The path James Madison previously took into the FCS postseason will no longer be available to the Dukes assuming games are played this fall.

JMU won the Colonial Athletic Association outright in three of the past four years, using the league’s automatic bid to launch runs to the national title game in 2016, 2017 and 2019.

“There won’t be an automatic qualification spot out of the Colonial since they’re choosing not to play,” Chad Tolliver, the associate director of championships and alliances at the NCAA, told the Daily News-Record by phone Friday afternoon. “So James Madison would have to make the field as an at-large [qualifier]. Whatever the season looks like, they’re going to have to have a quality résumé with all the normal things we look at when we’re looking at at-large bids. They’re going to have to certainly fall under that criteria to be able to make the championship [field] should we have one.”

The NCAA Board of Governors met Friday and didn't come to a decision on the fate of fall championships, according to a statement from NCAA president Mark Emmert, and instead opted to continue discussions next month.

Tolliver said even though the Board of Governors could eventually determine whether or not the FCS playoffs are held that, “we’re still planning to move forward with the [FCS] championship as scheduled.”

There could be changes to the process of selection and how the field is bracketed, though, Tolliver noted.

During a regular year, 24 teams earn a berth to the FCS playoffs – 10 automatic qualifiers and 14 at-large choices. The 14 at-large choices are chosen via a selection committee that considers, among other criteria: overall record, record against opponents from other automatic qualifying conferences, record against FBS foes, head-to-head competition, record against common opponents, the FCS coaches poll and input from the regional advisory committees.

But this isn’t a normal year.

And in his statement, Emmert said: "It is clear that the format of our championships will have to change if they are to be conducted in a safe and fair manner."

Across the FCS, the CAA, Ivy League, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Patriot League and Southwestern Athletic Conference have canceled its fall seasons due to the coronavirus pandemic. The CAA and Patriot League have automatic bids into the tournament, but those won’t be used this year since those leagues aren’t playing, though the CAA is allowing its members to pursue an independent schedule for the fall like JMU and Elon are.

The Big South and the Southland Conference, two more automatic qualifying leagues, have gone the other way and definitively opted to play this fall.

“We may have to take a look at our selection criteria if we get to a situation where schools are only playing conference games,” Tolliver said, “or there’s a limited schedule from the 11 games teams are supposed to play. In that scenario, we’re going to have to look at how many games FCS teams are playing and what the situation is, and I think there’s a possibility we’ll have to adjust the overall selection criteria in certain areas to accommodate the uniqueness of the season.”

Tolliver said he doesn’t yet know whether or not the field of 24 would be lessened depending on how many schools play in the regular season.

“There’s been talk in the governance world,” Tolliver said, “and I don’t live in that world and try not to speak on those things too much because I know just enough to get myself in trouble, but I know there are conversations about minimum number of teams participating in the season to hold a championship.

“I don’t know where they’ve come out on that number, but I know those discussions are going on. Other than that, there’s not any template or formula for number of schools that decide not to play in the fall that’ll equal this number or a reduction in the bracket.”

Last week, JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne said he believes if at least 50 percent of schools in the FCS play this fall, the postseason could be considered legitimate.

“It would be nice if it were higher than that,” Bourne said. “You’d like every institution that stands an opportunity to be able to try to play for the postseason, but it’s very difficult. … This scenario changes daily and for those of us trying to plan and align in the industry, it’s very challenging.”

Logistically, Tolliver and the NCAA are planning to adapt as well, analyzing potential changes it might be forced to make.

“We’ll certainly have to, assuming everything stays as it is now,” he said. “We’ll need to see if there’s any adjustments that need to be made to the bracket and different ways we could run preliminary rounds and championship with all the COVID-19 issues in place.

“Like with fans. Are we going to have fans? Those are areas we’re working on now. It’s a fluid situation and things may change [Friday] or in two weeks, so we’re certainly discussing other options and what other options might be.

“But at this point our focus is on mainly the status quo.”

After the CAA’s announcement about not playing this fall, conference commissioner Joe D’Antonio told the DN-R the league was committed to exploring a spring season.

Additionally, the SWAC said it would play a seven-game conference schedule in the spring.

And Tolliver said it is possible to move the FCS postseason to the spring as long as that’s what the majority wants to do.

“We are willing to do what the membership asks us to do,” Tolliver said. “Obviously we’re a membership driven organization and at the end of the day if the group of the membership tells us we need to have championships in the spring, then we’ll find a way to get it done from a NCAA championship perspective. Whether it happens or not, I have no idea at this point, but we’ll be prepared for whatever the membership asks us to do.”