James Madison drops legal battle against NCAA for bowl game eligibility
James Madison will no longer pursue legal action against the NCAA in its pursuit of bowl eligibility this season, the school said late Tuesday. The decision comes nearly a week after a law firm engaged by the Virginia attorney general sent a letter to the NCAA threatening legal action if the school’s football team was not granted a waiver for full bowl eligibility.
James Madison is in the second year of its transition from the Football Championship Subdivision to FBS, and is not eligible for postseason play because of an NCAA rule aimed at making programs in the lower-tier FCS plan carefully for potential elevation to the FBS. JMU is in the second and final year of that transition, but the school has argued that its brisk success warrants an exemption. The Dukes entered Saturday’s game against Appalachian State ranked No. 18 in The Associated Press poll with a 10-0 record and an undefeated mark in the Sun Belt Conference.
The NCAA denied JMU’s latest postseason eligibility waiver Nov. 15. Its Division I board of directors’ administrative committee, which upheld the denial, later said in a statement that the eligibility requirements “are intended to ensure schools are properly evaluating their long-term sustainability in the subdivision. 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.”
Also Nov. 15, Richmond law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, sent a letter to the NCAA saying Virginia Attorney General Jason S. Miyares engaged the firm to represent the school. The letter depicted the NCAA’s bowl eligibility rule as “unreasonable” and cited the Sherman Antitrust Act and Virginia Antitrust Act.
On Saturday, the Dukes were upset by Appalachian State, 26-23.
“On Saturday evening, following the game, we consulted with Attorney General Miyares and his staff, as well as with our outside counsel, and the consensus was that filing emergency legal action against the NCAA was not a viable course of action at this point in time,” the school said Tuesday in a statement (via ESPN). “The University’s focus now is on getting the football team into a bowl game, and it appears that such a result is still a strong possibility. We could still file an action against the NCAA later if needed to receive a bowl invitation, but for the time being, there was a strong consensus that proceeding with legal action did not make sense.”
In its statement Tuesday, JMU said that loss “changed the landscape in terms of the nature and timing of our legal options, including the diminished viability of a lawsuit against the NCAA.”
James Madison has one remaining avenue to the postseason with one game remaining — a Saturday road contest at Coastal Carolina.
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, 68 have attained bowl eligibility and 39 have at least seven losses, pushing them behind JMU for possible consideration. That leaves 23 programs in position, at least in theory, to reach the threshold required to grab one of the 14 bowl slots left. If 10 of those squads fall short, JMU’s bowl hopes could be revived.