosed.
As our eleven long-time readers know, we’ve always had fun following JMU athletes into the professional ranks when the best of them were able to continue their careers beyond the ‘Burg. And as most of you know, with the possible exception of Arthur Moats, there’s probably no former Duke we’ve enjoyed following more than C.J. Sapong in MLS. From his rocket-ship rookie year that led to Rookie of the Year Honors with Kansas City, through some battles for playing time, and right on to his move to the Philly Union this year, as huge soccer fans, we’ve always been thrilled to follow C.J.’s career. He’s always been a positive voice on social media and a big JMU supporter (and occasionally even a JMUSB supporter!). So it was with quite a bit of disappointment and concern that we read of his DUI arrest a few weeks back. But as we all know, life is often about what you do when given a second chance. Following his suspension and after completing the MLS’s Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program, C.J. rejoined his Union teammates this weekend and did this:
Needless to say, the lessons learned and the redemption were hopefully extra sweet and Sapong appears to be doing and saying all the right things. He also scored a goal in his first game back over the weekend. We can only hope that a few other Dukes will take this kind of advantage should they be granted a second chance at some point this summer!
So we’ve entered the offseason and with no World Cup this summer, we’ll have to expand our gimmicks even beyond sports to a few of our other interests to bridge the last 100 days or so till kickoff. Barring actual news, we’ll be sustaining ourselves, and hopefully a few of our eleven readers!
Beautiful!
In honor of Letterman’s retirement, we’ll present this week’s JMUSB Summer Drinking List in Top 10 form.
10. Due South Brewing (Boynton Beach, FL) Category 3 IPA – A quality, old-school, no gimmicks IPA. The craft beer explosion took a while to overrun Florida the way it did many other states, but Due South is putting out a solid lineup of offerings and this might be the best of the bunch.
9. Maine Beer Company (Portland, ME) Lunch IPA – This really won’t be all IPA’s but this is the best lunch you’ll eat this summer!
8. Port City Brewing Company (Alexandria, VA) Optimal Wit – JMU owned. So basically they get the nod no matter what, but this is one of their best offerings and makes for a great start to a summer afternoon.
7. Champagne, Prosecco, Cava, etc. – ok, not beer but we guarantee nothing will get more people to spontaneously throw their whole day and night away and join you for some adult day-drinking like “Glass of [insert bubbly of choice here]?” to any companion during Brunch hours. Seriously, don’t sleep on this.
6. Appalachian Mountain Brewery (Boone, NC – Sun Belt baby!) Long Leaf Pine IPA – 16 oz. cans really are the perfect summer delivery system for good beer. Preferably pulled out ice after some quality cooler rustlin’ and consumed near an open flame. I really wanted to mock this beer for it’s blatant pandering to state pride, but it’s just damned good and these guys and gals are trying doing some cool things with a portion of their profits.
5. Founders Brewing (Grand Rapids, MI) Ok, we’re back to IPA’s but we both really appreciate the fact so many breweries are putting out these lower ABV Session IPA’s. Old Guys everywhere rejoice at this style! Hey, we can stay awake. Founders was one of the first to start really distributing this style and this remains one of the best.
4. Ballast Point Brewing Company (San Diego, CA) Even Keel Session IPA – this is a very low ABV (3.8%) that will keep you true to its name all-BBQ long while still giving you something tasty to nip at.
3. Funky Buddha Brewery (Oakland Park, FL) Floridian Hefeweizen – just an absolutely perfect beach beer from one of the coolest breweries I’ve ever seen.
2. Deep River Brewing Company (Clayton, NC w/ an assist from Tyler’s Taproom) Bitter Unicorn Tears IPL – This is a fantastic version of the newly popular India Pale Lager. Hoppy, but crisp, and a bit higher ABV than you even realize, this is the beer I discovered when I was looking for something to stock up for when the Caps and Wiz faced elimination games and I knew this was the only choice. Might as well fill a fridge now for Nats playoffs. #DCSprots
1. Ice Cold Cans of Fizzy yellow American shit beer (Milwaukee, WI) just work better in the summertime. So go for it!
Let us know your thoughts and share your other favorites in the comments. Have fun and drink responsibly (ahh, who are we kidding).
[polldaddy poll=8880855]It’s still 100+ days until football season and there isn’t much to talk about JMU sports-wise, so let’s go a little off topic. As you’re probably well aware, David Letterman ends his 33 year run as a late night tv host this evening. You’re going to read plenty of tributes to Dave that are far more poignant and well written than anything I could come up with. Or maybe you won’t read them, but there will be no shortage of options for anyone who wants to. That’s not what this is.
I’m a huge Letterman fan and am sad to see the show go. The truth is though, Dave has always struck me as a bit of a curmudgeon. It’s contributed to his humor and is part of his charm for tv viewers. I love watching Dave, but I’m not sure it would be too thrilling to be around him. Which got me thinking, would any of these late night tv hosts be fun to hang out with? Are there any of them who’d be fun to grab a beer with? Let’s decide.
We’ll stick to the current crop of late night hosts. Of course, that means the following guys.
Conan O’Brien – Whip smart guy who honed his craft as a writer on the Simpsons (he penned the monorail episode) and at the Harvard Lampoon before that. He got screwed by Leno, but rallied to become a bit of a cult favorite. He’s got an offbeat sense of humor and doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously.
Jimmy Fallon – Creative and non-offensive might be the best way to describe him. He’s a guy who definitely seems to enjoy himself and put everyone at ease. You never know with any of these folks, but he sure seems like a nice person. Part of me wonders if he’s ever “off” though, or if he’d be doing bits when you just wanted to drink a beer and relax.
Jimmy Kimmel – The other Jimmy, like Dave, seems destined to always finish second to the Tonight Show. And like Dave, that might be due to the fact that he doesn’t take a least common denominator approach to his comedy. That’s not to say that he’s super edgy, but he’s not a polished guy riffing on wacky headlines either. Also, he’s apparently a legit sports fan, so you could always talk football over beers.
John Stewart – Like Conan, he’s a super smart guy. He’s very funny and probably the most topical. He went to William & Mary though, so if you grabbed a beer with him, it might need to be in a Williamsburg deli instead of a bar.
Seth Meyers – He’s clearly still finding his rhythm as a late night talk show host. I’ve always been a big fan of his though. I think that like Conan, he might be a guy that starts slow, but evolves to be very funny in his own way. Plus, he was a former head writer at SNL so he’s probably got stories for days.
James Corden – Alright, I had to Google “Craig Ferguson’s replacement” to pull this guy’s name. He’s definitely the new kid on the block and has some work to do to make inroads here in America. I’ve only seen the show once, but I actually thought he was really fun. For the purposes of this exercise, I think he should get bonus points because I think he might actually have a beer with you if you asked. You gotta build ratings some how.
David Letterman – There’s not a lot of middle ground with Dave. You either love him, or his humor falls flat. As I mentioned, I’m firmly in the former camp. But I don’t think the curmudgeon thing is an act. He really seems like a guy best admired from afar. I’m not saying he’s a bad guy, but he’s pretty private and by most accounts is a pretty private guy who isn’t much for socializing.
Now, I know I’m never going to have a beer with any of these guys. Without over-thinking this (too late), here’s how I’d break the list down however. It’s in order of guys I’d least like to have a beer with to most. And yes, I’ll probably change the order about a million times if we were ever to discuss it in person.
7. Corden (too new, might rise with time)
6. Letterman
5. Stewart
4. Fallon
3. Meyers
2. O’Brien
1. Kimmel
Congrats on a great run!
Softball’s magical and historic season came to a tough end over the weekend when they fell in a regional JMU hosted for the first time. After splitting their first two games of the regional in tight contests against Binghamton and NC State, they fell to Fordham 2-1 in tough game beset by weather delays. The Dukes showed great fight by having to sleep on a late 2-0 deficit with only 4 outs remaining on Saturday night and come back to finish the game Sunday. The promptly rallied in the 7th when play resumed, scoring a run, putting the tying run on base, and then missing what might’ve been a season-saving extra base hit by inches down the line. But in the end it wasn’t quite enough and it’s sad to see such a wonderful season end. A program-best 48-10 record, including an undefeated mark in CAA play, and a #15 national ranking (as high as #12 in RPI) while earning the right to host JMU’s first-ever NCAA regional and drawing large, enthusiastic crowds is NOTHING at all to hang any heads over though. Congrats ladies and thanks for teaching us a thing or two about a new-for-us JMU sport this spring!
On the other diamond, the baseball team’s season, and thankfully Spanky McFarland’s run as head coach, were mercy killed while you weren’t looking and really there’s nothing to see. A once-proud program stayed more than a few seasons too long with at the ball with this regime and McFarland goes out on a dismal 18-33, 6-18 CAA season. You’d have to think just about anything will be better than that moving forward.
And just like that, the silly season here at JMUSB begins. With the exception of a few track athletes that we’ll be hoping have exceptional performances at NCAA’s in two weeks, JMU’s 2014-15 year in sports is over. That means we’ll be moving on to jokes, gimmicks, big-picture posts (mainly lamenting another lost year in conference news), and getting excited over the plans for the new arena (we’re going to resist the “new Convo” label because the Convo was always a bush-league name to begin with). And in case you were wondering: 110 days till football season.
After years of anticipation, it finally happened. There will be no more whining about JMU’s place in the CAA or praying for an FBS league to come calling. This afternoon, we received the email from JMU officially announcing the invitation to the MAC! Only it wasn’t the MAC. It was just MAC, the Madison Alumni Conference (sad trombone).
Sweet choice of acronym guys. Here’s a pro tip for the powers that be at JMU. If you ever dream up events like the Alumni Collaboration Consortium or the Student’s Education Council, spell things out in the email invitations. Please.
This is a guest post by NCAA softball expert @BHansen40. In it he breaks down JMU’s opponents in the opening round of the NCAA Softball College World Series.
The postseason is coming to Harrisonburg this week as the NCAA selection committee rewarded JMU with an NCAA regional, despite coming up short in the Colonial Athletic Association. Ironically, the three teams making the trip to the ‘Burg, North Carolina State, Fordham and Binghamton, are familiar with each having played one another in the NC State Invitational in Raleigh earlier this season. read more…
