The James Madison University Dukes are in the position of possibly being banned from competing in the CAA Championship games this year. The news comes after the university announced that they are thinking about transferring from the Colonial Athletic Association into the Sun Belt Conference.

According to the CAA bylaws, teams that are leaving the league are barred from competing in conference finals. The other teams in the conference are College of Charleston, University of Delaware, Drexel University, Hofstra University, Northeastern University, Towson University, and University of North Carolina Wilmington, William & Mary, and Elon University. The presidents of these schools voted and decided to exclude all JMU sports from competing, with the exception of women's soccer and field hockey.

JMU’s football conference is a totally separate operation from all other sports, so they are still eligible to play in the regular-season championship. Also, in sports such as swimming, diving, and golf, athletes have the opportunity to compete for individual conference titles. This means that these athletes are still eligible aswell.

Since the news broke, the JMU athletic department has issued an appeal to the decision. This appeal would give them a waiver for that specific bylaw and allow them to compete this year. The appeal has since been denied by the CAA’s board of directors.

Jonathan Alger and Jeff Bourne, JMU’s President and Athletic Director, have issued a joint statement about this topic. In the statement, they express how disappointed they are in the announcement and believe that this exclusion goes against the ideas of “student-athlete welfare”.

The statement also addresses the fact that there are multiple other colleges that are transferring conferences right now and none of them have been banned from competing in their conference championships. JMU is the only one.

The official statement explains that “eight other Division I conferences have full members that have publicly announced an exit and yet all eight have allowed the student-athletes at those institutions to continue competing for championships.” It seems that the CAA is alone in their decision.

This decision has affected all aspects of the sports teams at JMU. Many coaches at JMU have spoken out about the issue. They have said that their teams are “dealing with a mixture of shock and anger from the announcement” (Daily News-Record) and believe that “finding out during the school year adds to the burden, as some would have put a higher emphasis on non-conference scheduling had they known this was a possibility.” (Daily News-Record).

The athletes are distraught with the decision and feel that they earned a spot in the tournaments and championships. Specifically, the men’s soccer team has the opportunity to host the CAA championship on their home field this year, an honor they earned by winning it last year.

The team was ranked in the Top 25 for most of the season and were looking forward to competing for a spot in the championship. That is not even an option anymore. Like men's soccer, JMU is scheduled to host championships in women’s basketball, lacrosse, and softball. All of these games will now be played at different venues.

Many students that attend JMU are also disappointed with the decision. Natalia Rasulo, a sophomore at JMU, has said that it is “incredibly unfair to the students who have been barred from competing because they’ve put in so much work to get where they are and it’s not fair that they’re the ones being punished.” She shares the same opinion as many of the student athletes and coaches at the college. We’ll see what happens with the teams if JMU does join the Sunbelt Conference.

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