Justin Williams
By Justin Williams
The Athletic
(Second in a series)
About the same time Nick Saban and other talking heads started
grumbling about two teams from outside the power conferences reaching
the College Football Playoff, Bob Chesney was in a room full of
underdogs, blinking away tears of joy.
James Madison University, 12-1 Sun Belt Conference champion just four
years into playing at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, earned the
12th and final spot in this year’s 12-team Playoff. The Dukes, coached
by Chesney, claimed one of the five slots reserved for the
highest-ranked conference title winners, joining Tulane from the
second-tier Group of 5 conferences — beating out a five-loss Duke team
that won the ACC.
JMU’s Playoff berth is a Cinderella story in a sport ruled by evil
stepmothers. It’s why, despite a root cause of improbability and ACC
chaos, the decision set off another round of debating CFP access for
the little guys. Why should the No. 24-ranked Dukes — with a
121st-ranked strength of schedule, zero wins over power conference
teams and a 14-point loss to Louisville — make it in over an at-large
candidate such as No. 11 Notre Dame? This year’s Fighting Irish are
talented enough to vie for the national championship. JMU is a
three-touchdown underdog in its first-round matchup Saturday at No. 5
Oregon. What’s with the act of charity?
“This has got to be devastating for Notre Dame’s team,” Saban said on
ESPN’s CFP selection show.
Seemingly forgotten in all of the power conference pearl clutching was
that the SEC’s Tennessee and ACC’s SMU each got blown out in the first
round of last year’s Playoff as at-large bids. For a sport that often
clamors for parity, there tends to be a lot of resistance when Notre
Dame or the SEC are forced to suffer. It’s quite the contrast to March
Madness, where Cinderellas are immortalized.
All said, none of it dampened the mood at James Madison.
“I can understand Notre Dame or others being pretty disappointed,”
Chesney said. “But the way the (Playoff) rules were put into place,
and where we sit here today, it is what it is. I didn’t make them up.”
JMU understands its place in the pecking order. Chesney has already
been announced as the next head coach at UCLA once the Dukes are done.
(JMU has hired former Florida coach Billy Napier.) The program spent
less than $2 million in name, image and likeness (NIL) and revenue
share dollars on this year’s football roster; the Ducks spent
somewhere north of $20 million, as did most of this year’s Playoff
teams.
Shrinking that gap is a tough task, even for the top G5 programs, and
that small sliver of baked-in Playoff access is one of the few
remaining paths. For however long it lasts.
Reserving an automatic qualifying spot for the highest-ranked G5
champion served as a lawsuit-dodging table scrap when originally
devising the 12-team Playoff. But a world where more than one G5 could
sneak into the field? Considering the Big Ten and SEC control the
future format, the next iteration might shrink those loopholes.
In the meantime, there’s a good chance JMU’s trip to Autzen Stadium
ends in a humbling defeat. Some consider that to be a waste of a
Playoff bid. JMU sees it as a course-altering opportunity.
“I get that not a lot of people count us in here or give us any
credit, and that’s fine. But we understand what we’re capable of,”
Chesney said. “There are a lot of big things happening here.”
Harrisonburg, Va., is home to JMU, for those who haven’t already
Googled it. Plenty did on Selection Sunday. Athletic director Matt
Roan said the university’s website servers were at capacity, on top of
the millions of impressions across TV and social media.
Tucked in the Shenandoah Valley about two hours southwest of
Washington, D.C., JMU won a pair of Football Championship Subdivision
national titles in 2004 and 2016 before making the leap to the Sun
Belt in 2022. The Dukes were coached by Curt Cignetti, who went 19-4
across two seasons at the FBS level before promptly turning Indiana
into a championship contender, with a slew of JMU transfers in tow.
Chesney, 48, was hired away from Holy Cross ahead of the 2024 season,
a winsome Pennsylvania native who made his own Cignetti-esque climb
from the Division III coaching ranks. After going 9-4 last year and
winning the Boca Raton Bowl, JMU dominated the Sun Belt this season,
winning 11 straight behind a top 10 scoring offense and top five total
defense nationally. It made Chesney one of the most coveted
up-and-comers on this year’s coaching carousel.
“Our guys did a phenomenal job of handling it,” Chesney said of the
UCLA news, which broke days before the Sun Belt title game. “We stayed
focused on exactly what was in front of us.”
Resources played a big part in JMU going 40-10 at the FBS level, with
an athletics operating budget of roughly $76 million in fiscal year
2024. That pales in comparison to the likes of Oregon ($167 million)
or Ohio State ($292 million), but it is tops in the Sun Belt by a
considerable margin. And the majority of it — more than $55 million —
comes via student fees, which makes JMU the most subsidized athletic
department of any public university in the country. It’s become a
nuanced point of pride for the Dukes, one they say reflects the
school’s commitment.
“We want to position JMU at the top of the league in terms of
resources and investments,” Roan told The Athletic earlier this
season.
College football has a history of “sleeping giants” that emerge with
the right mix of timing, leadership, and resources: Clemson, Oregon
and now Texas Tech. But starting from the FCS or G5 level — similar to
Gonzaga’s rise from mid-major to perennial power in men’s college
basketball — is a nearly impossible task in the current landscape.
What Indiana has done on the field under Cignetti is remarkable, but
the Hoosiers were still cashing Big Ten checks before he arrived.
Boise State is the best example, a former junior college that joined
the FBS in 1996. The Broncos have won 17 conference titles and played
in four major postseason bowls since then, including as the lone G5
team in last year’s inaugural 12-team Playoff. The program has
established itself without a power conference parachute — even casual
fans know about the blue turf — but the tipping point was the 2007
Fiesta Bowl upset over Oklahoma, one of the most memorable college
football games of the 21st century.
“It led to who we are today,” said Jeramiah Dickey, who took over as
Boise State’s athletic director in 2021. “We’ve built off that
foundation, and our job is to continue taking it to the next level.”
An economic study conducted last season reported a $350 million impact
on the Boise community, much of it tied to the Playoff run, led by
star running back and Heisman Trophy runner-up Ashton Jeanty.
“Being included in that national conversation, it very much elevated
us,” said Dickey.
None of it happened quickly, or easily, or upended the paradigm. Boise
State lost to Penn State by 17 in last year’s Playoff, and the
Broncos, set to join a revived Pac-12 Conference next season, are
still stuck outside of those power conference velvet ropes. But the
gap is considerably smaller thanks to opportunities earned and
capitalized on.
JMU, already ahead of schedule, is trying to do the same.
“Schools like JMU and Tulane deserve a seat at that table,” said
Dickey. “Because upsets can happen. And the idea of eliminating those
opportunities doesn’t align with the sports industry that I love.”
Success isn’t cheap in college football. That’s always been the case,
but now more than ever.
“As you continue to grow this program, there are certain things that
you need,” said Chesney. “A lot of it comes down to the financial
elements.”
JMU’s Bridgeforth Stadium is a stark example. The Dukes have sold out
season tickets for the partially renovated, 25,000-seat stadium for
three years running, with goals of completing the expansion and adding
a proper indoor facility. That’s a nine-figure, multi-year ambition.
The football program wants to push its annual revenue sharing to
roughly $5 million and be one of the top spenders in the Sun Belt.
Napier, who won a pair of Sun Belt titles at Louisiana before coaching
the Gators, signed a five-year contract that will pay him roughly $1
million a year, a slight increase over Chesney, whom JMU offered a
sizable raise to try to retain. He’s set to make $6.75 million a year
in Westwood.
All of it means JMU’s league-leading athletics budget will keep going up.
Making the Playoff helps. The Sun Belt collects $4 million for JMU’s
appearance, though it’s split evenly among the league’s 14 members.
JMU receives another $2 million that will go toward travel and
logistical costs, but can keep what’s left over, along with ticket
revenue on its 3,500 visiting allotment, which it expects to sell out.
Ideally, that’s merely the thin tip of the wedge.
“The intangible piece is the exposure, the visibility,” said Roan, who
took over as AD in April 2024. “I don’t know that we’ll understand and
appreciate the significance for years to come.”
The onus is on JMU to take advantage of this opportunity; one its fan
base is properly reveling in.
It will be a challenge with a coaching change and revenue sharing and
whatever form the Playoff takes next, though another expansion could
benefit the Dukes by “adding” another G5 scrap they wouldn’t have to
“steal” from the big dogs. Either way, the job Chesney inherited was
better than the one Cignetti took on, and it’s better again for
Napier, with the resources to continue that trajectory, for himself or
the next guy.
Plus, Chesney can still deliver one last parting gift on Saturday
against Oregon.
“We know we have a responsibility to make sure we get this done
right,” he said. “We’re not going out there to just be part of this
game and take a place in the 12-team Playoff. We’re going out there to
win this game.”
Maybe. Probably not. But there’s only one way to find out.
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