The JMU Board of Visitors voted Monday to move the school’s athletic programs to the American Conference, with plans to become a full member of the league no later than July 1, 2028.
This means leaving the Sun Belt, which JMU has been affiliated with since just 2022, after a lengthy affiliation in the CAA.
The moves will come at a steep cost – per reporting from ESPN’s Pete Thamel, JMU will have to pay a $5 million exit fee to leave the Sun Belt, and an additional $23 million to entry fee to join the American.
Thamel reported that the exit fee will be covered by “new private funding from generous supporters, while the entry fee has already been committed from new private corporate partners who championed this move.”
Which is interesting, that all of the sudden, there’s money, considering that JMU Athletics hasn’t ever been able to balance its budget without a generous amount of money coming from onerous student intercollegiate athletics fees – to the tune of $58.1 million coming from those fees to balance the $78.6 million budget for the 2024-2025 academic sports year, per figures from Sportico.
That $58.1 million figure is the clear #1 nationally – ODU was second nationally in the use of activity fees in the 2024-2025 academic sports year, way back at $33.9 million.
The intercollegiate activity fee at JMU works out to $2,581 per student per year.
Maybe the “generous supporters” could be asked to further open up their checkbooks so the kids don’t have to pay back $10,000 plus interest for the next 30 years so that JMU gets to play football in the American.
The student-supported $78.1 million JMU Athletics budget for 2024-2025 was well ahead of the #2 spending school in the Sun Belt, also ODU, which spent $60.9 million in the 2024-2025 academic sports year.
That budget figure would also pace the American, whose leaders in 2024-2025 were Charlotte ($58.6 million) and North Texas ($58.1 million).
The move will generate a good bit more in TV and NCAA share money for JMU – the American pays out in the range of $10 million per member school annually, compared to the $2.5 million per year that the Sun Belt is able to pay out.
Return on investment-wise: the $28 million that JMU is paying to jump to the American would get paid back by Year 4.
Still won’t take the pressure off having the kids pay through the nose to keep the athletics department afloat.
“We’re ecstatic for James Madison to take the next step in our university’s growth by joining the American Conference,” JMU Athletics Director Matt Roan said in a statement. “We work every day to best position our athletics program for excellence, and today’s announcement is the next step in our strategic elevation. The American offers opportunities for all our sports to thrive, to grow our brand and media exposure, to expand our constituent base, and to continue to elevate the impact of James Madison on college athletics.”
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Chris Graham
