The postseason hopes of James Madison’s undefeated football team took a major hit Wednesday when the NCAA denied the school’s latest waiver request.
With just two games to go in the 10-0 Dukes’ regular season, the decision by college football’s governing body closed off the most direct route to participation in the Sun Belt Conference championship game and a shot at a prestigious “New Year’s Six” bowl game. However, if JMU gets some help from a number of other Football Bowl Subdivision teams, the Harrisonburg, Va., school might still qualify for a lesser bowl game.
Virginia Attorney General Jason S. Miyares (R) pledged, per a spokeswoman, to “consider all legal options to support the JMU community and the future of their student-athletes.” In a statement provided Wednesday to The Washington Post, spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita called Miyares “disappointed” in the NCAA’s refusal to grant JMU postseason eligibility despite its “undefeated record and historic season.”
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Because of an NCAA rule aimed at making programs in the lower-tier Football Championship Subdivision plan carefully for a possible elevation to the FBS, programs making such a transition are subject to a two-year postseason ban. JMU is in the second year of its move to the FBS, but it has argued that it is worthy of an exemption based on the quality of its program, most obviously reflected in the unprecedented success it found in its inaugural season in the Sun Belt. This year’s performance has earned the Dukes a national ranking of No. 18 in the latest Associated Press poll.
“We’re obviously disappointed in the outcome of the NCAA’s review of our request for bowl relief,” the JMU athletic department said Wednesday in a statement. “We’re saddened for our university community and, in particular, we’re devastated for our football program, the coaches and student-athletes who have orchestrated an amazing season and earned the opportunity.”
Noting that ESPN’s “College GameDay” pregame show is set to broadcast Saturday from JMU’s campus ahead of a home game against Appalachian State, JMU said in its statement, “As we turn the page … we’re focused on maximizing these moments for our university and celebrating our senior class.”
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The university had previously applied for a waiver to the postseason ban and, in April, it was denied a request that the NCAA shorten its transition period to one season.
In a letter sent this month by JMU officials to the chairman of the NCAA Division I board of directors, they noted that, since April, the NCAA finalized new FBS membership requirements that are set to go into effect in 2027. The officials, including JMU President Jonathan Alger and Athletic Director Jeff Bourne, argued that as their school was “meeting the updated requirements now,” an immediate waiver was “warranted.”
The JMU officials also pointed to the “matter of student-athlete welfare.”
“The artificial denial of such [postseason] opportunities, which have otherwise been earned on the field,” they wrote in the letter, “is clearly detrimental to our students’ mental health and well-being. Further, this denial hinders our student-athletes’ financial prospects and professional possibilities.”
The Division I board of directors’ administrative committee said Wednesday that it upheld a decision reached by the DI Council coordination committee, informed by two other committees composed of representatives from NCAA schools and conferences, to “deny waivers of reclassification requirements.”
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“Requirements for members transitioning into FBS are based on factors beyond athletics performance. They are intended to ensure schools are properly evaluating their long-term sustainability in the subdivision,” the board committee said in a statement. “Sponsoring sports at this level requires increased scholarships, expanded athletics compliance efforts, and additional academic and mental health support for student-athletes, and the transition period is intended to give members time to adjust to those increased requirements to position student-athletes at those schools for long-term success.”
“Furthermore,” the committee continued, “a pathway already exists without a waiver for both James Madison and Jacksonville State to access bowl games if there are not enough bowl-eligible teams at the end of the regular season.”
Jacksonville State also saw its hopes of getting a postseason waiver from the NCAA dashed. The Gamecocks (7-3) are in the first year of their transition to the FBS, playing in Conference USA. A third team, FCS-level Tarleton State, was also denied a waiver, per reports.
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To become bowl-eligible, per NCAA bylaws, FBS programs not in the transition period must finish the season with a record of .500 (i.e., 6-6) or better against FBS opponents and no more than one qualified FCS opponent. If not enough programs meet that criterion, then after allowing certain specific exceptions (such as a .500 team losing in its conference championship game), a program in the final year of the transition period could gain bowl eligibility as an “alternate.”
The NCAA needs 82 teams to fill its 41 FBS bowl games. With most programs down to one or two games left in the regular season, 58 have attained bowl eligibility and 34 have at least seven losses, pushing them behind JMU for possible consideration. That leaves 36 programs in position, at least in theory, to reach the threshold required to grab one of the 24 bowl slots left. If 13 of those squads fall short, JMU’s bowl hopes could be revived.
The NCAA’s decision does almost certainly deny the Dukes a chance at playing in one of the high-profile New Year’s Six bowl games that set the stage for the four-team College Football Playoff. To have qualified, JMU would have needed the waiver Wednesday, plus in all likelihood wins in its final two games and the Sun Belt title game, as well as for Tulane to suffer a loss. The Green Wave (9-1), ranked 17th nationally and No. 24 in the CFP rankings, is in pole position in the race to fill the one slot in the New Year’s Six field reserved for the best team among the “Group of Five” conferences.
The Dukes are the first program in the two-year transition period, according to the school, to have beaten at least nine FBS opponents in a season. Last year, they became the first program in the initial year of the transition to be ranked in the AP poll.
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