(08-22-2015 03:54 PM)91Alum Wrote: (08-22-2015 02:20 PM)NovaDuke Wrote: The article says somebody in the admin thinks a Big 12 move ©(w)ould create a spot in CUSA for JMU. This has to be Jeffrey Bourne, right, he is our engaged athletic director.
While trying to raise money for a new bball home, why would JMU not market the need to be even more ready to transition to CUSA if Bourne can support a Big 12 poaching theory? If the AD can't support a Big 12 poaching theory and make decisions and communicate a plan, "thinking it may happen" is worth a bucket of spit.
The admin's unwillingness to be transparent has created distrust.
The admin intentionally leaves a potential conference move on the table but they have created so many outs that it's not hard to believe that they have no intention of ever leaving the CAA and that they are more than willing to ride the purple lie for years to come.
I have yet to hear anyone put forth a believable rationale as to why we would be more attractive to CUSA than ULL, App St or Ga Southern at this point. Academic fit? Geographic fit? Athletic prowess and success? What exactly is our selling point to the "higher than entry level" leagues? What specifically does our FCS program bring to the table that would be so compelling that a league would bypass an FBS-ready equivalent for us?
We are years behind any SBC school in terms of being ready to compete at an FBS level, and I think the days of CUSA and MAC settling for an FCS school are long past (since they can now have playoffs with <12 members). There is one entry point to FBS, we had an offer, and we turned it down. And to top it off, we voted for a $1M penalty for anyone leaving the CAA. I'm convinced we're not going anywhere, and I doubt there was ever any real intention to do so.
To say anything else is the "purple lie" indeed.
Exactly. Almost any expansion scenario will likely play out by pecking order with an P5 vacancies getting filled from the AAC and/or MWC, which ripple down to pulling teams from the MAC, CUSA or Sun Belt.
The Sun Belt is no help because we won't join them now, so why do it when they have even fewer attractive teams. The CUSA is no help because they have two teams too many already, and even so would just pull from the Sun Belt to back fill, if they chose to at all.
The MAC is the only way and then it would be into a weaker MAC, of course. No big deal there. That would be fine with us. But which MAC team would the AAC or MWC want over CUSA or Sun Belt teams? I would think none.
And the CUSA wouldn't want any MAC teams. If the CUSA ever needs two, they take South Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas State, Georgia State, Texas State or Georgia Southern, IMO, ahead of us and we stay where we are.
And of course there is always UMass, which would be a decent AAC back fill, especially if UConn and Temple stay in the AAC, which they probably would. So, the AAC could only be looking for one other team from the CUSA/MAC/Sun Belt.
Let's face it, any realignment scenario that involves us would be to the Sun Belt, which already has a slot open for us, so why wait it out.
Let's get it done now just in case we can either get really good and attractive to the CUSA, AAC or whatever as a Sun Belt winner. Or we ride the Sun Belt as it becomes a much better conference (which is the most likely way for us to end up in a good conference; it would be a good Sun Belt, untouched by poaching for a few years to become a true peer with the CUSA and MAC).