(12-01-2020 07:20 AM)Madison 91 Forever Wrote:  Can we have a thread for actual, you know, rumors, and could this and the previous thread be retitled "Endless and Repetitive Griping and Moaning and Baseless Speculation about JMU's FCS status"?

yep - hence my lack of participation in the 258th go round of the same topic - and what makes it more special is this thread was started by a troll trying to still things up.

Fishing in a barrel...

(12-01-2020 08:30 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  My post is not baseless speculation. I posted an article in one of the threads recently about the lack of athletics harmony between the CAA schools. W&M is rumored to be heading to the Patriot league. The northern CAA football schools recently voted on a spring schedule where they don’t play the southern schools. Is the spring schedule a precursor to a more permanent arrangement? The northern schools all canceled fall football very quickly leaving JMU and Elon to scramble to make a schedule. This along with the 9-1 vote for the Flo contract with JMU being the lone no vote. Bourne publicly stated in his most recent dialogue his unhappiness with the Flo contract. To the best of my knowledge, he has never publicly denounced a conference decision during his tenure.

Where there is smoke there is fire. JMU is clearly not happy with the CAA at this time and the CAA northern membership may have grown tired of the beat downs in football JMU has put on them. This and the fact that travel costs could be cut significantly for northern schools if they broke off from the southern ones. It is quite obvious to me that the northern football schools don’t have the same commitment to football that Elon and JMU have. There is nothing baseless about my comments.

To piggyback off this sentiment, there is a meeting meeting of CAA presidents this week that I think could be pivotal to the future of the conference. If the Northern and Southern schools have their own agendas, if W&M wants to head to a new conference, if there have been background conversations, this could be the watershed moment. I know that is a lot of IFS in that sentence, and the most likely thing is we get some press release about how all the member institutions are "committed to one another and the CAA" and blah blah blech. But it is the Xmas season, and dammit I think we could all do with a little hope right about now.

(12-01-2020 12:53 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  There are only five football schools that play all sports in the CAA. If the six schools that play football only leave, what happens? Does W&M go to the Patriot for all sports? Elon heads back to the So Con? Richmond plays football only in the Patriot like Fordham and Georgetown?

We are seeing other FCS schools change conferences. It’s possible CAA football is in for changes too. I believe there is change on the horizon due to the loses experienced with COVID.

Where do you think JMU lands in such a scenario? What if neither the northern CAA schools or SoCon want us? Doesn’t seem a huge stretch given how hard it was said to be for us to assemble an FCS schedule this past fall.

FCS Indy vs a smattering of RMU and NSU type teams seems far worse than FBS Indy. My guess is CAA south invites NSU or someone like that to join to preserve the league

(12-01-2020 12:53 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  It is great to see non power 5 schools having success. I root for the underdog every chance I get. I will root for Liberty, Coastal, Marshall and App anytime they play a P5 school.

To make a move to FBS it takes a school President who wants it to happen and an AD to then orchestrate the move. Many of you point the finger at Bourne. President Rose said “not on my watch”. Alger has shown he isn’t going to push for such a move either. There is no guarantee the next President will move JMU to FBS.It is very possible JMU won’t move until forced to do so.

CAA Football seems to be on fragile footing. Any school or group of schools can leave without paying an exit fee. What happens if a large group of schools decide to leave the CAA to play in another league? Does CAA Football rebuild or do the remaining schools go elsewhere too? The Big South and So Con have room to add schools. The A10 or America East could sponsor football and take part of the league.

There are only five football schools that play all sports in the CAA. If the six schools that play football only leave, what happens? Does W&M go to the Patriot for all sports? Elon heads back to the So Con? Richmond plays football only in the Patriot like Fordham and Georgetown?

We are seeing other FCS schools change conferences. It’s possible CAA football is in for changes too. I believe there is change on the horizon due to the loses experienced with COVID.

The above post is spot on and probably fueled by more than speculation.

Nation admits (I think, although not intended) there is no conference plan(s). How can we say Alger has not supported 1A and neither do we know the next president will support G5 1A while at the same time we claim JMU has a plan/vison (playing chess)?

We don't even know that JMU would make a change if the regional G5s do make a move?

Rudderless comes to mind after reading Nation's post which again, is spot on, yet we get little to no communication from the athletic admin about the vison for football/conference and there are posters on thus board critical of other posters for asking, what is the plan?

We don't have a plan guys, never have had a plan and that is why we hear no communication, how can the admin say, "we don't have a plan, please remain engaged and donate to whatever may or may not happen."

They can't and don't and won't....

on goes the thread so large it has to be cut in half...

Do Virginia and Virginia Tech have a plan for athletics? How about ODU and Liberty? I haven’t read anything about their plans for the future. I know a guy on ODUs athletics foundation board. He isn’t aware of any plan. I know because I have asked them.

You have always asked for full disclosure on all things athletics and that leaves me scratching my head. Did the Colts let Baltimore know about their plan to move to Indianapolis? Did Maryland disclose their plan to leave the ACC for the Big 10?

Do you realize how ridiculous your expectations are on this subject?

You will know JMUs plan when it is leaked to McMurphy the day before it’s formal announcement.

Coastal Carolina and Liberty both being ranked in FBS, and College Gameday at Coastal this weekend, while we are still in FCS and not even playing this fall makes me want to bang my head against a wall

My only expectation is knowing that JMU would take a realistic 1a opportunity. We don't. In retrospect, I am not asking for a plan, I am asking for a vision. It is mentioned above accurately that we don't know if the next JMU president supports a move...circle. Do we have a dream to play peers in football?

The vision is being the best FCS program in the country and being facility ready should realignment provide an opportunity to move to a regional conference of peers. I know Bourne speaks with his counterpart at schools like ODU and App regularly. He likely speaks with others as well. Those are just two I know about. Do they talk about FBS, golf or fishing? Your guess is as good as mine.

Alger is not pushing for FBS. The Board of Visitors is not either. I don’t hear about large donors like Mike Battle pushing for FBS. When I speak with donors I know who are in the top 50 of Duke Club points ratings, they are not pushing for FBS.

Dukeman talks about this mythical group of donors ready to send millions to JMU if they make the move. With him, there is a lot of hot air. Dukeman donates $0 by the way.

I am curious. Is there anyone who posts here whose priority ranking is in the top 50? Top 100? I am 223 and I know my annual gift each year doesn’t move the needle. My guess is the rest of the posters on here give between 0-1000 a year. I am not judging anyone just looking to read the room.

I don’t care who our AD is now or in the future. He/she takes his orders from the President. By the way, if Alger goes my bet is the next President is a female. JMU is 62% female and has yet to have a female President.

JMUs donor community doesn’t move the needle for athletics. There isn’t big money influencing decisions. Without that influence, JMU is left to manage their athletics losses. The formula is pretty simple. How much can JMU afford to lose each year on athletics. Those losses are absorbed by student fees.

A proactive move to FBS will be donor driven not driven by the administration. Every JMU fan needs to understand this reality. Without big donor money pushing for a change, the administration will monitor and react when and if change occurs. If realignment creates a regional FBS opening, then the administration will reactively accept the invitation.

Does this once and for all answer you vision question Hazed? Like it or not I am spot on.

^sounds like a mic drop to me.
NGL - it's not what I want to hear but it sure makes sense and seems to be the harsh reality.

(12-02-2020 07:51 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  The vision is being the best FCS program in the country and being facility ready should realignment provide an opportunity to move to a regional conference of peers. I know Bourne speaks with his counterpart at schools like ODU and App regularly. He likely speaks with others as well. Those are just two I know about. Do they talk about FBS, golf or fishing? Your guess is as good as mine.

Alger is not pushing for FBS. The Board of Visitors is not either. I don’t hear about large donors like Mike Battle pushing for FBS. When I speak with donors I know who are in the top 50 of Duke Club points ratings, they are not pushing for FBS.

Dukeman talks about this mythical group of donors ready to send millions to JMU if they make the move. With him, there is a lot of hot air. Dukeman donates $0 by the way.

I am curious. Is there anyone who posts here whose priority ranking is in the top 50? Top 100? I am 223 and I know my annual gift each year doesn’t move the needle. My guess is the rest of the posters on here give between 0-1000 a year. I am not judging anyone just looking to read the room.

I don’t care who our AD is now or in the future. He/she takes his orders from the President. By the way, if Alger goes my bet is the next President is a female. JMU is 62% female and has yet to have a female President.

JMUs donor community doesn’t move the needle for athletics. There isn’t big money influencing decisions. Without that influence, JMU is left to manage their athletics losses. The formula is pretty simple. How much can JMU afford to lose each year on athletics. Those losses are absorbed by student fees.

A proactive move to FBS will be donor driven not driven by the administration. Every JMU fan needs to understand this reality. Without big donor money pushing for a change, the administration will monitor and react when and if change occurs. If realignment creates a regional FBS opening, then the administration will reactively accept the invitation.

Does this once and for all answer you vision question Hazed? Like it or not I am spot on.

My question is - are we already spending enough to go FBS?

I hear talk about we need big donors to make the move.

Here's some related questions:
1) How much is the exit fee?
2) How much to fund additional scholarships?
2-b-1) Do we need to fund the full amount of additional ships?
2-b-2) With less scholarships are we currently better than half of FBS?
3) How much would entry fee be to a new league?

And most importantly
4) Aren't we already spending more than many other FBS programs?

5) Would the move to FBS allow us to increase ticket prices? Would the move to FBS mean bigger revenues to play FBS games?

Obvious costs to move:
- Exit Fee
- Entry Fee
- Higher coaching salaries
- More scholarships
- potentially additional travel

I could see some initial transition fees creating short term additional costs, but I could also see increase in revenues offsetting additional annual costs going forward.

I could honestly envision a JMU football program being just as competitive of UVA most years if we just make the move.

(12-02-2020 11:09 AM)Dukester Wrote:  *snip*

I hear talk about we need big donors to make the move.

*snip*

I think the point being made (please correct me if I'm wrong, Nation) is not so much that a lot more money would be needed from big donors, but rather the existing big donors would have to threated pulling their donations in order to force some communication/movement.

(12-02-2020 11:09 AM)Dukester Wrote:  My question is - are we already spending enough to go FBS?

I hear talk about we need big donors to make the move.

Here's some related questions:
1) How much is the exit fee?
2) How much to fund additional scholarships?
2-b-1) Do we need to fund the full amount of additional ships?
2-b-2) With less scholarships are we currently better than half of FBS?
3) How much would entry fee be to a new league?

And most importantly
4) Aren't we already spending more than many other FBS programs?

5) Would the move to FBS allow us to increase ticket prices? Would the move to FBS mean bigger revenues to play FBS games?

Obvious costs to move:
- Exit Fee
- Entry Fee
- Higher coaching salaries
- More scholarships
- potentially additional travel

I could see some initial transition fees creating short term additional costs, but I could also see increase in revenues offsetting additional annual costs going forward.

I could honestly envision a JMU football program being just as competitive of UVA most years if we just make the move.

Buy games go up in price by quite a bit so that is a nice windfall. Rumor has it that Idaho ended up with less money saved and more spent when they moved down because they didn’t factor in less money for FCS buy games. And I assume ticket prices go up for FBS games. There are probably other things that improve money wise like sponsors since their brand would be reaching a larger audience. Probably other stuff I’m not even thinking about. Oh for a Indy we (LU) do get 300k’ish from the CFP every year so there’s that.

“JMUs donor community doesn’t move the needle for athletics.”

“A proactive move to FBS will be donor driven not driven by the administration.”


Sounds like a politician.

(12-02-2020 07:51 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  The vision is being the best FCS program in the country and being facility ready should realignment provide an opportunity to move to a regional conference of peers. I know Bourne speaks with his counterpart at schools like ODU and App regularly. He likely speaks with others as well. Those are just two I know about. Do they talk about FBS, golf or fishing? Your guess is as good as mine.

Alger is not pushing for FBS. The Board of Visitors is not either. I don’t hear about large donors like Mike Battle pushing for FBS. When I speak with donors I know who are in the top 50 of Duke Club points ratings, they are not pushing for FBS.

Dukeman talks about this mythical group of donors ready to send millions to JMU if they make the move. With him, there is a lot of hot air. Dukeman donates $0 by the way.

I am curious. Is there anyone who posts here whose priority ranking is in the top 50? Top 100? I am 223 and I know my annual gift each year doesn’t move the needle. My guess is the rest of the posters on here give between 0-1000 a year. I am not judging anyone just looking to read the room.

I don’t care who our AD is now or in the future. He/she takes his orders from the President. By the way, if Alger goes my bet is the next President is a female. JMU is 62% female and has yet to have a female President.

JMUs donor community doesn’t move the needle for athletics. There isn’t big money influencing decisions. Without that influence, JMU is left to manage their athletics losses. The formula is pretty simple. How much can JMU afford to lose each year on athletics. Those losses are absorbed by student fees.

A proactive move to FBS will be donor driven not driven by the administration. Every JMU fan needs to understand this reality. Without big donor money pushing for a change, the administration will monitor and react when and if change occurs. If realignment creates a regional FBS opening, then the administration will reactively accept the invitation.

Does this once and for all answer you vision question Hazed? Like it or not I am spot on.

I don't disagree in the slightest but will add a few thoughts:

The average athletics donor here is likely under $1000.00. Take out the top 10% and I would think $1000-$1500 for all donors is average. I'm in that group. I have no reason to donate more because it's what I feel the value in the CAA is. Let's say we go the AAC for football and A10 for basketball, split the other sports . That $1000 probably jumps to $5000. I saw this at VCU after the move to the A10. It takes money for success to play and compete in a bigger pond. The donor that was giving $1000 in 2010 is now giving $5000 just to maintain their "rankings". (Take out MBB, JMU as a whole has a more successful athletics program than VCU).

I get JMU is a football school and supporters focus on that but how about the other sports programs? Take out MBB and we are pretty much a big fish bully smaller fish in a pretty small pond.

What happens if MBB makes a tournament run a couple years in a row? Can JMU afford to stay in a one bid CAA? (GMU comes to mind) The CAA has been a pretty good FCS conference in the past but how long does that last? Is there a plan or do we react when the time comes?

I will donate again when JMU is FBS. Not until then.

The vmajority of my JMU donation is to the MRDs. They’re great at either FCS or FBS. That being said, I’d give much more to the Duke Club at FBS. Until then, I’ll do enough to keep my tickets and my parking spot, and not much more. We’re already paying a lot for an FCS product.

Liberty coastal in serious jeopardy as LU has COVID issues, including to their qb who has already been ruled out.

But wait, coastal pulling a power move and has byu ready and on standby if LU can’t post.

Coastal probably hoping the flames flame out.

Coastal/BYU would be the game of the year for me thus far this season. At least as far as my pregame enthusiasm about it.

(12-02-2020 03:30 PM)Purple Wrote:  I will donate again when JMU is FBS. Not until then.

Not busting on you Purple. It is your money so you get to decide how it is spent. I have heard several others share the same you have. This sentiment is exactly why JMU will be FCS for a long time.