James Madison Requests to Be Fully Eligible for CFB Bowl Consideration in Letter

James Madison formally petitioned for the NCAA to relax its rules prohibiting the program from earning a postseason bowl berth this year.

The Dukes are 9-0, which would ordinarily mean competing in a bowl game and perhaps earning a New Year's Six bid. However, NCAA rules stipulate a team is ineligible for a bowl within the first two years of moving from the FCS to the FBS levels.

The school wrote a letter to the NCAA requesting to attain bowl eligibillity:

James Madison went 8-3 and finished first in the Sun Belt East division in 2022. On the heels of that success, the school appealed to the NCAA to have the bowl eligibility requirement shortened to one year. The Division I Council denied the appeal in April.

The Athletic's Chris Vannini and Nicole Auerbach wrote how the rule is intended to be both the cost of admission into the FBS and motivate schools to "spend that time making necessary investments for the jump."

You can't blame JMU for making a second attempt.

Due to their bowl status, the Dukes aren't listed in the College Football Playoff selection committee's weekly rankings. They are ranked 21st in the Associated Press Top 25, giving them the second-highest Group of Five ranking.

James Madison finishes up with UConn, Appalachian State and Coastal Carolina. Were it to run the table, a case could be made its the best Group of Five school, and having that distinction in the CFP rankings means a guaranteed New Year's Six bowl appearance.

That would carry a massive windfall for JMU and the Sun Belt as a whole in addition to the prestige the program would gain.

As successful as the Dukes were in the FCS—they won national titles in 2004 and 2016—and regardless of their quick adjustment to live in the FBS, there's no guarantee when they'll be in this position again.

Even if James Madison doesn't finish in what would be a New Year's Six position, any bowl game would be a nice reward for this year's squad.

Absent a turnaround from the NCAA, though, the school might have to watch bowl season unfold from afar.