HARRISONBURG — The college football community will pay attention to James Madison University today.
ESPN’s “College GameDay” is in Harrisonburg and its show will originate from the JMU Quad beginning at 9 a.m.
“We tip our hat to programs that are good,” said “GameDay” analyst David Pollack. “We don’t go to sorry teams.
“There are plenty of spots to go, and I’m not saying this week is the best week in college football, but you go to a team that’s a national champion and on a 17-game winning streak and that’s pretty awesome.”
The Dukes, ranked No. 1 in FCS, are relevant, the reigning champions and holder of the nation’s longest active winning streak in Division I.
The “College GameDay” crew, which sees a different college campus each week — most of the time at Power Five schools — isn’t sold on a potential FBS jump for the Dukes, however.
“I mean, I think they can certainly make the jump to FBS one day, but is that a good thing?” said Lee Fitting, ESPN’s vice president of college sports and a 1996 JMU graduate. “I don’t know. I think the majority of the fans that may not know all the details to go are like, ‘We’re going to go, that’s a home run, why wouldn’t we do it?’
“But the flip side of that is how many teams that have gone from FCS to FBS in the last 20 years have a had a ton of success? I challenge you to give me a list of teams. I guess maybe Boise State.”
Boise State’s first year in FBS (or I-A, at the time) was 1996. The Broncos have won conference championships in the Big West, WAC and Mountain West and have played in three Fiesta Bowls, all of which Boise State won.
More recently, Appalachian State jumped in 2014 and Old Dominion started to transition a year earlier after leaving the Colonial Athletic Association for FBS and Conference USA.
“When’s the last time they’ve been in a big bowl game that you remember?” Fitting said. “So you have to ask yourself, are you happy being one of the lead dogs in FCS and competing for national championships? Or do you want to move up to FBS where there’s probably a pretty good chance that you’re a run-of-the-mill team in a mid- to lower-level conference that may win a big game every year if you schedule one in the non-conference.”
Liberty is currently transitioning to FBS and will be full-fledged member for the 2019 season.
Rece Davis, host of “College GameDay,” echoed Fitting’s sentiments.
“Why not be elite at where you are? I mean, I think, it seems to have really worked well for [James Madison], the program and everything else, so I don’t understand the rush to jump up,” Davis said. “I think it’s a problem in basketball and we have too many teams at the highest level in basketball, and to be honest, I think we have too many teams at the highest level in football, too. So I would be a proponent of being excellent where you are, but it doesn’t mean you don’t aspire.”
Davis and Fitting both said if there are financial reasons to go, they understands why a school would make a jump.
According to the USA Today 2015-16 college athletic financial database, JMU generated the most revenue ($47,442,648) in all of FCS and the CAA, and was 59th overall out of 230 FBS and FCS schools.
“That’s what you’re weighing, but I don’t think it’s a slam dunk that if you go FBS that it’s a win,” Fitting said. “Look at what [FCS schools] North Dakota State and Youngstown State have done and other prominent programs over the years. They’ve built a healthy program and the schools have seen a ton of success because of it.”
