James Madison held out as long as it could.

The Dukes will not open training camp on today as originally planned, according to assistant athletic director for communications Kevin Warner.

Warner said: “Based upon developments on the national scene [Thursday] the team is pausing its opening workout originally scheduled for Friday morning until there is more clarity about a direction moving forward.”

JMU was planning on playing this fall as an FCS independent after its league, the Colonial Athletic Association, decided against doing so last month.

Players had arrived in Harrisonburg for strength and conditioning workouts on July 6 and had been preparing for training camp since.

But as JMU readied – while proceeding with proper health and safety protocols along with regular coronavirus testing to slow the spread of COVID-19 – most of the FCS crumbled.

On Wednesday, the NCAA Board of Governors didn’t make a decision on whether or not fall championships would be held and instead gave the power for each division to make its choice. Division II and Division III canceled its fall championships, but Division I has yet to make decision and has until Aug. 21 to do so. The lone requirement the Board of Governors set directly applicable to the fate of the FCS postseason is that 50 percent of all playoff-eligible teams must participate this fall in order for the postseason to happen.

That leaves conferences and schools in the subdivision to make their own choices.

JMU has said all along if the FCS postseason is held in the fall, it’ll try to its best to play in the fall. The Dukes have appeared in three of the last four FCS national championship games, and won it all in 2016.

“This decision is important to protect our brand,” JMU coach Curt Cignetti said last month on the heels of the decision to play as an independent. “There’s been a lot of hard work here over the last 20, 25 years. Players, coaches, administrators, donors and leaders have gotten us to where we are today and we have an exciting future. I think we needed to make a statement and we did.”

But on Thursday, as Warner alluded to in his statement, the landscape had changed.

The number of FCS schools attempting to play this fall had reportedly dropped below the 50 percent threshold set by NCAA Board of Governors. Hero Sports reported the Big Sky would cancel its football season and STATS FCS reported the Pioneer Football League would not play this season either.

Nationally in the subdivision, eight leagues – Big Sky, CAA, Ivy League, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Northeast Conference, Patriot League, Pioneer League and Southwestern Athletic Conference – of the 13 had canceled or were planning to.

Prior to JMU putting its season on pause, on Wednesday, the Dukes’ All-American punt returner and safety D’Angelo Amos entered the NCAA transfer portal with the hope of finding a landing spot at a school in the Power Five. He said he wanted give himself a greater chance of playing a season this fall.