(01-10-2017 09:12 AM)AppManDG Wrote: (01-10-2017 02:18 AM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote: Even I've moved on.
Their administration isn't moving. They'd rather be in FCS where they have a budget 2 times the average of FCS playoff teams. Kind of like the kid on the middle school basketball team that is bigger than everyone else because he's been held back 2 years.
And lets face facts. We no longer need them. There's no longer any chance that we'd consider that other school in Virginia. A raid on our teams is, for a change, remote in the medium term. App has their travel partner.
Maybe if something changes....but not at this point.
Congrats to them on their FCS title. Congrats to us on our success this year.
You really don't know what you're talking about. JMU may be egotistical when it comes to their opinion of themselves academically, but I can assure you they would not rather be in FCS. A good friend is a former JMU athletic council member and is highly connected with the JMU administration. He has told me repeatedly they would prefer to be FBS, but only in a conference that makes geographical sense. JMU has some of the highest student fees in the country. The athletic department is almost entirely funded by them. Not only is all of their debt financed with them, but every scholarship is as well and they fully scholarship every sport they offer. They cannot increase student fees and a jump to the Sunbelt would increase their travel costs tremendously. They would jump at the chance to join the MAC and also aggressively pursue membership in realigned CUSA / Sunbelt with a eastern division of App, Charlotte, Marshall, ODU, WKU & MTSU. He also tells me Delaware's new administration is seriously considering FBS, again if the circumstances are right. My warning to him is with the CFP payout favoring 10 team conferences there might not be any more FBS slots.
what? where would you get such a thing as that?
we generate 3 million in Duke Club donations every year that go to fund those scholarships.
the biggest reason for the huge student fees is the debt on the stadium expansion and adding costs of the band, which at JMU is HUGE. Other schools outside VA can hide those costs in other departments. We can't due to VA law.
the amount of misinformation that gets spread about JMU is 10 times more than any other school on here for some reason.
but when JMU people correct these errors, no one wants to believe us.
you want to know where we stand on the Sun Belt now? Our problem before was basically Idaho and NM State. it made the overall league too far flung for our tastes. And it not just football/basketball. it would force us to become affiliated members of other leagues that the SB does not sponsor that are important parts of our athletic dept like lacrosse and field hockey, of which we have a national championship in (beating UNC). WE didn't want to have our athletic programs in 3 or 4 different leagues. Most fans could probably care less about that, but I can kind of see why from an athletic administrative standpoint, that is an issue.
But with CCU on board and the opportunity to add us and one other eastern school (EKU or Delaware), you'd get a different answer. But the SB has decided it wants to stay at 10. Which is perfectly ok for you guys to do so and makes sense for you with the decline of tv revenue and the deregulation of conference title games.
If CUSA and/or the MAC asked us, we'd accept tomorrow. It isn't an anti-FBS crusade. We'd go if the situation is right. That mantra has been consistently communicated publicly and non-publicly.