(08-17-2020 11:55 AM)JMad03 Wrote:  

(08-17-2020 11:15 AM)RamDawg Wrote:  

(08-17-2020 09:52 AM)JMad03 Wrote:  In my opinion we've already done enough to prove we could be competitive in FBS. Consistency over time is very important. I believe we have shown to be a very consistent program.
There are far too many programs that go from FCS to FBS and essentially proved nothing, nor did they have consistency over time. The ones that bother me the most are those schools that did little to nothing at the FCS level and then expect to be great at the next level (aka Georgia State, Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, Liberty, ODU, Idaho, and UConn to name a few). Georgia Southern at least had a history of being successful and the same could be said for App State, Marshall, Boise State and UMass. I can at least understand why those schools chose to move up to FBS.
Success at FCS does not mean you will be successful at FBS, but history is much more on your side than if a school had a small period of success and tried to ride that wave into FBS. There are of course outliers on both sides that have either succeeded with little success at FCS (South Florida) and others that were great in FCS over time that have been poor in FBS so far (UMass and Georgia Southern).
There is no given that we will succeed if we go to FBS, but I do believe we have a better chance of being successful due to our recent history of success in FCS. Winning a few more titles, while nice, doesn't mean we'll be any better than we would be if we transitioned today, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.
What matters more is what we do when we get to FBS- making the right choices when it comes to conference affiliation, marketing and fan support, coaching, recruiting, and administrative decisions. Those are far more important than anything we had done in the past, however those also are important ingredients to be successful in any division.

My opinion is JMU football would be successful right out of the box, most of the tools are already in place. The bigger question for me is how well our administration would handle the business side. ODU and Coastal also had the tools for success at the FBS level but their struggles seem to come from the managerial side. I don't know but maybe the skills and resources required to run a successful G5 department are different from those required to run a successful FCS level department.

When it comes to the business side, I have a lot of confidence in our admin. I know many may disagree with this, but I believe JMU has made the right decisions so far and that includes not going to CUSA. ODU has had to make cuts that most likely we probably would have had to make as well.
And so far in this pandemic, JMU athletics is in about as good a shape as we could hope for. I believe a lot of that has to do with the business decisions they have made.
I know some may argue that JMU may struggle with resources because JMU will have to rely less on student fees, but I don't think so. They are fully aware of what they would have to do/not be able to do if they were to move up and I believe there is probably a plan in place as to how to obtain the difference. If there isn't, I have full confidence that they would. Their decisions have been very calculated and moving up to FBS would be the largest decision ever made for JMU athletics history. To think they wouldn't have a plan is insane. They are just too good to not be ready for something that big.

I'm not trying to question history, I question the future. Do we have the managerial tools to sustain success in a bigger pond?

Just because a FB coach is being very successful in the OVC doesn't automatically make him qualified to be a HC at say an SEC program. Because a contractor has built a 8000 seat college basketball arena doesn't automatically qualified them to build a 80,000 seat NBA stadium. Sure it's still x's and o's, concrete and steel but the execution/approach is a whole lot different.

I'm not saying our current Admin isn't qualified, I'm questioning if they are capable of seeing/admitting what they may not know in a new environment.