(11-15-2020 07:56 AM)FBS Dave Wrote:  

(11-14-2020 12:05 PM)ah59396 Wrote:  We already addressed this. Liberty has unlimited funds. JMU and App State do not. As the Liberty fan posted a moment ago, they are paying their head coach $3m a season. App pays Shawn Clark like $750k. How much does JMU pay their head coach?

Going Indy without deep pockets is a death warrant. Which is why your athletic directors haven’t done it.

I’m not sure a one-off example proves any point. How is G5 vs Indy a coaching salary issue. Coastal Carolina is succeeding in FBS with modest coaching costs.

JMU could afford to pay higher coaching salaries if they thought it was necessary.

(11-15-2020 03:46 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  JMU would care better than UMASS, but not as well as a Liberty or UConn simply due to budget. Yes, there are many fbs schools nearby, but there no guarantee that they could be scheduled every year.

ODU
Liberty
VaTech
UVA
Marshall
WVU
Pitt
Charlotte
App
ECU
Maryland
Navy
Temple
Ohio

Just to name a few.. not to mention fcs schools very close by. You could make a pretty good schedule.

(11-15-2020 01:20 PM)Purplehazed Wrote:  I am not saying it's a difference making between yes and no for a JMU indy experience vs umass' experience but AP396, are you over looking that JMU has numerous g5s within a bus ride football game and umass does not?

(11-15-2020 03:56 PM)Anders Wrote:  

(11-15-2020 03:46 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  JMU would care better than UMASS, but not as well as a Liberty or UConn simply due to budget. Yes, there are many fbs schools nearby, but there no guarantee that they could be scheduled every year.

ODU
Liberty
VaTech
UVA
Marshall
WVU
Pitt
Charlotte
App
ECU
Maryland
Navy
Temple
Ohio

Just to name a few.. not to mention fcs schools very close by. You could make a pretty good schedule.

I know we are confident in our team and Coach Cignetti but that is such a jump in level of competition. If I quickly ran through the schedule I see us as under .500.

ODU - W
Liberty - L (Toss up but I would give Liberty the edge as we'd probably play there)
VaTech - L
UVA - L
Marshall - L
WVU - L (we've seen this would be a close game)
Pitt - L (Close game we could win)
Charlotte - W
App - L (Same as liberty)
ECU - W (would love this series)
Maryland - L
Navy - W
Temple - W
Ohio - W

6 - 8

Any of those last three could also be a loss. Hard to say without seeing our team this year but I think there would be a lot of close games we would lose with that schedule. Probably worth it to plug that schedule into Sargin and see what the general matchup percentages would be.

It's also easy to just chalk up a schedule with local opponents but how would we get matchups like Maryland, Temple, Ohio, etc when they are in the middle of their conference stretch?

(11-15-2020 03:46 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  JMU would fare better than UMASS, but not as well as a Liberty or UConn simply due to budget. Yes, there are many fbs schools nearby, but there no guarantee that they could be scheduled every year.

ODU
Liberty
VaTech
UVA
Marshall
WVU
Pitt
Charlotte
App
ECU
Maryland
Navy
Temple
Ohio

Just to name a few.. not to mention fcs schools very close by. You could make a pretty good schedule.

(11-15-2020 05:44 PM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(11-15-2020 03:46 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  JMU would fare better than UMASS, but not as well as a Liberty or UConn simply due to budget. Yes, there are many fbs schools nearby, but there no guarantee that they could be scheduled every year.

ODU
Liberty
VaTech
UVA
Marshall
WVU
Pitt
Charlotte
App
ECU
Maryland
Navy
Temple
Ohio

Just to name a few.. not to mention fcs schools very close by. You could make a pretty good schedule.

They would only be able to get 1 or 2 of those per year. Most have 4 OOC and 8 conference games, WVU and Maryland only have 3 OOC. And I don't see anyone but maybe ODU or Liberty giving them a long 1-1 contract.

And how many ADs are going to be excited to sign a JMU contract from a school just jumping IA when there are bigger schools out there. I remember Marshall had a ton of trouble signing H/H when we 1st moved up.

(11-15-2020 03:56 PM)Anders Wrote:  It's also easy to just chalk up a schedule with local opponents but how would we get matchups like Maryland, Temple, Ohio, etc when they are in the middle of their conference stretch?

(11-15-2020 12:52 PM)ah59396 Wrote:  

(11-15-2020 07:56 AM)FBS Dave Wrote:  

(11-14-2020 12:05 PM)ah59396 Wrote:  We already addressed this. Liberty has unlimited funds. JMU and App State do not. As the Liberty fan posted a moment ago, they are paying their head coach $3m a season. App pays Shawn Clark like $750k. How much does JMU pay their head coach?

Going Indy without deep pockets is a death warrant. Which is why your athletic directors haven’t done it.

I’m not sure a one-off example proves any point. How is G5 vs Indy a coaching salary issue. Coastal Carolina is succeeding in FBS with modest coaching costs.

JMU could afford to pay higher coaching salaries if they thought it was necessary.

With all due respect, if you can’t see the disparity between how Liberty operates and how JMU operates, continuing this discussion is a little useless.

If it made sense financially and competitively for JMU to go Independent, JMU would have already done it. The reasons why they have not are quite clear to anyone who can see the difference between the two programs.


Your Coastal example suggests such. Liberty has the money to retain Hugh Freeze, because they can pay him $3m this year. And as a result, sustain their recent success in recruiting and on the field play. All imperative aspects of being an independent.

Coastal pays Jamey Chadwell $375k. He will be gone in this offseason to somewhere that will pay him 3x as much and Coastal will have to start over again. Just like App and JMU have had to do recently. Coastal has no where near the funds to keep Chadwell around and sustain their success.

All of this is to say, Liberty or UCONN have the money to operate and sustain success as independents. They can pay the money to keep high level coaches. They can afford to cover the $ they lose out on from the CFP by not being in a conference. They can afford to pay teams to come play them.

JMU shares almost the exact same athletic budget as UMASS. And fairly similar track records at the FCS a level. If JMU wants to see what their future as an FBS Indy would look like, I suggest they look at what’s happened in Amherst.

UMASS future schedule - https://fbschedules.com/ncaa/umass/

(11-11-2020 02:22 PM)Curtisc83 Wrote:  Coach Freeze just got a raise and extension. The news article said it’s in the 3mil range. So he’s up there above most of the G5 and a good portion of the non elite P5.

(11-15-2020 11:10 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  I’ve been trying to add together all the “JMU should go independent” crowd...and I’m getting about 6, maybe 7 JMU hardcore fans on this site. Does that sound about right?

Certainly those 6 or 7 JMU fans (with input from the Marshall and Liberty visitors) can keep this thread going. After all, hope springs eternal.

Realistically, JMU deciding to petition the NCAA to play FBS FB as an independent has about as much chance of happening as JMU joining the IVY League. It just ain’t gonna happen.

(11-15-2020 11:10 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  I’ve been trying to add together all the “JMU should go independent” crowd...and I’m getting about 6, maybe 7 JMU hardcore fans on this site. Does that sound about right?

Certainly those 6 or 7 JMU fans (with input from the Marshall and Liberty visitors) can keep this thread going. After all, hope springs eternal.

Realistically, JMU deciding to petition the NCAA to play FBS FB as an independent has about as much chance of happening as JMU joining the IVY League. It just ain’t gonna happen.

(11-15-2020 06:32 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  

(11-15-2020 05:44 PM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(11-15-2020 03:46 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  JMU would fare better than UMASS, but not as well as a Liberty or UConn simply due to budget. Yes, there are many fbs schools nearby, but there no guarantee that they could be scheduled every year.

ODU
Liberty
VaTech
UVA
Marshall
WVU
Pitt
Charlotte
App
ECU
Maryland
Navy
Temple
Ohio

Just to name a few.. not to mention fcs schools very close by. You could make a pretty good schedule.

They would only be able to get 1 or 2 of those per year. Most have 4 OOC and 8 conference games, WVU and Maryland only have 3 OOC. And I don't see anyone but maybe ODU or Liberty giving them a long 1-1 contract.

And how many ADs are going to be excited to sign a JMU contract from a school just jumping IA when there are bigger schools out there. I remember Marshall had a ton of trouble signing H/H when we 1st moved up.

I could see a solid JMU schedule... something like this:

Delaware
@VaTech
@Wake Forest
ODU
Marshall
Liberty
@UCONN
@UMASS
Army
@NMSU
@App State
Charlotte

Of course, this is just a template... but that is gonna pack the stands

(11-16-2020 04:23 AM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  While I have no issue with playing FBS as an independent, I will agree that it just isn't going to happen. More than anything else, it requires a considerable amount of work, getting approvals for the contracts etc., and I don't believe we have the desire to take on that challenge. A private school who is willing to give a lot of power to the AD has a much easier road to make schedules year after year.