{"id":7419,"date":"2014-12-11T20:43:28","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T01:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=7419"},"modified":"2014-12-11T20:43:28","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T01:43:28","slug":"guess-whos-back-realignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=7419","title":{"rendered":"Guess Who’s Back? Realignment!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CUSA\"<\/a>So in case you missed it, Conference USA’s UAB dropped football last week and is most likely going to be kicked out of CUSA for all sports come January per CUSA’s completely rational and reasonable and filled-with-foresight-the-CAA-can-only-imagine decision to be an “all sports or nothing” conference. And in case you needed a reminder, ANY conference at ANY level that has football and non-football members has been crumbling from within for the better part of two decades and the CAA is no different. In related news, the Big12’s split champions, Baylor and TCU, both managed to miss out on the new FBS playoff, thus prompting the Big12 to at least petition the NCAA for permission to have a conference championship game in a conference with less than 12 teams (which is currently the minimum number of conference members required to hold such a game) and possibly go so far as to look to add members that would likely come from the AAC, who would in turn be likely to raid CUSA to backfill. In any case, the “end of realignment” is clearly the unicorn of college athletics and it seems increasingly likely that one if not more slots will be opening in the very near future in the conferences JMU would actually like to join (CUSA and MAC).<\/p>\n

Our JMUSB institutional position has certainly changed in the last year from “leave the CAA at any cost” to “it’s still likely anything is better than the CAA” but it would be dishonest to say that isn’t a significant shift. Not sure whether it’s the warm feelings from a team to be proud of with a modern offense, the new Withers era, the playoff berth, or simply the fact that the gap at the FBS level between the P5 and the G5 seems to be widening everyday, but we’re not quite as bullish on a move as we were a year ago. That said, the door has been cracked again and all indications are that for the first time JMU is trying to snake their way into the discussion. And it has to be said that Withers, BFS, the playoff bid, UPark, and a potential new-Convo announcement all seem to indicate JMU continues to resemble a CUSA team a hell of a lot more than CAA pennypinching shitshows like Drexel or Hofstra.<\/p>\n

We don’t know what the future holds, we don’t think JMU is any higher than 3rd or 4th on CUSA’s wishlist to begin with thanks to our FCS status (that could’ve been avoided), we have zippy clue what influence or level of control the do-nothings in the Virginia General Assembly have over the decision, we honestly don’t know what Alger’s position on the situation is, and hell – we can’t even come up with a consistent position among our staff of two, but we do know this may be now-or-never time for JMU. It’s not that opportunities won’t continue to present themselves in the future, it’s just that the winds seem to be shifting nationally on the supposed value of such moves and what it means to “provide big-time athletics” in the new NCAA and our guess is one way or another this year will turn out to be the one that defines JMU Athletics for decades to come.<\/p>\n