The College Football Playoff rankings can be launched for the primary time this season on Tuesday evening and there may be one unbeaten crew assured to be disregarded of the choice committee’s prime 25.
James Madison (8-0), ranked No. 23 within the AP Top 25, is ineligible for postseason play because it completes an NCAA-required transition interval to the very best degree of Division I soccer, the Bowl Subdivision. Since the CFP rankings are solely to find out postseason assignments for 2 playoff video games and 4 marquee bowls, the Dukes are ineligible to be ranked.
James Madison officers are nonetheless hoping the NCAA will present a waiver to permit the Dukes to play within the postseason, however they don’t seem to be significantly optimistic. JMU’s most certainly highway to a bowl can be as a substitute in a decrease-degree postseason sport if there are usually not sufficient groups that meet the standard eligibility commonplace of six wins and a .500 file.
Still, the Dukes are ok to no less than be within the dialog for a much bigger prize — a spot within the New Year’s Six Bowls that’s reserved for the CFP’s highest-ranked champion from a so-referred to as Group of Five convention on the finish of the common season.
That spot can be within the Fiesta Bowl this season and comes with a $4 million payout to the convention of the crew that earns it.
As it stands, the Dukes gained’t even be mentioned by the committee.
The hurdle isn’t the CFP however an NCAA rule aimed toward making certain faculties are prepared — on the sector and off — to maneuver as much as a better degree of competitors and keep there.
“We expected this,” James Madison athletic director Jeff Bourne stated of the Dukes being ineligible for the postseason. “The difference for me is JMU is in such a unique scenario and such an anomaly compared to other institutions who have gone through this previously.”
The Dukes are of their second season competing in Division I’s Bowl Subdivision and the Sun Belt Conference after the college in Harrisonburg, Virginia, was a perennial playoff crew for years within the Football Championship Subdivision.
The Dukes’ transition couldn’t have gone significantly better on the sector. They went 8-3 final 12 months and are sitting atop the Sun Belt East Division with 4 video games left. But similar to final 12 months, they’re ineligible to play within the convention championship sport.
“We’re supportive of JMU and their quest to become eligible for the postseason for this season,” Commissioner Keith Gill stated. “It’s in the Sun Belt, and all of our members’ best interests, to have all of our members eligible for everything.”
James Madison contends its crew has gone by way of the transition course of in another way tha nothers. JMU has performed a full Sun Belt convention schedule every of the final two seasons, with 10 video games in opposition to FBS competitors final 12 months and 11 this season.
The Dukes’ first season in FBS was distinctive. They beat seven FBS opponents. No different college that has transitioned from FCS since 2000 had greater than 4 FBS victories in Year 1.
A full slate of FBS opponents has turn out to be the norm for transitioning groups by Year 2. What separates the Dukes is the extent of success and the extent of competitors.
Since 2000, solely two groups have gained as many as eight video games of their second season in FBS. Georgia Southern went 9-3 in 2014 within the Sun Belt, which was thought to be the weakest amongst FBS leagues. These days, the Sun Belt could make a case for being the most effective among the many Group of Five, akin to the American Athletic and Mountain West.
The NCAA’s rule is in place partly to forestall faculties from shifting up for brief-time period good points, maybe to benefit from a very proficient crew. It has not been inclined to make exceptions for high quality.
Bellarmine, a small non-public college in Louisville, Kentucky, was shut out of the NCAA males’s basketball event in 2022 after it gained the Atlantic Sun Conference amid its 4-12 months transition from Division II to D-I. The A-Sun pushed arduous to each change the rule and get Bellarmine a waiver, to no avail. Bellarmine couldn’t even compete within the NIT, which is owned by the NCAA.
James Madison’s push for postseason eligibility additionally comes on the heels of the NCAA Division I Transformation Committee’s try and re-set up what is predicted from faculties that wish to compete on the highest ranges. It’s not nearly wins and losses. Are faculties ready and prepared to put money into alternatives and tutorial, psychological-well being and different assist for athletes?
James Madison officers say they’ve these coated, too. JMU’s athletic funds from 2022 was practically $58 million, aggressive with the wealthiest Group of Five faculties.
“We planned for a decade (to move up)” stated Kevin Warner, James Madison’s affiliate AD for communications. “We were at the scholarship number in Year 1, almost. We have the support staff. We have the academic folks, the trainers and health folks.”
In one other current transfer, the NCAA Division I Council beneficial FBS faculties be required to fund $6 million in athletic scholarships and elevating the payment to maneuver up from FCS from $5,000 to $5 million.
Bourne stated he doesn’t need JMU’s followers to surrender hope, however he’s lifelike. The college can hold interesting, however it’s doing so to the identical NCAA committees which have already turned it down.
We simply don’t have anyone prepared to make an exception,” he stated. “That’s what it boils down to.”
No matter how distinctive Dukes is perhaps.
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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and pay attention at http://www.appodcasts.com. Get alerts on the most recent AP Top 25 polls all through the season. Sign up right here.
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AP faculty soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
