When I was in school, JMU was not even a University. I only had one high school friend who went there, and she was no sports fan. I don't remember running into many, if any JMU grads in my career (broadcast engineering).
Consequently I have no frame of reference.
I do know that the internet is likely not a reliable sample of JMU fans, students, and grads as a whole.
The JMU boards (ours too) are 30-40 hard core sports fans.
However, after becoming a mod, I spent alot of time on the other boards so as to get a feel for how things were done.
There are no other boards whereby the fanbase is constantly espousing their academic prowess as being a primary reason that they
deserve preferences over other schools and the justification for "looking down their noses" at the Sun Belt, and to a lesser degree CUSA.
Additionally, the JMU fanbase is myopic in it's own assessment of academics; focusing on undergraduate selectivity almost exclusively as the criteria of choice.
Imagine the rancor when confronted with these CAA facts. (no one has yet seriously replied)
CAA selectivity rank (percent):
W&M 32% higher incoming test scores
Northeastern 32% higher incoming test scores
Elon 52% higher incoming test scores
Towson 52%
lower incoming test scores
UNCW 53% higher incoming test scores
UD 59% higher incoming test scores
Hofstra 59% higher incoming test scores
JMU 61%
CoC 74%
higher incoming test scores
Drexel 75%
higher incoming test scores
There are some shifts if you add in test scores, but for JMU that only takes them above Towson (which drops like an anchor), but below Drexel and CoC.
Adding CAA football:
Richmond 30%, higher incoming test scores
Stony Brook 40%, higher incoming test scores
Villanova 46%, higher incoming test scores
Albany 51%,
lower incoming test scores
Maine 78%, lower incoming test scores
UNH 78%, lower incoming test scores
Rhode Island 85% lower incoming test scores
Selectivity percentile based on usnwr and about college apps 2012
Incoming test scores based on SAT only