Due to Impending Conference Move, James Madison Will Be Denied Chase For Fifth Straight CAA Title
Currently a member of the Colonial Athletic Association, James Madison is expected to formall announce its move to the Sun Belt Conference in the next few days. With that decision looming, and set to take effect next year, the CAA has indicated it will ban JMU teams from competing for conference titles during the 2021-22 season. That decision affects women’s swimming and, unsurprisingly, was not taken well by the James Madison administration.
“As we head into a potentially monumental week for the future of James Madison University and our intercollegiate athletics program, we were extremely disappointed to be informed by the Colonial Athletic Association that, should the university accept an invitation to another conference, JMU student-athletes would not be allowed to compete for postseason conference team championships and, therefore, for the opportunity to earn NCAA automatic team qualification,” the school said in a statement. “In an era when the industry of college athletics stresses student-athlete welfare, this decision is completely contrary to those ideals.”
According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the CAA includes provisions in its bylaws which allow it to block conference-championship participation by schools that are departing. In 2013, Old Dominion faced those sanctions when it announced a move to Conference USA.
James Madison has won the past four CAA women’s swimming titles, but the chase for a fifth straight crown appears as if it will be denied. Madison Cottrell, who was named the Most Outstanding Performer at last year’s CAA Champs, will be unable to defend her titles in the 100 butterfly and 200 backstroke.
Here before anything gets misconstrued about this issue! While it’s EXTREMELY sad, as well as an outdated bylaw that should ultimately be eliminated, the student-athletes at JMU need to turn to their own administrators and question their decision-making process leading to this move!! Right now, they are being gas lighted into dangerous rhetoric that the other CAA schools are the reason for this barring. But, this bylaw has been in effect for many years, and JMU’s administration supported barring for other schools three previous times, most recently with ODU in 2013. The student-athletes at JMU should be concerned as to why their admins, who knew this was the most probable outcome, would go behind their backs and make these decisions in the dark. Joe D’Antonio is a fantastic commissioner and is most certainly torn for these athletes. Yes, the bylaw is wrong, but it’s one of the ways the CAA keeps teams supposedly. Such a headache for everyone involved!
Perhaps the Sun Belt would invite them to compete in the championship meet this year as they will be joining during 2022.