James Madison University looked lost against a 9-4 Air Force team despite dominating their schedule.
Choirs sung when the Dukes headed to Fort Worth in order to play a bowl game. A 31-21 loss to Air Force later and James Madison University has put a sad period to what otherwise was a productive season. Teams don’t just move up from the FCS to big time college football and take off with an 11 win season.
NCAA rules state that when a team begins a jump from the FCS to the FBS level, they must be void of postseason play for two years. The rule was enacted to make sure that teams can assess the financial burden of being in the upper echelon of college football without the addition of a bowl game payout. Nearly every team that has made the switch has had to compete with this rule, except in JMU’s case.
The Dukes put up a near-perfect season, going 11-1 with their only loss being in overtime against a solid Appalachian State team. When Dukes fans and quite frankly the rest of the population got wind that the Dukes weren’t eligible for the postseason despite having five more wins than the required six for a bowl game nor the Sun Belt title, backlash ensued. JMU vied for a bowl game, pleading the NCAA via petitions and social media– all for them to be ultimately denied initially.
Except James Madison knew this was going to happen. They were a powerhouse in the FCS, with their names being in the national championship hat nearly every year. It wasn’t uncommon for the Dukes to be back to back champions, and with an undergrad attendance of over 20,000– the jump to the FBS was almost inevitable. They knew they were going to be good from the start, and before people start pontificating about how hard it is to be good in college football, we know. It’s more the fact that the Dukes were handed a easier schedule than most, especially by FBS standards.
Yes, they beat Power Five Virginia early on in the season, a win which was hard to ignore to speak about how good that win was, but this is also a Cavalier team in which 33% of their wins came from the FCS. Either way, JMU went 8-3 last year, an impressive start to their FBS campaign, and this year going 11-1 is a testament to how good this team is.
They ultimately ended up making a bowl game due to a lack of 6-6 teams eligible for a postseason berth. While putting up a fight, the Dukes lost 21-31 in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl to Air Force whose ground and pound triple option offense wore JMU to a pulp.
The Dukes got exactly what they wanted. And they proved why the rule exists. Look past the 11-1 season and instead look deeper. The Sun Belt warranted a solid set of teams, and JMU steamrolled them. But put them in the greater scope of the FBS and it was apparent JMU needed a couple more years in order to make major inroads in the postseason scene. Their defense gave up clutch play after clutch play, including a pair of first downs to seal the game.
While James Madison’s offense didn’t look completely out of sorts, it sure didn’t look up to FBS standards against a team that has lost four in a row. All this means that the public pitchforks and torches approach doesn’t change the fact that the NCAA has rules in place for a reason– and that the two year probation rule might not be the worst thing to happen to college football as of late.
