{"id":5400,"date":"2013-05-10T07:23:51","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T11:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=5400"},"modified":"2013-05-10T07:23:51","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T11:23:51","slug":"conference-announcement-coming-soon-who-knows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=5400","title":{"rendered":"Conference Announcement Coming Soon? Who Knows"},"content":{"rendered":"

First, let’s begin Friday with some actual sports news. \u00a0Softball has made it to the championship round against Hofstra out on the Island today. \u00a0Game 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. \u00a0Now 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. \u00a0Good luck ladies!<\/p>\n

But we also wanted to take this Friday in mid-May to throw another log on the conference realignment fire. \u00a0We’ve tried to avoid this the last few weeks as this topic only incites riotous, baseless, and largely inappropriate behavior from the hardcore fans \u00a0while simultaneously boring, confusing, and alienating many casual Dukes fans. \u00a0I’m certainly guilty of some of this misguided anger, while Rob usually takes a more mature long view of the whole situation. \u00a0That 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. \u00a0We’re not experts on either of these and surely you all can fact check us in the comments, but this is our understanding:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>June 1 – This seems<\/span> 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. \u00a0This is what happened with ODU last year. \u00a0Though 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. \u00a0Not 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>July 1 – This seems<\/span>\u00a0to 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. \u00a0In 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. \u00a0That said, this also seems<\/span>\u00a0to 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. \u00a0You 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What it means? \u00a0Who 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. \u00a0That said, JMU’s been on there own at times apparently directionless course in this regard before, so we’ll just get our popcorn ready. \u00a0And 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.<\/p>\n

We’re definitely looking forward to hearing if there’s anything to be gleaned at next week’s Coaches Caravan event. \u00a0(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)<\/p>\n