The JMU Football program got a $700,000 check from North Carolina to hang 70 on the Heels a couple of weeks ago. That 21-19 loss to Louisiana-Monroe last night could end up costing the program $3 million.
That’s what athletics departments are projected to get when their football teams get an invite to the newly-expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
JMU, at 4-0 going into its Sun Belt opener at ULM last night, had a 30 percent chance of being the Group of 5 automatic qualifier, according to the ESPN Football Power Index.
Boise State seems to have the inside track, sitting at 4-1, with only a narrow three-point loss at #7 Oregon as a debit on its ledger to date, but still, the Dukes were in the game.
Then Louisiana-Monroe happened.
The Warhawks, picked dead last in the Sun Belt West in the preseason, coming off a two-win season a year ago, with 73 (!) new players on its roster, trailed 10-0 six minutes in, after an Alonza Barnett 27-yard TD run and an INT that led to a 48-yard Noe Ruelas field goal.
The game turned on a Barnett fumble late in the second quarter that ULM linebacker Daniel Knudson scooped and ran back 82 yards for a TD that put the ‘Hawks on top, shockingly, to stay.
JMU made it interesting with 4:04 to play with a Tyler Purdy 1-yard TD run that got the score to 21-19, but the two-point try failed, and the Dukes offense, with two more tries to get into position for a potential game-winning kick, turned it over on downs both times.
You get $3 million just for getting that CFP invite, and for a program that ran a $7 million operating deficit in 2022, the most recent year for which we have available numbers to work with, man.
JMU Athletics will be getting $900,000 more from the Sun Belt for the next three years beginning this year, so that knocks down the deficit a sliver, but even with that factored in, JMU Football still loses money if it makes the CFP this year, but there’s the possibility of pulling a 12-5 upset in the first round – not likely, but it’s possible – that could bring in another $3.5 million.
That’s the sad reality of the business of college football in the Group of 5 – that it takes getting an invite to the CFP and pulling an upset to turn a profit.
Meanwhile, Virginia, over in the ACC, coming off a pair of three-win seasons, turns a $20 million profit with half-empty stadiums.
No, JMU fans, life ain’t fair.
Video: That loss was costly to JMU Football
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Chris Graham
