The cat is out of the bag. The jig is up. Whatever you want to call it, the report is in: the James Madison Dukes are headed to the Sun Belt of the FBS, immediately upgrading their football program and more. But the writing seems to have been on the wall in Harrisonburg for a while, with the program now having won multiple FCS championships, JMU’s domination of the CAA in various major sports (most notably in football and women’s softball, among others), and the Dukes’ massive stadium expansion that took place ten years ago now, which boosted Bridgeforth Stadium’s capacity up over 24,000 seats.
While it’s hard to believe that JMU’s stadium was expanded way back in 2010 — feels like it was just yesterday — to be sure, there were rumors way back then that the Dukes were posturing for a jump to the “big leagues” of the FBS.
As a reminder, below are the primary differences between FCS and FBS college football programs:
- The NCAA’s Division I is divided into the FBS and FCS. FBS stands for Football Bowl Subdivision, signifying “bowl games” that teams play in at the end of each season (for boat loads of money).
- In total, there are 10 conferences and 130 FBS teams. Five of the conferences make up what’s called the Power 5 (Big 10, Big 12, SEC, PAC-12, ACC).
- The FCS is the other subdivision of NCAA’s Division I. It stands for Football Championship Subdivision and was known as Division I-AA from 1978-2005.
- The FCS is still Division I football (like FBS), but with major differences:
- The FBS has a four-team College Football Playoff, while the FCS hosts a 24-team playoff for the NCAA D-I Football Championship.
- FCS teams can only have 63 players on scholarship, while FBS football teams can have 85 players.
With JMU’s pending move, the CAA is now scrambling to adjust; in an era of constant school movement and realignment, nowadays most “mid-major” (read: non Power 5) conferences are just one or two school exits away from being rendered completely irrelevant — or worse, rendered completely extinct. It’s a scary reality for the CAA, but one that the conference’s leadership, as well as W&M’s senior leadership, must contemplate in order to mitigate moving forward…so, what’s their plan?
So just which schools would join? How many schools is the press currently reporting as interested in the CAA? Do these schools seem to fit in with the league — and with William & Mary?
Monmouth, based in New Jersey, boasts both football and basketball programs; Fairfield, based in Connecticut, maintains a basketball program, but not a football program — and while that difference might seem trivial, it’s very important. Several CAA teams field basketball teams, but do not maintain football programs. In the eyes of some, this puts CAA schools with both football and basketball programs at a disadvantage when it comes to basketball; the thought is that schools without football programs can put more money and resources into their basketball programs.
Ultimately though, it’s not the end of the world, but it’s certainly something that the CAA will need to take into account when thinking through how many teams it can feasibly house in the league’s two biggest revenue generating sports, that of course being football and basketball. In case you’re wondering, UNC Greensboro is like Fairfield, in that it maintains a basketball program but no football program.
If and when JMU departs the CAA, the league would be left with 11 football teams. Of course, Monmouth would bring that number back to 12. Similarly, on the basketball side, the league could actually jump up from 10 teams (minus JMU, plus Monmouth, Fairfield, and UNCG) to 13 teams. However, it’s not yet entirely clear that all three schools would join the CAA as “full” members (i.e. joining for all sports), though it’s entirely possible (albeit unlikely) that they would choose not to do so.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:
Did we not mention that conference realignment can have a domino effect? Well, insert Elon and College of Charleston. If the report is true, and if Elon and Charleston jettison the CAA for the Southern Conference, the CAA would lose two major, southern schools that most William & Mary fans have come to enjoy.
The Southern Conference, which William & Mary was actually a member of from 1936-1977, currently includes:
- University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
- The Citadel
- East Tennessee State University
- Furman University
- Mercer University
- Samford University
- University of North Carolina at Greensboro
- Virginia Military Institute
- Western Carolina University
- Wofford College
And while we’re not saying that William & Mary should or should not join the SoCon if Elon and Charleston leave, we certainly are saying that W&M leadership must at least entertain the possibility. In a time of constant budget cuts and “doing more with less,” the regional nature of the Southern Conference (with over half the teams in one of the Carolinas & Virginia), the Tribe would potentially stand to save a substantial amount of money on travel expenses if the CAA’s purported plan to reorganize into a North and South division falls through for one reason or another. The financial incentive, in and of itself, is a significant contributing factor to any future decision that W&M AD Brian Mann and his staff will have to make.
As noted, William & Mary also has significant history in the Southern Conference, having experienced its football “heyday” there in the 1940s when former W&M head coach Carl Voyles and the “Indians” would routinely dominate Virginia Tech and UVA, among other major football powers of the era — all before the FBS / FCS divide even existed.
But with so much uncertainty and potential movement surrounding the CAA in the league’s present state, it would likely behoove William & Mary to stay put and see how things shake out in the Colonial before planting its future in another conference.
But what do you think, Tribe fans? Leave us a comment on social media or at the bottom of this article and let us know! The next couple months will be interesting, to say the least; but one thing is for certain: you can rely on us to keep you covered.
LET’S GO TRIBE.
The William and Mary Sports Blog 
The loss of state rival JMU is a blow to the CAA as a good fit for W&M. The presence of long-time rivals Delaware and Richmond (at least in football) is good, but many of the other schools don’t seem like a good fit for academic and national stature compatibility.
I feel like the Patriot league may be a better fit for W&M as the CAA changes. My radical idea is a jump to the Ivy League. Although it is a conference of elite private schools, W&M is the one public school that would be a good fit by its history, academics and size. YEARS ago The NY Times reported that the Ivy League considered adding W&M, Colgate or Holy Cross. Moving to the Ivy League would be a great move and I note that our new AD is an alumnus of Ivy school Dartmouth. Just sayin’.
A10 should look to add back football. Drop Dayton and SLU and add WM and Elon/Delaware. Football would include Duquesne, Fordham, URI, UR, WM, Delaware/Elon, Villanova (football only) and whoever else may want to join for football only: Maine, Albany, Towson (too large and too weak of athletics programs to be a good full member addition). This would create a less sprawling A10 and bring back football revenue to a basketball only league. With a few exceptions it would be a league of similarly sized schools with a lot more options for regional competition. It would also be a very strong 8-10 team football league.
As Frank The Tank has so wisely stated on his own blog: “$#!+ ALWAYS rolls downhill in (FBS-level) conference realignment.” What we apparently didn’t realize was that C-USA was lower on the totem pole than the Sun Belt. However, when it comes to FCS, the factors behind realignment are more evenly weighted, with geographic and academic considerations combined may get MORE weight, then either basketball or (where applicable) football. Nevertheless, all other things being equal, $#!+ will still roll downhill… and the CAA is near the top of their local hill if you ask me. (Hills are more localized of course. The CAA isn’t going to compete for schools with the Big Sky, nor vice versa.)
So… from a conference’s standpoint, what makes the most sense? Maine, UNH, Rhody, Albany, Stony Brook, UR, and Villanova aren’t likely to join as all-sports members, (ESPECIALLY not ‘Nova) but they also are likely to want to stick together for football despite being all over the conference map for everything else. If JMU and Elon were to both leave, the CAA could remain at 10 football members (with W&M, Towson, and UD plus the above seven). However, from an non-football athletics standpoint, there are a number of possible directions for the CAA to go; much depends on if the CAA wants to become more geographically compact (the “Hail Boston! Hail Charleston!” strategy may or may not seem useful at this point) and, if so, whether to try to concentrate in a more southerly or more northerly direction.
And that choice would inform my opinion of what W&M should do (I strongly want W&M to associate with schools to the north of the ‘Burg rather than be more southern-centric).
Getting the Patriot League to add W&M and another NC and/or Virginia school seems like the best option and a better fit. Complacency in sports has left us the only Virginia school in the conference. Time to admit that the PL suits us better. We are not rich enough to join the Ivy and the Southern Conference has academic mediocrity written all over it (meaning that we won’t be athletically competitive). The A10 looks at us as jokes and being the last Va school in the CAA kinda validates that idea. We thought we had some special w Richmond until they put their interest first and dumped the CAA. JMU CLEARLY does not care about our rivalry. ODU, VCU, ECU, and GMU laughed at us as they walked out of the door. Liberty didn’t even bother w the CAA. Time to admit that we have more in commons with PL schools than southern schools. Time to think globally not regionally.
W&M should seriously consider SC. The schools are generally smaller institutions, take sports seriously, has a deep traditional history, are closer (especially the traffic driving south vs north), ranked higher in Sagarin ratings both football and basketball. With addition of Elon, CofC, and W&M, there would be a northern (VA, Tenn, and NC) and southern (SC, GA, AL) schools.
I am not at all in favor of joining the Patriot League although we have much in common them from and Academic Standpoint and them by attacting and recruiting ” true Student – Athletes’ as we do and their Members are starting to be offered ” Full Athletic Schlorships actually up to 56 per year compared to our NCAA MANDATED LEVEL OF 63. Thus, I would consider asking the best Universities from both the Patriot League and the Southern Conference where many of former members and long term Rivals reside to possibly join the Colonial Athletic Association, (CAA),
Or, better yet i would have our Board of Visitors, our Athletic Department and the University Administration start to think Big and form a new “Mid Major Football and Athletic Conference by inviting the best Schools like the best Academic and Athletic programs from the American Conference the USNA and Independents like the USMA our true Peer Universities, or we better yet we decide to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, ACC which is filled with many of our Academic and Athletic Peers and we compete ver well with them every year Just as President Dr. Davis Y. Paschall wanted to do when our Outstanding University had an Open Invitation in 1980 to do so.
I say forget and Screw JMU, ODU and the SUNBELT CONFERENCE AS WE ARE BETTER THAN THEM AS WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN. WILLIAM IS AN OUTSTANDING WORLD CLASS UNIVERSITY JUST LIKE NOTRE DAME, MANY OF THE PEER PUBLIC IVIES WHICH DO THAT IN EVERY THING WHICH WE UNDERTAKE SO IT’S ABOUT TIME THAT WE DECIDE AND COMMIT TO PERFORM AND EXCELL ON THE NATIONAL AND WORLD STAGE AS WE TRULY DO IN EVERYTHING ELSE. WE HAVE WON ABOUT 165 CAA TITLES TO JMU’S DISTANT 65. WE JUST NEED TO DO A MUCH BETTER AND MORE CONSISTANT JOB IN FOOTBALL BY DOMINATING THE CAA, BE A REGULAR FCS PLAYOFF TEAM, WIN 3-4 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS AND BE A REGULAR ANNUAL NCAA MEN’S AND WOMEN’S PLAYOFF TEAM
I TRULY BELIEVE THAT WE CAN FIND AND DEVELOP THE FINANCIAL RESOURCES TO DO SO !
BEST REGARDS.
JIM CALLAHAN, ’68
PAST PRESIDENT, TRIBE CLUB
W&M TRACK
PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL MEMBER
1989-1991