JMU Lost, Yet I'm Still Happy?

What, did y'all think I wasn't gonna write today because of the outcome?

What a weekend it has been for JMU and the Sun Belt on the whole. We had record breaking crowds for both Pat McAfee and College Gameday, multiple teams win in the NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament, and a Women’s Volleyball Tournament that will likely yield multiple bids in the postseason. The conference on the whole is improving, or rising as they like to say, and it is being put on national display for the world to see. 

Of course, coming from a JMU perspective, last night's game did not end like I wanted it to, but it was also everything I wanted and more. So, let’s get all of that out of the way. Take nothing away from Appalachian State and their team. When it came down to it, they executed when they needed to and capitalized off of JMU’s mistakes. The Dukes were not able to return the favor and that ultimately was the difference. You’re not going to catch me scolding refs for objectively questionable calls when you can only muster 5 points through 3 quarters. App. State deserved to win that game and congrats to them.

I remember after losses when I was younger, I would be inconsolable. I’m not sure if that’s changed because of age or life in general, but I don’t feel nearly as bad after this loss as I did when we would lose any game in the CAA. Hell, some wins in the CAA I would feel worse afterwards. I think that’s why I feel like this is precisely where JMU should be. We played another classic game with App. State, a rivalry that over the last 4 games the biggest margin of victory has been 4 and 2 games were decided on the goal line of the last play of the game. Like most Sun Belt fan bases, they expect their team to win every game within reason, and even those they’re supposed to lose, they don’t expect to be blown out. Games like this are stressful, terrible for the heart, but incredibly exciting. 

Someone in passing yesterday on the Twitter mentioned, imagine if we were playing Towson yesterday instead of the Mountaineers. That crowd would not have been there at full capacity for the overtime, Gameday would have never come to Harrisonburg, and while there may not be a direct correlation between football and men’s basketball, the crowd on Friday may not have been as good going into a thanksgiving break, and we certainly never would have had Stanford Steve and Rece Davis in the house. 

Which leads me to the other sports. JMU, like many other schools, is certainly led in its athletic department by football, but JMU also expects nothing but excellence across the board. Men’s basketball is ranked for the first time ever and picked up a win while women's soccer earned the Sun Belt’s first at large into the NCAA tournament, Men’s Soccer will take on Georgetown in the second round after earning an at-large bid and knocking off Pittsburgh Friday night. Oh, and Volleyball is casually in another conference championship with a very strong case for an at large bid depending on the results from today. 

Saying JMU is an everything school is kind of obnoxious from an outsider's perspective, but it's also not a lie. When you talk to coaches, it is clear that when they signed up for JMU, outgoing athletic director Jeff Bourne expects them to always be competing for conference championships and winning them at least once every 4 years. That is the standard. And while others are hoping that will wither away as Jeff Bourne retires, there’s nothing over the last 20 years of JMU athletics to indicate that whomever they hire to replace him will be a bad hire, and as coaches inevitably move on that JMU won’t continue to hold incredibly high standards. 

This will be published before men’s soccer and volleyball know their results. For all we know football may be out of the AP as well, as they are prone to do as soon as a G5 loses anything, no matter the opponent. But I will still be focused on how wonderful this has all been, and how realignment had positioned JMU perfectly to make the best move for the athletic department on the whole. Losing sucks in football, but I’d rather lose that game than win by 50 against Rhode Island in a game we’re only concerned with how much we won by. Caring about games is important and football has one more next weekend against Coastal Carolina. A perfect opportunity to go 1-0 and cap off what has still been an unforgettable season.

And a little advice. If you are very online, don’t give the detractors and trolls the time of day. Those people sliding into your replies and mentions are just sad people. Trying to put you into their own box of what a Sun Belt or JMU fan is. At the end of the day, they’re seeking out your content because they just wanna get a rise out of you. Don’t give them your negative emotions to feed on. If you don’t feed the trolls, they tend to slither away back into “political” and “culture war” places where they belong. 

The Sun Belt is rising. And Go Dukes!