Virginia attorney general writes letter asking NCAA to make James Madison bowl eligible
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares really wants his alma mater to go to a bowl game this season.
The James Madison graduate wrote a letter to the NCAA and president Charlie Baker on Wednesday pleading his case for the Dukes’ bowl eligibility. James Madison is 5-0 and a win away from the six-win bowl threshold for bowl eligibility. However, since the Dukes are in their second season at the top level of college football, they are unable to play in the postseason.
“It is my understanding that the two-year transition period, during which the transitioning college or university is ineligible to compete for a championship at either the FCS or FBS level, allows the transitioning program time to satisfy the FBS’ requirements of eligibility and ease into the higher level of competition,” Miyares wrote in the letter obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Historically, colleges and universities transitioning from FCS to FBS compete against primarily FCS programs in year one and primarily against FBS programs in year two, allowing the program to gradually rise to the higher level of competition while implementing necessary changes to their infrastructure.
“As you know, JMU did not take this traditional approach to its transition. First, JMU quickly implemented all necessary changes to their infrastructure. Second, JMU immediately accepted an offer to join the Sun Belt Conference, which has, since 2001, competed at the FBS level. Third, in 2022, its first year in the transition period, ten of JMU’s eleven football games were played against FBS opponents.”
Why the letter likely won’t work
Miyares’ letter to the NCAA and Baker — the former governor of Massachusetts — comes after the school has already failed in its attempts to become bowl eligible in 2023. The school applied for a waiver to play in the postseason in 2023 but that waiver was denied by the NCAA in the spring.
James Madison was also well aware of the two-year postseason ban that came with moving up to the top level of college football. The Dukes went 8-3 in 2022 and went 6-2 against Sun Belt opponents. The Dukes finished in first place in the East division after beating Coastal Carolina to end the season. However it’s worth noting that Coastal Carolina knew that game didn’t matter for the division title.
“While we are incredibly disappointed, I want to stress that we knew the NCAA reclassification bylaws when we decided to move to FBS,” JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne said in an April statement after the waiver request had been denied. “We knew what we signed up for and at no point were we disillusioned to think otherwise. With that in mind, I ask our supporters in JMU nation to not respond with a negative outpouring against the NCAA or anyone involved in this review process. We knew the rules, we followed established protocol for a waiver request, and apparently will not get the result we had hoped in this particular process.”
Since the waiver didn’t work in April, a letter from Miyares isn’t going to work in October. James Madison was already the first school to appeal against the two-year postseason ineligibility rule and it’d be unprecedented for the NCAA to reverse on its previous process and acquiesce to a letter like this. The only realistic way for James Madison to get to a bowl game in 2023 is if it has six or more wins and if there aren’t enough six-win teams to fill 82 bowl spots at the end of the season.
