The James Madison to the MAC rumor is percolating again although it's happened before with nothing behind it. See the most recent entries in this thread:

http://csnbbs.com/thread-561282-page-408.html

If it happened it would probably mean BGSU moving back to the West which would make that one hella division for football.

Point of interest: JMU's baseball coach is former NIU coach Spanky McFarland. From his bio:

"McFarland coached for seven seasons (1991-97) at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., which reinstated baseball in 1991 after discontinuing the program in 1982. He previously was an assistant coach at South Florida (1986-90), Georgia Tech (1983-85), Florida State (1982), Appalachian State (1981), and at his alma mater, Hillsdale College (1977).. His first head coaching job was at Kellogg (Mich.) Community College (1979-80) where he led the Bruins to a 33-13 record.

McFarland resurrected the NIU program from the ground up. He accepted the challenge with no team, field, equipment or scholarships. His first team consisted of all non-scholarship, walk-on players. It took only six years for the Huskies to reach the NCAA tournament, thanks in part to nationally-ranked recruiting classes in 1992, 1993 and 1995. McFarland led Northern Illinois to the Midwestern Collegiate Conference regular-season and tournament titles and into NCAA play in 1996 and to third-place league finishes in 1995 and 1997. The conference championship was the first by the school in 24 years, and the 1997 squad led the MCC in hitting with a .323 average. His 143 victories with the Huskies make him the winningest coach in NIU baseball history."

That would be a very sweet get for the MAC. JMU has the 2nd largest undergrad student body of any football playing VA based university(17302), only VaTech is larger. Must have a significant alumni base in the area who should get more involved with the program when they move up to FBS. Liberty's enrollment is listed at 24K but alot of those are remote online education students.

Draw a 100 mile radius around Harrisonburg and that includes a hoard of Football/Hoops/Baseball and Soccer talent. Richmond, DC, Baltimore

Yea no thanks. Another reason the perception of the MAC is a weak conference if they add another FCS school.

(02-24-2014 02:01 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  Yea no thanks. Another reason the perception of the MAC is a weak conference if they add another FCS school.

What's wrong?

Just think of the cool T-Shirt the VCB will have for Dog Fan when JMU comes to town.

(02-24-2014 02:12 PM)thxjoenovak Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 02:01 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  Yea no thanks. Another reason the perception of the MAC is a weak conference if they add another FCS school.

What's wrong?

Just think of the cool T-Shirt the VCB will have for Dog Fan when JMU comes to town.

I cannot wait. I am already having sleepless nights from the impending excitement when VCB releases the PC Blue Hose gameday shirts. I will be standing in line at their doors when they open the day those shirts are released.

(02-24-2014 02:01 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  Yea no thanks. Another reason the perception of the MAC is a weak conference if they add another FCS school.

Oh, a top FCS program who hasn't had a below.500 season since 2003 gives the MAC a bad perception but none of the current, FBS schools in our division do not? Hmm...

(02-24-2014 02:36 PM)RedandBlackAttack Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 02:01 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  Yea no thanks. Another reason the perception of the MAC is a weak conference if they add another FCS school.

Oh, a top FCS program who hasn't had a below.500 season since 2003 gives the MAC a bad perception but none of the current, FBS schools in our division do not? Hmm...

I think the point is that you're adding yet another team that will lose a bunch of games OOC, hurting perception even further. Though I think JMU could be competitive before long. And their attendance would, if anything, help perception, being larger than many current MAC schools get. It's a nice stadium too, just looking at the pictures.

(02-24-2014 02:55 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 02:36 PM)RedandBlackAttack Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 02:01 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  Yea no thanks. Another reason the perception of the MAC is a weak conference if they add another FCS school.

Oh, a top FCS program who hasn't had a below.500 season since 2003 gives the MAC a bad perception but none of the current, FBS schools in our division do not? Hmm...

I think the point is that you're adding yet another team that will lose a bunch of games OOC, hurting perception even further. Though I think JMU could be competitive before long. And their attendance would, if anything, help perception, being larger than many current MAC schools get. It's a nice stadium too, just looking at the pictures.

Yeah but losing games OOC is a normal thing for MAC schools when they are scheduling big boys just to receive a big check. JMU would be a much better competitor in football and especially in basketball if we could pry them away from the Colonial conference as a requirement to join us for football.

Also, the MAC has only 13 members for football so a 14th member makes the conference divisions all square.

JMU would be the most logical addition since NIU and Buffalo.

JMU should be a replacement for EMU, not an addition to. This expansion stuff is overrate with remaining targets sitting somewhere marginal and slightly above marginal. The real play would be to drop an EMU type which has shown very little on the field and in the stands for decades running now and give said marginal add a shot to improve the spot.

(02-24-2014 04:02 PM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  JMU should be a replacement for EMU, not an addition to. This expansion stuff is overrate with remaining targets sitting somewhere marginal and slightly above marginal. The real play would be to drop an EMU type which has shown very little on the field and in the stands for decades running now and give said marginal add a shot to improve the spot.

I wouldn't mind a swap. JMU looks like they are willing to spend money to improve their program, where-as EMU has not. Ultimately (beating a dead horse on this subject) EMU should just go and try to get UMASS for all sports and be done with for now. Highly unlikely they join for all sports, but that would be the ideal situation IMO.

(02-24-2014 02:25 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 02:12 PM)thxjoenovak Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 02:01 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  Yea no thanks. Another reason the perception of the MAC is a weak conference if they add another FCS school.

What's wrong?

Just think of the cool T-Shirt the VCB will have for Dog Fan when JMU comes to town.

I cannot wait. I am already having sleepless nights from the impending excitement when VCB releases the PC Blue Hose gameday shirts. I will be standing in line at their doors when they open the day those shirts are released.

Bring 'em in.....I wanna, one day, go take a road trip to see us play them on a purple field.



I know thats highly unlikely but either way, I wouldnt mind JMU. Would like to see it more than EMU.....thats for sure!

(02-24-2014 04:02 PM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  JMU should be a replacement for EMU, not an addition to. This expansion stuff is overrate with remaining targets sitting somewhere marginal and slightly above marginal. The real play would be to drop an EMU type which has shown very little on the field and in the stands for decades running now and give said marginal add a shot to improve the spot.

I'd plus 500 that if I could but I did go plus 3.

This is the core reason I believe the G5 is inherently unstable even if the P5 don't pull any teams up.

The MWC may be stable because there are no other schools in the Mountain Time Zone and west to combine with other than Idaho and NMSU as well as UTEP who has stated they think their future requires being aligned with other Texas schools.

But look at AAC.
UConn football member since 2004, Cincinnati since 2005, USF since 2005. Remaining nine added 2013 or later.

CUSA
USM 1995, UAB football since 1999 Rice 2005, Marshall 2005 UTEP 2005, remaining 9 added 2013 or later

Sun Belt four members added 2013 or later.

Those three leagues are in flux and all three have made additions that were at least in part in response to the campaigning of schools no longer in the league.

That leads to mismatches and I would say the MAC is also plagued by disconnects in philosophy and commitment to intercollegiate athletics.

History shows us numerous examples of conferences reaching a breaking point where a critical mass forms and either breaks as a complete group (Valley spawning Big 8, Southern spawning SEC and ACC, WAC breaking into MWC, the Pac-8 emerging out of disputes in the old PCC) or schools from various associations form a new league (Border and Rocky Mtn breaking up as schools defect to form WAC, the Great Midwest when a group of Metro schools became frustrated, Big East forming, CUSA forming out of Liberty Football Alliance, Metro and Great Midwest, American South now Sun Belt out of a group of frustrated Southland schools, and in reality the first formation of the Big XII born out of a joint venture of SWC and Big 8 to sell their TV rights).

I don't have a cogent guess as to who will be the group of schools and what will be the element binding them together but I think you nailed the cause, eventually leagues go out of balance.

In the Sun Belt the membership at one point was fairly well on the same page. Now we have UALR dropping down to 14 sports because of budget issues and ULM cut their already thin budget because of state finance issues, it's no accident the two dominate the bottom of the all-sport standings most years. Idaho was tagged along to reach our magic number of 12 much like UMass was the magic 14. I think the greatest risk to the Sun Belt's future isn't being raided, it's a group of schools becoming frustrated and bumping into another group of schools that feel similarly disaffected by their conference and aligning together.