(04-16-2014 02:21 PM)VandyBen Wrote:  Well, JMU is like the Montanas of the East. Competitive, ready for FBS, but the Administration just doesn't have the nads to make the move.
Frustrating...... if the WAC could have gotten enough FCS schools to move up like the SBC has been able to do, they wouldn't have had to stop playing football. A lot more choices in the East.
Then again, as fukked up as FBS is right now, and seems to be getting worse, one could argue why in the hell would anyone make the move?

Or remain FBS for that matter....hmmm

(04-16-2014 10:17 AM)bridgeforthduke Wrote:  

(04-16-2014 09:54 AM)GoAppsGo92 Wrote:  

(04-16-2014 08:39 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(04-16-2014 08:35 AM)UofRfan Wrote:  From JMU Board - This was at the end of a long email from Pres. Alger to JMU employees titled "Spring Update" ...

Conference Affiliation Discussions: The topic of athletics conference membership continues to be on the minds of many of our constituents. As we plot our course through a constantly shifting landscape, we remain committed to thoughtful and open communication.

We are well aware of the changing scene within our conference as well as nationally. In response, we have engaged in a rigorous analysis of our athletic profile within the context of our strategic planning process. This process, resulting in The Madison Plan, confirmed our institutional core values: Academic Quality, Community, Diversity, Excellence, Integrity and Student Focus. Further, we determined that any new conference membership opportunity must align with the following guiding principles and criteria: academic profile and fit, university culture, student and student-athlete welfare, financial impact and sustainability, competitive balance, and geographic footprint. Feedback received from the JMU community and its many constituencies through extensive and thoughtful dialogue supports these values and principles, and we will use them as criteria for all future decisions, including those involving athletics.

Consistent with these values and principles and the ongoing issue of conference alignment, JMU will not pursue or accept an invitation from a conference that does not meet our criteria. If we do receive an offer consistent with our established values, we are prepared to review it and make a recommendation to the Board of Visitors. This process is ongoing and will require continued support on the part of the university, students, faculty, staff, coaches, alumni, and fans.

In the meantime, we are enjoying the close of our spring sports season and looking forward to an exciting new year in 2014-15 across our entire athletics program.

As you can tell, it has been an eventful year at JMU. JMU is clearly on the move, and we are excited about the future as we continue to dream big together. Thank you all for being part of the JMU community!

Jon Alger

President

Like I said. They don't want to be with a bunch of deep south rubes. JMU is so academically superior with a better class of people involved with their program that affiliating would cause the walls to collapse and average students would suddenly feel welcome there.

Hold it. The letter states that they would not have brought our potential invite to the BOV if it did not meet "The Madison Plan" criteria. They did bring it to the BOV to vote, so the administration must have felt it met the criteria. BOV voted "no" on an FBS offer that the administration put forward for a vote. All the rest of this is garbage. They had a legit offer for FBS and they blinked. Time to move on.

There was no vote. JMU has said in the past that an actual vote would take place in public session. Besides, an invitation wouldn't even be extended unless the conference knows the school will accept.

Please. Yes an invitation wasn't offered. Yes, there wasn't a conditional close "we will invite if you say yes". But there were discussions and your administration did go to the BOV to likely be given authorization to negotiate on the university's behalf. The BOV said no. You guys are going nowhere, and for a while. Let's move on.

(04-16-2014 08:46 AM)ODUalum78 Wrote:  

(04-16-2014 08:31 AM)UofRfan Wrote:  JMU very well could have said no to the Sunbelt, but the idea JMU wouldn't go to the MAC/CUSA if invited today seems incorrect IMO. There are fiscal concerns and an overreliance on student fees, but I have always been under the impression JMU doesn't think the Sun Belt is a good fit geographically (students don't come from south) as well as academic concerns (staying with peers).

As has been posted, the academic differences between the SBC, the MAC, and CUSA are negligible. That excuse can only be used to justify staying in the CAA, which by a number of metrics is indeed above the aforementioned three.

Nail. Head.

JMU is completely capable of going FBS. The Sun Belt isn't going to harm their academics. Joining a southern conference isn't going to scare northern students away any more than it harms Mizzou.

(04-16-2014 08:39 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(04-16-2014 08:35 AM)UofRfan Wrote:  From JMU Board - This was at the end of a long email from Pres. Alger to JMU employees titled "Spring Update" ...

Conference Affiliation Discussions: The topic of athletics conference membership continues to be on the minds of many of our constituents. As we plot our course through a constantly shifting landscape, we remain committed to thoughtful and open communication.

We are well aware of the changing scene within our conference as well as nationally. In response, we have engaged in a rigorous analysis of our athletic profile within the context of our strategic planning process. This process, resulting in The Madison Plan, confirmed our institutional core values: Academic Quality, Community, Diversity, Excellence, Integrity and Student Focus. Further, we determined that any new conference membership opportunity must align with the following guiding principles and criteria: academic profile and fit, university culture, student and student-athlete welfare, financial impact and sustainability, competitive balance, and geographic footprint. Feedback received from the JMU community and its many constituencies through extensive and thoughtful dialogue supports these values and principles, and we will use them as criteria for all future decisions, including those involving athletics.

Consistent with these values and principles and the ongoing issue of conference alignment, JMU will not pursue or accept an invitation from a conference that does not meet our criteria. If we do receive an offer consistent with our established values, we are prepared to review it and make a recommendation to the Board of Visitors. This process is ongoing and will require continued support on the part of the university, students, faculty, staff, coaches, alumni, and fans.

In the meantime, we are enjoying the close of our spring sports season and looking forward to an exciting new year in 2014-15 across our entire athletics program.

As you can tell, it has been an eventful year at JMU. JMU is clearly on the move, and we are excited about the future as we continue to dream big together. Thank you all for being part of the JMU community!

Jon Alger

President

Like I said. They don't want to be with a bunch of deep south rubes. JMU is so academically superior with a better class of people involved with their program that affiliating would cause the walls to collapse and average students would suddenly feel welcome there.

It is interesting that so many schools feel that way about the Belt and the down your nose look is going to come as a giant shock to the engineers and the physicians, the poets, astronauts and and and whom have graduated from the institutions in SBC.....basically the ACT, SAT scores are lower on average but good students do well at almost all institutions and nor does snootiness give you a leg up when it comes to grants etc............But as a transplanted rube again the other professionals who support and graduated from these schools wish JMU and all others who have a superiorty complex well.....because if they played us they would get their snotty little arses kicked.....

(04-16-2014 11:16 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(04-16-2014 10:23 AM)asupatch Wrote:  

(04-16-2014 10:08 AM)FIUFan Wrote:  I don't know but I just read through the bio for JMU on wiki and it aint real impressive. 19,000 students, only 1,800 of which are grad students with no real Phd or professional programs to speak of. It's in the middle of nowhere (MSA of 126k and a town pop. of 45k). I thought we were talking about an Old Dominion type school here; we aren't.

No great loss in not having JMU on board....might even be better off.

What schools in the Sunbelt offer PHD's? Not too many I would guess. I know App doesn't. We also have a population of 32k. 1/4 that of Hburg region.

Arkansas State offers the following doctoral programs.
Educational Leadership, EdD
Environmental Science, PhD
Heritage Studies, PhD
Molecular Bioscience, PhD

Are you the same guy from the old days on the CNNSI boards?

JMU needs some NADS...

(04-16-2014 02:43 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  JMU is completely capable of going FBS. The Sun Belt isn't going to harm their academics. Joining a southern conference isn't going to scare northern students away any more than it harms Mizzou.

I know, Tulane has had a problem getting anyone from the Northeast to come to school there because they played in a conference centered from NC to Texas. And they've apparently found it difficult to maintain a national profile as well.

All of the excuses for not joining the SBC I have heard are very lame.

Retweeted by Vandal Nation
Matthew Stoss ‏@MatthewStoss

Bourne confirmed that JMU has no invitation and that the Sun Belt never invited JMU to join.

(04-16-2014 04:37 PM)Crump1 Wrote:  All of the excuses for not joining the SBC I have heard are very lame.

JMU AD Jeff Bourne just told the Harrisonburg newspaper beat writer that JMU was never invited to the Sun Belt. DOes that mean JMU couldn't have just said to Benson, "We're in dude" and JMU could've joined? Who knows and we'll never know. Ship has sailed....good luck to the Belt this season.

I posted the following pictures many, many months ago, but will post them again for the sake of the discussion. The following pictures are why JMU said no to the Sun Belt Conference (if they really did). The JMU folks know these maps well, and the power of elitism is still strong at many universities across the country.


Median Household income....Look where JMU recruits it students...Northern VA and the Acela Corridor...SEC country is sparse.






Percentage of low income students in public schools...




High school graduates as a % of students -





JMU is looking at these maps wondering who they're going to recruit and what good it would do them to have an increased presence in the SBC...the answer...they won't be recruiting anyone, and the SBC would do nothing to increase their general student body recruiting in that fertile Acela Corridor.


Now here at Liberty on the other hand, we don't care about elitism. Our costs are in the bottom 25% of all private schools in the country, and at a 1040 average freshmen SAT we are certainly NOT going to thumb our nose at the SBC as JMU may have with their 1180...

We look at this map, and LOVE the Sun Belt Conference. Face it guys, we are a match....made in heaven. This is where we want to be. This is where we want to recruit...both athletes and general students. You should love it way more than you hate it. The SBC and Liberty would be a tremendous fit!

Being a member of the SBC is not going to send Northern Virginia students to flee screaming from JMU. That is ignorant.

Matthew Stoss ‏@MatthewStoss

I never heard back from the JMU president's office after it gave me permission to talk to the JMU athletics department.

No one seems to be considering the possibility that moving to the Sunbelt just to get in the FBS door wasn't really that major of a deal to them. Honestly, could anyone say 100% that if ODU hadn't gotten an invite from CUSA that they would've accepted a Sunbelt invite just for the sake of being FBS?

(04-16-2014 05:08 PM)AlwaysSunny Wrote:  No one seems to be considering the possibility that moving to the Sunbelt just to get in the FBS door wasn't really that major of a deal to them. Honestly, could anyone say 100% that if ODU hadn't gotten an invite from CUSA that they would've accepted a Sunbelt invite just for the sake of being FBS?

Obviously not. But it may be a bigger deal in a few years when they look back on it.

(04-16-2014 05:08 PM)AlwaysSunny Wrote:  No one seems to be considering the possibility that moving to the Sunbelt just to get in the FBS door wasn't really that major of a deal to them. Honestly, could anyone say 100% that if ODU hadn't gotten an invite from CUSA that they would've accepted a Sunbelt invite just for the sake of being FBS?

I can't say for sure, because a lot of the financial issues were to be somewhat mitigated by having ECU (closer even than JMU) as a travel partner.
However, I believe that our administration and BOT are forward thinking enough have strongly considered it.
Additionally, we have been an SBC member in the past.
Hehe I am old enough to remember it, and I enjoyed our time here.

Without any inside knowledge whatsoever, I would have to guess that we would have.

(04-15-2014 08:32 PM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  In all honesty, adding NMSU for all-sports and UMass for football only would be the best move at PRESENT time for the Sun Belt IMO. It still gives you the wiggle room in the future for 2 members. Let the ramp up for those spots begin.

I hope NMSU gets the all sports invite they are better than the WAC. I feel a connection to NMSU after being refugees with them. I do wonder why twelve is needed for all sports ? No divisions and they are definitely not APPS travel partner.

They do bring strong basketball so why are they already not all sports?

(04-16-2014 02:28 PM)FIUFan Wrote:  

(04-16-2014 02:21 PM)VandyBen Wrote:  Well, JMU is like the Montanas of the East. Competitive, ready for FBS, but the Administration just doesn't have the nads to make the move.
Frustrating...... if the WAC could have gotten enough FCS schools to move up like the SBC has been able to do, they wouldn't have had to stop playing football. A lot more choices in the East.
Then again, as fukked up as FBS is right now, and seems to be getting worse, one could argue why in the hell would anyone make the move?

Or remain FBS for that matter....hmmm

That is Delaware

(04-16-2014 01:38 PM)DrGonzo Wrote:  You can blame the panel of UNC alumni that make such decisions for that. The slave masters have hampered our growth at every turn. They veto our efforts to start more and force us to cut ones we already have. Meanwhile, UNC CH enjoys and endless list of Graduate and PhD level programs as they spend tax payer money covering up the biggest academic fraud scandal in NCAA history.

UNC Board of Governors = The slave masters

I had always heard that we had similar problems in Georgia. UGA basically controlled everything. But now we have a few alums that are part of the Board of Regents and things seem to be changing.