Let`s say JMU and Liberty move up to 1A this summer.That is five 1A teams in the state. Throw in new 1A teams in UNCC, App St, Ga So and GaSt , recruiting will be a battle. We need to choose our conference wisely.

It's something that I've though about a little bit. The obvious is that we'll have to expand the radius a little bit. I have always wondered why JMU hardly seems to recruit Pennsylvania at all. There's a lot of good players there who would love to come to JMU but we seem to have completely conceded the state. We got Earl Watford there. Why aren't we mining that state?

Penn State, Temple, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Ohio State and the ton of other Ohio FBS schools have a decent hold on PA, but there's still room for more recruiting.

We have one recruit coming for Pa , Jordan Brown . He played QB in high school and is listed as a WR for us.

The thing that we have above those schools is that JMU is seen as going south, which kids love. We should be capitalizing on that but I've seen so many good players in that state and JMU hasn't shown any interest. Perhaps is just a lack of resources.

South is good. FCS--not as good. We aren't beating out PSU, OSU, Rutgers, and Pitt for prospects IMO, regardless of being viewed as south. We should--as an FBS team--be able to compete with the rest eventually.

(04-14-2013 04:47 PM)brizzock Wrote:  South is good. FCS--not as good. We aren't beating out PSU, OSU, Rutgers, and Pitt for prospects IMO, regardless of being viewed as south. We should--as an FBS team--be able to compete with the rest eventually.

Probably won't be able to compete for kids against any of those schools in the near future but we could pick up guys in certain situations like they have a very good player at his position and the guy wants to get on the field.

If the talent level becomes watered down , will there be a larger gap in between the top conferences and the Sun Belts of the football world? Teams like Alabama and Ohio St are going to get their players. It looks like this potential move to 1A has serious limitations.

(04-14-2013 05:07 PM)Purple Reign Wrote:  If the talent level becomes watered down , will there be a larger gap in between the top conferences and the Sun Belts of the football world? Teams like Alabama and Ohio St are going to get their players. It looks like this potential move to 1A has serious limitations.

This makes no sense. Your argument would make it seem like there are players than will only go FBS, and if they don't get recruited, they won't play anywhere. JMU moving to FBS gives opportunity to attract players who normally wouldn't be interested. Nothing changes on the lower end. The additional scholarships are the bigger factor over the better players. We get a deeper team.

Lower level FBS will always out recruit FCS. Big schools will always be overloaded with QBs rotting on the bench. That is the players loss.

I think you'll also see a lot more players stay in the state.

Currently, if a player isn't offered by VT or UVA, they have to leave the state to play FBS football. Kids are likely to choose a lower level FBS team out of state than a JMU/ODU/W&M/UR.

There is A LOT more FBS talent in the state than just that on UVA and VT's rosters. The real question is: Will VT ever been dominant at football again?

(04-14-2013 05:39 PM)JMU_Newbill Wrote:  I think you'll also see a lot more players stay in the state.

Currently, if a player isn't offered by VT or UVA, they have to leave the state to play FBS football. Kids are likely to choose a lower level FBS team out of state than a JMU/ODU/W&M/UR.

There is A LOT more FBS talent in the state than just that on UVA and VT's rosters. The real question is: Will VT ever been dominant at football again?

Good Point !

(04-14-2013 05:31 PM)CharlestonDuke Wrote:  

(04-14-2013 05:07 PM)Purple Reign Wrote:  If the talent level becomes watered down , will there be a larger gap in between the top conferences and the Sun Belts of the football world? Teams like Alabama and Ohio St are going to get their players. It looks like this potential move to 1A has serious limitations.

This makes no sense. Your argument would make it seem like there are players than will only go FBS, and if they don't get recruited, they won't play anywhere. JMU moving to FBS gives opportunity to attract players who normally wouldn't be interested. Nothing changes on the lower end. The additional scholarships are the bigger factor over the better players. We get a deeper team.

Lower level FBS will always out recruit FCS. Big schools will always be overloaded with QBs rotting on the bench. That is the players loss.

I am not saying that these recruits won`t play somewhere.I am saying that the top teams are going to get the top players. That will not change. JMU moving up to FBS will certainly attract players with FBS talent.The MAC , CUSA and the Sun Belt are lower in the pecking order from the likes of the SEC and Big 10.

(04-14-2013 06:14 PM)Purple Reign Wrote:  

(04-14-2013 05:31 PM)CharlestonDuke Wrote:  

(04-14-2013 05:07 PM)Purple Reign Wrote:  If the talent level becomes watered down , will there be a larger gap in between the top conferences and the Sun Belts of the football world? Teams like Alabama and Ohio St are going to get their players. It looks like this potential move to 1A has serious limitations.

This makes no sense. Your argument would make it seem like there are players than will only go FBS, and if they don't get recruited, they won't play anywhere. JMU moving to FBS gives opportunity to attract players who normally wouldn't be interested. Nothing changes on the lower end. The additional scholarships are the bigger factor over the better players. We get a deeper team.

Lower level FBS will always out recruit FCS. Big schools will always be overloaded with QBs rotting on the bench. That is the players loss.

I am not saying that these recruits won`t play somewhere.I am saying that the top teams are going to get the top players. That will not change. JMU moving up to FBS will certainly attract players with FBS talent.The MAC , CUSA and the Sun Belt are lower in the pecking order from the likes of the SEC and Big 10.

Right, but that is obvious.

I thought you were originally making the point that there won't be enough high caliber talent to fill the rosters.

I too like the point about talent staying in Virginia.

There are a lot of kids from Fredericksburg area and Harrisonburg area that go out of state for 1A. Some of those will go to JMU and some that would have gone to UVA or Tech will choose JMU once they are 1A.

(04-14-2013 06:25 PM)BSKB 24 Wrote:  There are a lot of kids from Fredericksburg area and Harrisonburg area that go out of state for 1A. Some of those will go to JMU and some that would have gone to UVA or Tech will choose JMU once they are 1A.

Just recently, from HHS , James Rouse to Marshall and Holmes to Va Tech. Marshman from Turner Ashby to Va Tech.

I posted this in another thread, but keep in mind that in FCS the 63 available scholarships can divided amongst 85 different players. I don't have any insight into how JMU splits up the scholarships but in an extreme case an FCS school could have 41 players on full scholarships and 44 on 50% scholarships. In such a scenario a school wouldn't necessarily be recruiting any more players than they were before, but they are able to give them all fulls. By offering fulls and perhaps the opportunity to get on the field earlier than at BCS level schools a transitioning school might be able to pull in some higher quality recruits that might otherwise go to VT, UVA, PSU, etc to play FBS level football.

With good recruiters and coaching, any player, even the top players are a possibility.

We're kind of talking as though we jumped to having 85 scholarships so I may have missed some news but I think JMU is pretty easy to recruit. Beautiful campus, beautiful women, a great education, good facilities, good stadium.....not much not to like.

The question was WHERE will they come from, not IF they will come.

The answer to that question remains VA and MD, with some New England connections, and a few random players from TX, FL, GA, NC, etc. This could be slightly different if we have coaches with recruiting roots from other parts of the country that they can tap into. Initially, I have to believe that we will mostly get players that would be backups on ACC/AAC conference teams, not unlike what we get now in FCS. They will want to be 4-year starters at the position of their choice and get opportunities to play close to home. The big difference will be depth. You would have to think our gain (i.e., JMU, Liberty, ODU, App St., etc.) will be the FBS schools' loss in terms of depth of talent. One more reason why the powers that be want to limit inclusion to the "I-A" football world.

(04-14-2013 05:39 PM)JMU_Newbill Wrote:  I think you'll also see a lot more players stay in the state.

Currently, if a player isn't offered by VT or UVA, they have to leave the state to play FBS football. Kids are likely to choose a lower level FBS team out of state than a JMU/ODU/W&M/UR.

There is A LOT more FBS talent in the state than just that on UVA and VT's rosters. The real question is: Will VT ever been dominant at football again?

I think VT just got like the 13th rated recruiting class....I know we all know very well that you can't put too much stock in those rankings, but still. I think Tech just had an off year, they previously had like 8 straight 10 win seasons. They'll be fine.