(10-02-2020 04:43 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote: (10-02-2020 04:31 PM)Michael in Raleigh Wrote: (10-02-2020 02:50 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote: (10-02-2020 09:39 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: If the rumor is true, it’s some of the East schools—with ODU and Charlotte leading the charge.
If CAA schools are in the know on this than at a minimum, they’ve been talking to JMU.
I think its difficult to work JMU into this.
It sounds like they want to take about 8 schools from CUSA which leaves 2 spots to round out the conference. If I had to give two spots I'd give them to Georgia St for the Atlanta market and then App St for their football strength.
I'm just not seeing where JMU would be high up on the priority list here as an FCS school in a small market. ODU might not mind them in the conference but I doubt they are a top priority.
JMU is attractive because they have football strength. They are very arguably better now than Georgia Southern and App State were when those schools left FCS.
Markets are way, way overrated at the C-USA/Sun Belt/MAC level. App State has been the best program among those three conferences over the past five years, and they're not really in a market at all. But they have a stronger presence in the 100-miles-away Charlotte market than UNC Charlotte does... JMU has those same characteristics in Virginia.
So now JMU is even better than App St?
I don't see them carrying it over to the G5 level. App St did but they had to prove themselves in the SBC first.
Why bring them to an 8 or 10 team split conference with limited spots? Are they really that great?
JMU is much better now than App Stste was when App left FCS. JMU was in the FCS final last year. Appalachian, meanwhile, went 4-8 its final season in FCS, its only second losing season in 35 years. The first year in FBS, App started 1-5, with a loss to FCS Liberty. The season did end on a 6 game winning streak, and a lot of winning ever since, but my point remains.
JMU has a better stadium and attendance--against FCS competition--than many SB/MAC/C-USA schools do now. They're a good school academically. They have a bigger budget as an FCS program than quite a few G5 schools do, and it would only grow as a G5 school.
They have the looks of a ready-to-win-now program that looks a lot more like Boise, Marshall, Ga. Southern, or App State did entering FBS than many of these move-ups or startups who joined FBS without having any FCS-level track record of success. The former flourished pretty much right out of the gate, while most of the latter struggled for many years before gaining a footing, if they ever did at all.
And then, geographically, they just fit quite well with Marshall, ODU, App State, and Charlotte. Three of those four would be the ones leading the charge of a C-USA breakaway.
We'll never know how JMU would do in FBS for sure until they actually move up, but I would have a lot more faith in them than many of the programs already at the G5 level.