James Madison University has had a number of successful athletic teams on its Harrisonburg, Va. campus. The field hockey team won the NCAA championship in 1994. The women’s lacrosse team, in 2001, had the lead, the ball, and no shot clock in a quarterfinal game at Maryland — yep, the Maryland with the all-star team of Adams and Carney and Comito and Egan and Martinez. But JMU allowed the equalizer and scored a shocking own goal to provide the margin of victory for the Terrapins.
But when the school’s football team, one which won the Division 1-AA championship in 2004 and 2016, moved from the Colonial Athletic Association to the Sun Belt Conference — a Division 1-A team in the Football Bowl Subdivision — the rest of the teams representing the university have been sent scrambling.
Sure, some of them will be playing a Sun Belt schedule against the likes of Marshall, Georgia State, Old Dominion, and Coastal Carolina, but the field hockey and lacrosse teams have been looking for a conference to join.
This spring, JMU’s lacrosse teams have been playing in the American Athletic Conference, which includes the likes of Florida, Temple, Vanderbilt, and Cincinnati. The Dukes seem about ready to run the table in the AAC, boasting a 5-0 record heading into this weekend’s conference finale against East Carolina.
In the last couple of days, the JMU field hockey team signed on to play with the Mid-American Conference starting in 2024. The MAC will have nine teams — Ball State, Central Michigan, Kent State, Miami, Ohio University, Longwood, Appalachian State, Bellarmine, and James Madison.
It is an intriguing soup of teams. Indeed, I think the coaching and the reach of some of these universities into their respective states can make this into a conference strong enough to warrant an at-large bid in the NCAA Division I tournament. It’s a strong statement, given the fact that the NCAA Tournament Committee rarely gives out at-large bids outside of the ACC and Big Ten.
Let’s see what kind of teams these nine schools will wind up fielding in a couple of years.
