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James Madison has officially recognized an invitation to be part of the Sunshine Belt Convention, it was announced Saturday.
An FCS powerhouse that gained the national title in 2016 and has produced two title-recreation appearances since, James Madison will start off a two-year transition to the FBS immediately after this season and will be part of the Sun Belt no afterwards than July 1, 2023.
“We are thrilled to welcome James Madison College to the Sunlight Belt Convention,” Solar Belt commissioner Keith Gill claimed. “This move brings one more robust brand and passionate lover base into the Sunshine Belt and elevates the Dukes’ storied football application to the greatest stage of NCAA opposition. I am grateful to JMU president Jonathan Alger and athletics director Jeff Bourne for their management during this course of action and appear forward to doing the job intently with them going ahead.”
The Dukes’ addition delivers the range of Sunshine Belt members to 16, with the Dukes signing up for Appalachian Point out, Tiny Rock, Arkansas Point out, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Ga Condition, Louisiana, ULM, South Alabama, UTA, Texas Condition and Troy, along with new associates Southern Miss, Previous Dominion and Marshall, which announced programs to be a part of the Sunshine Belt final week.
James Madison, earlier a member of the Colonial Athletic Meeting, will compete in the Sunlight Belt in all sports activities. The Dukes participate in 18 varsity athletics.
“As James Madison College prepares and anticipates to generate additional nationwide recognition for our academic plans and excellence, admission into the Sunlight Belt Convention is a all-natural and complementary future step for our establishment,” Alger said. “We are thrilled to have received and accepted an invitation into this meeting, with a new and visionary option for significant-degree levels of competition inside the eastern area. We have usually sought to do issues the suitable way as a university for our college students, college and staff members, scholar-athletes and coaches and the time is suitable for JMU to move up to the best level in D-I athletics and enter the Sunshine Belt!”
James Madison resolved to pursue a shift to the Solar Belt Convention regardless of becoming instructed by the Colonial Athletic Association that it will be barred from collaborating in CAA championships before its true departure.
The Dukes’ withdrawal from the CAA is helpful June 30, 2022, the CAA stated. The meeting had explained to James Madison that it will be barred from participating in CAA championships ahead of its actual departure.
“JMU has been extremely effective for the duration of its time as a member of CAA Football and has brought good recognition to the conference. We realize their desire to transfer to the FBS degree and desire them properly in that pursuit,” CAA commissioner Joe D’Antonio stated in a statement Saturday.
In a assertion introduced before the vote, Alger and Bourne stated the CAA’s determination to ban the Dukes from competing for league championships in athletics other than soccer “is absolutely opposite” to the ideals that anxiety student-athlete welfare.
“We had been thorough and heartfelt in interesting to the league’s council of presidents, but that attractiveness was denied,” the assertion stated. “Eight other Division I conferences have total members that have publicly declared an exit and yet all 8 have permitted the pupil-athletes at these establishments to keep on competing for championships.”
D’Antonio said the final decision was in holding with the league bylaws, which the James Madison officials explained are out-of-date.
“To our information, the CAA is on your own in this outdated bylaw. JMU has striven to be a good partner of the CAA and to deal with other establishments as they would want to be dealt with, but that great is not being reciprocated,” the assertion claimed.
The Dukes, two-time national champions at the FCS degree, will not be barred from symbolizing the league in the soccer playoffs due to the fact unique bylaws govern that sport in the CAA and the league does not engage in a championship sport.
D’Antonio on Thursday noted that the league exacted the exact limitations in opposition to Previous Dominion and Georgia Point out when they selected to depart the league in 2013.
James Madison was scheduled to host CAA championships in men’s soccer, women’s basketball, women’s lacrosse and softball, but the league stated it will perform with the membership to establish new web-sites for individuals championships.
The Dukes’ departure for the FBS has been expected for decades, especially immediately after the Dukes turned regulars atop the FCS polls. They also expanded Bridgeforth Stadium in Harrisonburg, Virginia, to keep 25,000 followers for soccer.
Facts from The Involved Press was utilized in this report.
