(12-04-2013 04:57 PM)Dukes84 Wrote:  I thought that my nephew told me that UCF was perhaps the second largest school in the country with something like 37,000 undergrads....he may have been well off on that. He also said it was the largest in Florida. I've been to their campus a couple of times in any event. Saw JMU play basketball there when Keener was the coach.

It's a large commuter school. But based on location and size alone that makes them a sleeping giant, IMO.

(12-04-2013 07:59 PM)JMUDuke25 Wrote:  

(12-04-2013 04:57 PM)Dukes84 Wrote:  I thought that my nephew told me that UCF was perhaps the second largest school in the country with something like 37,000 undergrads....he may have been well off on that. He also said it was the largest in Florida. I've been to their campus a couple of times in any event. Saw JMU play basketball there when Keener was the coach.

It's a large commuter school. But based on location and size alone that makes them a sleeping giant, IMO.

According to google the school has over 59,000 students in general...think about that, their graduate programs have more students than our undergraduate program.

Also they are the #170 National University as well. So while not great, certainly much higher than a lot of the schools they left behind in C-USA.

Being scared of 1A for fear that JMU would not perform well is indirectly an insult towards Bourne and Alger. Can this fear be restated as "I fear Bourne and Alger don't know how to lead a 1A football program and a move will showcase this incompetence."

When JMU re-classes to IA, JMU will have the coaches* and resources to compete at the 1A level so there is nothing to fear unless you don't trust Bourne and Alger to follow through on the decision.

I trust Alger** (yes, I had a purple shot this morning).

* A lot of alum eyes on the current HC candidates
** I trust Alger until the day I hear "we are in a good position" followed by "we are going to win CAA championships" ...fingers crossed this does not happen between now and June '14.

(11-18-2013 05:19 PM)Pitz Wrote:  I want JMU football to compete at the highest level possible. I think anyone content with a lifetime of minor league accolades is boring at best. With every FCS contender (App State, Georgia Southern) and fast-track nobody (Georgia State, South Alabama) -to-FBS announcement that pops up, the debate resurfaces with heightened intensity.

I'm scared of an FBS move because I'm not going to Towson this weekend.

And I root. I traveled to every postseason game as a student in 2004. I made the 12-hour round trip from New York City for SIX different games in 2008. Hell, I even moved back to Harrisonburg. Simply put: My Saturdays in the fall are reserved for JMU football.

But Saturday's game at Towson is meaningless. There's another thread talking about it; go check it out. It's a shared sentiment. It's our first absolutely meaningless football game in a decade and I hate it. I hate that I feel that apathy.

If we make the move to FBS right now, we are going to have A LOT of meaningless football. A lot. I'm not just talking about the transition years. In our early playoff-eligible (lol!) FBS years, we're going to enter the season with the momentum of a parked bus.

I'm scared of multiple seasons where we go 3-9 and our lone highlight is an early September game where we got Cincinnati to come to Bridgeforth Stadium.

Infrastructurally, we're ready for FBS.
Attendance-wise, we're ready for FBS.
(Financially, no one knows for sure.)

But as far as football goes? We're not ready for FBS.

This is why I'm not as eager as some of you to latch desperately onto the first possible conference invitation life raft. I'm not sure I'm ready for an indefinite number of meaningless years of football.

My FBS/I-A stance hasn't changed too much in the last 6-7 years. I want us to make the move if/when we've established ourselves as an FCS powerhouse. Something akin to Marshall in the 1990s, App State in the mid-2000s, or NDSU currently. Flopping ourselves into FBS after missing the FCS playoffs four out of five years puts us on a track to end up like Western Kentucky or UMass.

Ultimately, I'm an idealist, and I really want to believe an FBS move is the right choice. But right now, it scares me.

Its like a bad aid. Just pull it off. Do it...NOW. Stop reading this, just do it NOW. LOL


Seriously though, I dont think if you ask UCF or USF or Western Kentucky they would say they regret it. You may take some lumps but the benefits are worth it.