(09-05-2017 01:05 PM)JMad03 Wrote:  Don't forget about that completely awesome TV package the CAA put together!
JMU saw the CAA as a Virginia conference which is what kept them so loyal to it for so long. The problem is an athletic program needs to always put its own interests ahead of the loyalty to the conference.
Now the conference is a shadow of what it once was, or at least what JMU saw as advantageous to stay.
The idea of the Atlantic Sun conference does not impress me too much. If there is a new conference created, I think JMU will be one of the first to join, along with ODU. I also think it will be focused on the mid-atlantic. The Atlantic Sun conference proposed here is a bit too spread out. While the North looks good, I just don't know how close Stony Brook and Albany are to being FBS ready. I do think Delaware would be ready to go.

All we can do now is just keep winning and make it a no-brainer for a conference to invite us. If we can get MBB at least respectable again we have a very good chance, and that's a big "if".

It's almost impossible to start a new conference. Taking over a lower conference and transforming it into some thing much better is the practically the only option. Eight schools getting waivers and making the transition appears to be possible, and then a conference with 8 full FBS members has to be made an FBS conference, which would be included in the next CFP contracts in 2025.

Stony Brook and Albany need one more stadium expansion to go FBS. Kennesaw St needs another expansion, but will play a game in the new Atlanta Braves stadium. UMASS needs a football conference and arguably Army does too. Liberty arguably needs a conference. E Kentucky is not on par academically with the others but badly wants FBS and apparently has backers that would make it possible. Jacksonville St is ready for FBS now, as they have been lobbying for Belt membership for years. UNF and FGCU need the A Sun to be a football league to open up their football options.

I happen to think that JMU's leadership would be open to this league or they would be FCS for 15 more years in a much junkier CAA. Why would JMU be satisfied with the CAa after seeing George Mason, VCU and Old Dominion depart for greener pastures?