{"id":3931,"date":"2012-05-17T19:52:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T23:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=3931"},"modified":"2012-05-17T21:08:47","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T01:08:47","slug":"what-the-death-of-the-real-caa-means-for-jmu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=3931","title":{"rendered":"What the Death of the Real CAA Means for JMU"},"content":{"rendered":"

ODU formally announced they are accepting their invitation to Conference USA today.\u00a0 They will be joining in all sports except football beginning Summer 2013 and for football in 2015. Obviously this is disappointing, concerning, disturbing, and largely just plain sad for JMU fans.\u00a0 To watch a school we wouldn’t wipe our feet with academically that just started football three years ago pass us by and leave us holding our shiny new stadium (and our dicks)\u00a0just makes you feel like\u00a0some big meathead kid stole your middle-school girlfriend.<\/p>\n

There are a million JMU angles to cover from this story and we need to credit the following Twitter folks (schools they cover or are\u00a0associated with in parens)\u00a0in advance for ripping off some of today’s\u00a0best material: @BGMull<\/a> (UNCW), @defiantlydutch<\/a> (Hofstra), @caahoops<\/a>, @MarkRSelig<\/a> (JMU), @ChrisMottram<\/a> (GMU), @CAArleigh<\/a> (JMU\/CAA), @SeanDKennedy<\/a> (CAA Norfolk angle), @batogato<\/a> (W&M), @Brian_Ewart<\/a> (Nova), @Gheorghetheblog<\/a> (W&M), @FairbankDP<\/a> (ODU), @Dukie95<\/a> (JMU), @ry_hudson<\/a> (JMU), @CurtDudley<\/a> (JMU), @NUHF<\/a> (Northeastern), @D1scource<\/a>.\u00a0 Thanks to all of you for making today a little more light-hearted than it otherwise might have been.<\/p>\n

Here are the important links for your consideration:<\/p>\n

The Norfolk view of the move<\/a>.\u00a0 What this story fails to mention is that in addition to the $250,000 exit fee for the CAA, ODU is on the hook for a $2.5M entrance fee to CUSA, and you know, the added forty five or so scholarships (jump in football from FCS to FBS plus accompanying jump in women’s schollies to remain compliant with Title IX).\u00a0 So that’s really nice that ODU claims they’ve raised $3M in private donations and won’t be raising student fees, but that’s close to $5M a year increase for a fledgling program already in the hole from startup costs who plays in an ancient p.o.s. stadium with no parking and little chance of short-term expansion or increased revenue streams.\u00a0 Good Gosh!\u00a0 Bet the Virginia General Assembly’s going to be thrilled if ODU comes looking for a handout ten years from now!<\/p>\n

For reference’s sake, here’s an amazing chart\u00a0from USA Today <\/a>that breaks down the finances of 227 schools.\u00a0 That “% subsidized” column on the end represents the percentage of\u00a0that school’s athletics budget that comes from student fees.\u00a0 You will notice that the\u00a0Virginia schools\u00a0have some of the highest percentages in the\u00a0nation.\u00a0 But before you go freaking out and calling your local Tea Party\u00a0rep, you need to hear the whole story.\u00a0 As it turns out Virginia is one of the only states that doesn’t allow it’s public schools to pad their athetic budgets with money from\u00a0the university’s\u00a0general fund (i.e. tuition).\u00a0 In other states, schools just steal from their academic funds to pay for sports and don’t have to\u00a0tell anyone.\u00a0\u00a0At least at JMU\u00a0\u00a0it’s honest and transparent that thet is where your student fees are largely going.\u00a0 You can always vote with your feet by going somewhere else, but you’d be a dumbass because even after these fees, JMU is one of the best values in public higher education in the country when you compare it with the tuition at other schools (tuition, by the way, that is presumably inflated by having to unknowingly subsidize athletics).<\/p>\n

The CAA’s statement on the matter from Commissioner Tom Yeager<\/a>.\u00a0 The highlight here are that he believes the dust has finally settled for this year and the CAA can now aggressively pursue new members.\u00a0 Those rumored to be at the top of the list include Stony Brook (solid football in a solid location for growth and would please the football-only affiliate members up north), Davidson (has football and more suited academically to CAA than their current conference, but why would they leave the cushiness they enjoy in hoops?), UNC-Greensboro (no football, but would be a solid and appeasing rival for UNCW with a large enrollment in a metro area), Coastal Carolina (has football, sucks academically, would be natural rival for UNCW), and College of Charleston (not gonna happen though would make for a nice road trip occassionally).<\/p>\n

Yeager also provided the comment that led to my favorite part of the day.\u00a0 The CAA has a rule in place that when you leave the conference, you are no longer eligible for the CAA Hoops tourney.\u00a0 He stated that the remaining members would vote on whether to lift the rule for ODU for this year because ODU requested they be allowed to compete since they’ve been such a long-time member.\u00a0 WAAHHHH, WAAHHHH!\u00a0 Said @defiantlydutch: ODU wants to be allowed\u00a0to compete in CAA Hoops tourney next year.\u00a0 Related: I want $40M dropped from a plane onto my lawn.\u00a0 That’s chutzpah from ODU.\u00a0 Like dumping your wife for a trophy blonde and asking if you can still store your stuff at home.<\/p>\n

Here is the statement from JMU today<\/a> and if you read nothing else, read this one.\u00a0 It’s appropriate and says basically all the things we want to hear.\u00a0 Of course, one could also snark that what it doesn’t say is “we’re all committed because we’ve got no place else that want our sorry asses.”\u00a0 It’s also nice that we want to maintain our high standards on the academic side, and if you told me something like, say, JMU and W&M were going to the Patriot League and deemphasizing football, it would be hard to say that’s entirely wrong.\u00a0 But then again, there’s that shiny new $70M stadium that says that was never the plan but we’ve been derailed by the lack of a television market.<\/p>\n

On that note, rest assured we’ll have plenty of time for the knashing of teeth and to debate the merits of the FireJeffBourne crowd this summer and presumably\u00a0on the occasional fall Saturday without even an internet feed at ghetto Bailey’s\/Big Al’s\u00a0for\u00a0years to come so we’d kindly ask that we all back off of our Gingrichian reactionary statements and let this breathe for a day or so.\u00a0 After all,\u00a0JMU isn’t\u00a0doing shit this year except trying in vain to convince football\u00a0recruits JMU remains a better option than the school in Norfolk they don’t have to study to attend.\u00a0 And it’s not that a long history of things like “@ Eastern Kentucky” don’t make it extremely difficult to trust our AD’s competence, it’s just that there are a lot of ways to look at this and not all of them involve football.\u00a0 (wait, what the f did I just say?!)<\/p>\n

Finally, I loved this from @D1scource today and I think it was echoed well in JMU’s statement on our own mission: “The three most powerful forces in conference realignment are fear, greed, and a myopia that fails to recognize nothing is permanent.”\u00a0 That last one in particular is what stands out.\u00a0 If ODU is sure that a nationwide conference of mostly financial losers is going to be around for them in the 2015 college football season, then good for them.\u00a0 But if JMU wants to consider our own academics, the academics of our conference brethren, and the long-term plan for the university (you know, the EDUCATIONAL institution we all attended), then I’m going to give them a little longer leash to explain JMU’s position and direction.<\/p>\n

Okay, that wasn’t the end.\u00a0 One last thing: I friggin’ hate ODU now.\u00a0 I fake hated them before, but this is damn miserable and I hope they bankrupt their entire athletic department and they get their ass handed to them every time their women’s basketball team makes an overnight flight to San Antonio or Ruston, Louisiana (as Curt Dudley said, Kenny Brooks’\u00a0teams\u00a0finally ran them right out of the league!). As always\u00a0 It’s also going to be this blog’s mission from now until this year’s game in the ‘Burg to make ODU’s fans’ trips for that tilt as miserable as humanly possible.\u00a0 Monarchs: GFY dbags!<\/p>\n