Not necessarily. It was just a couple of weeks ago that the AAC said they had no immediate plans for expansion or adding new members. A couple weeks later, boom! They add JMU, and it sounds like JMU offered the AAC slightly less than what Sayler is willing to offer. Everyone has a price.
And they are sitting at 15 football teams add Miami for 16!
Is Miami a better addition than UCONN football only??
I think the last three weeks of football and empty seats on the student side at Yager have hurt our chances. We havenât made the strides in football that JMU has recently in becoming a nationally recognized brand. We were the giant killer for many years up to 2003 but that luster is now long gone. Basketball and womenâs sports might be our saving grace eventually.
I donât think this fr matters
I do. Look at some of the reasons JMU got in in the Americanâs announcement.
Attendance doesnât matter look at some of the AAC attendance. Itâs all about $$$
Our attendance is not noticeably different than it has ever been.
The fact that JMU had to pay $23M to enter makes our $30M potentially light. I thought having Riley Decker company being a new AAC sponsor might be a good sign
Apparently not. We offered more money than JMU. They donât dominate any media market either. Fan engagement was mentioned as a JMU positive.
Yes, because that sounds better than âWe gladly took their bag of cash.â
JMU paying AAC 23 million and Sun Belt 5 million exit fee. So 28 million total to switch conferences.
Our offer was between $30-40 million right?
As far as our record and current football performance, if the American or any conference is looking at us, they have done enough research to understand that we lost our top 2 QBs. So I doubt our performance (or lack there of) right now is swaying our chances too heavily. But attendance, tv numbers, social media fan interaction, et cetera, along with overall money that we bring to the table are probably the factors weighing most heavily on the decision.
There is apparently something about us they are not sold on.
James Madison football was in the playoff last year
Since 2022, James Madison is 46-11 in football. And that includes losing a coach.
I think it is check size
This wasnât about picking JMU over Miami. First JMU was always the first pick but the timing is because the Sun Belt is meeting next week to increase exit fees. I expect JMU called up the AAC and said make this happen before that.
The MAC isnât raising fees, at least not yet, so thereâs no reason to rush any potential invites to MAC schools.
