James Madison will join the Sun Belt in all sports for the 2022-23 academic year, including football, a source tells The Athletic. JMU, which had already agreed to join the Sun Belt, has announced a Wednesday news conference with the Sun Belt, where the news will become official.
The Dukes are set to move up from the Football Championship Subdivision into the Football Bowl Subdivision. It’s normally a two-year reclassification process, but JMU hopes to instead make it a one-year process. Earlier Tuesday, JMU announced a football home opener against Middle Tennessee. That game, along with four Sun Belt home games, qualifies the Dukes as an FBS program. However, JMU will not be eligible for the Sun Belt championship or a bowl game next fall, which is a normal part of the reclassification process from FCS to FBS.
JMU has had football success and has a sizable fan base, which fits the profile of previous Sun Belt additions from the FCS level like Appalachian State, Georgia Southern and Coastal Carolina. JMU has reached at least the semifinals of the FCS playoffs in five of the past six years, including a national title in 2016 and runner-up finishes in 2017 and 2019. Its average attendance of 19,631 in 2021 was the third highest in the FCS.
JMU will pay Middle Tennessee $700,000 to come to Harrisonburg for that game, a necessary cost for the Dukes to reach the threshold of five FBS home games.
The Dukes are one of three FCS programs planning to move up to the FBS. Sam Houston and Jacksonville State have agreed to join Conference USA, but that will come in 2023.
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