Quote Originally Posted by KPSUL View Post
It will be interesting to see what happens.

The Sun Belt committing to JMU 8 conference games - how might that effect the 8 team chosen? Does JMU count as an FBS or FCS win for them? Doesn't only one FCS win count towards their 6 Div 1 wins to be bowl qualified? Most will already have an FCS game scheduled.

How easy will it be for JMU, SHSU and JSU to at least schedule 11 games? I don't see CAA teams stepping to fill JMU's schedule. With 11 teams remaining - no problem getting everyone 8 conference games, and most already have their 3 OOC games scheduled. It might also be hard to schedule G5 team, particularly at JMU. Of course UMass, UConn and Liberty may not have filled their dance cards - but they'd likely be looking for home games, and will playing and beating JMU qualify as a bowl qualifying win? Playing JMU might be a no-benefit proposition - lose and negatively effect bowl eligibility or win and gain virtually nothing.
Your third paragraph nails it.

James Madison cannot leave the Colonial until all sports including football have a home. Leaving the Colonial without football having a home will make it a challenge to get to 11 football games and as you said, the Colonial schools won't feel any obligation to help the Dukes fill their schedule.

I believe this is why James Madison is actively pushing to a) play in the Sun Belt next year and b) get a transitional year removed so that they will count as a FBS counter and not a FCS game.

Their AD felt confident enough and if Sam Houston & Jacksonville State are in a similar place, the trio (JMU/SHSU/JAX) can use each other to add on top of the conference games in a mechanism that gets them all five FBS home games and to fuller schedules (see my post above about a 'round robin' between the schools). In Sam Houston's case, if the schools heading to the American from Texas have not left, would love if C-USA did the Kats a favor and put at least two of the three (Rice, UNT and UTSA) in Bowers Stadium to help with attendance, excitement surrounding FBS as those would be attractive games.