JMU field hockey will remain in the MAC.
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The only current AAC team with field hockey is temple, the conference doesnāt sponsor the sport
Which is why I posted they are remaining in the MAC. It was from a JMU press release.
Iāve been considering that the P4/G6 is no longer a useful frame, and that really there are 4 tiers
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B1G, SEC, Notre Dame
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ACC, B12
Neither of those are ordered. Quibble about them if you like, I think itās fine to just leave them as unordered pairs.
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American, PAC-12
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Sun, MWC, CUSA, MAC, UConn
3/4 are ordered, but weakly. American w/ JMU is now clearly #5. Memphis, JMU, USF - thatās a nice core of top names.
JMU brings the American to 15 teams. Bet theyād want 1 more. Probabl6 in football offseason. I think the names vying for the final spot are us, UConn, and perhaps Liberty?
Ultimately I think those are the top three names from tier 4, currently. Anyone I missed?
But, donāt forget it is rumored the following could leave the AAC: Tulane, North Texas, Memphis, South Florida, East Carolina. So it could be a watered down AAC in the near future.
That would be following a dissolved ACC, which is probably still a couple years away, as I understand things
Iād even split up 4 into SBC and MW then MAC and CUSA below
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i think that is the hierarchy, but the differences are pretty minor with the remade MWC and with JMU leaving the sun belt.
My theory is that the whole Miami wanting to join got leaked by the AAC to try raise the buy in for JMU. āLook Miami is willing to pay 30-40 mil how about you raise your offer a littleā
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Iād be thrilled even with Sun Belt at this point. Big shake up coming. Our attendance is a killer. And 8-10mm isnāt chemo change but we still lag way behind:Football Budgets
Liberty $23M
UNLV $21.7M
UConn $20.7M
Coastal Carolina $18.5M
Arkansas St $17.3M
UMass $16M
South Alabama $16M
App St $15.7M
New Mexico $15.5M
Old Dominion $15M
Louisiana $15M
Buffalo $15M
Nevada $14 8M
Wyoming $13M
Toledo $13M
FIU $13M
With our horrible attendance, lack of fan support, & no media market, I donāt see us being accepted anywhere.
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I dont think football budgets that you reference is the same as our NIL budget of 8-10million
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I have a new conference to propose, that some may like. Some may not like. Given the current state of things no one says you have to join an existing conference. Stay tuned to this same Bat channel! 
Thatās correct but at $11M our football budget is still below all of those schools mentioned.
That is true - we do have a lower football budget than most. I think I read we have the 105th highest budget in FBS.
But remember what football budgets mostly are is coaches salaries, cost of attendance and travel.
Coaches salaries is probably light - we probably could use another paid coach or two- but it has been improving
On cost of attendance we are a state school and our cost are probably lower than most of the other schools. Unless you are a school that has max capacity this is somewhat of an inflated number because you are getting allocated the total cost but you really are only costing the university the variable cost
Travel is probably the one thing that being in the MAC helps with because you have mostly bus trips. The AAC would certainly have higher travel
The FRS reports are public here:
I believe the most recent (FY25) covers the 2024 football season.
Scholarships: 4.07 million
Coaches: 3.53 million
Post Season expenses: 612K (+ another 78K in bonuses)
Travel: 503K
Support Staff: 457K
Recruiting: 431K
Equipment/Uniform/Supplies: 421K
Game expenses: 352K
Everything else is <= 150K
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Which I donāt believe covers the āroster salariesā we now pay.
I know some people harp on the student fees that go to athletics, JMU allocated $3000+ per student which funds 73% of their athletics budget, most of any school. Whatās Miami at now? I feel like 30 years ago it was like $1000 per, but could be remembering wrong.
Itās around 1100 per student in fees, plus another 300 in institutional support (20.8M and 6.2M for each category overall).
20K avg attendance, 9+wins, for five years. Then go ask to get in another league.
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