ADVERTISEMENT

RIP James Madison v. Richmond - One of FCS Football's Best Rivalries

mojo-spider

Team Manager
Gold Member
Dec 31, 2010
1,991
1,837
113


we didn't just lose five games this season...Spiders fans also lost our emotional and often bitter 40 year rival JMU...there is little doubt in my mind it was one of the best rivalries in the history of FCS football...

this amateur compilation of Spider Gang video clips from the incredible 2009-2017 seasons is my attempt to capture some of the emotion, trash talk and excitement...

during the 2009-2017 period one, or both, of the squads were likely playing for CAA Championships, FCS Playoff bids and National Championships...there were some unforgettable
Saturday afternoons...some incredibly good and some heartbreaking!

this Spiders fan will certainly miss penciling in the Dukes on my 2022 schedule...gone, but never forgotten!

I hope you enjoy it!

Go Spiders!
 
You are a Legend, Satch, and definitely the commentator most suited to put this rivalry to rest.

You made yourself laugh with your "unbuilt half stadium and Beef OBrady Bowl" line way back in 2013, didn't you? Worked for me.

#RIPURJMU #SayonoraPukes
 


we didn't just lose five games this season...Spiders fans also lost our emotional and often bitter 40 year rival JMU...there is little doubt in my mind it was one of the best rivalries in the history of FCS football...

this amateur compilation of Spider Gang video clips from the incredible 2009-2017 seasons is my attempt to capture some of the emotion, trash talk and excitement...

during the 2009-2017 period one, or both, of the squads were likely playing for CAA Championships, FCS Playoff bids and National Championships...there were some unforgettable
Saturday afternoons...some incredibly good and some heartbreaking!

this Spiders fan will certainly miss penciling in the Dukes on my 2022 schedule...gone, but never forgotten!

I hope you enjoy it!

Go Spiders!
Well done, Sir. Well done!

Appreciate your time in compiling this. Rekindled many memories of High highs and Low lows from this rivalry.
 
  • Like
Reactions: urfan1
And the Dillweeds can pay us now to come up and play them with their new FBS credentials. :)
 
JMU better hope they win the natty this year. It will be the last championship of consequence they're gonna win for while. Enjoy paying more to play in FCS+.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KE Spider
There is some "time lag" in the transition so we may still play them in the next year or two?

JMU, which is currently a Football Championship Subdivision program, will begin a two-year transition to the FBS after this football season. JMU, Sam Houston and Jacksonville State, two FCS schools that are moving up to join Conference USA, will technically be “reclassifying institutions” and likely play a mix of FCS and FBS teams the next two years. A win against them by an FBS school will count as an FBS win.

https://theathletic.com/news/james-madison-accepts-invitation-to-join-sun-belt-source/uhnkq6265t2r/
 
There is some "time lag" in the transition so we may still play them in the next year or two?

JMU, which is currently a Football Championship Subdivision program, will begin a two-year transition to the FBS after this football season. JMU, Sam Houston and Jacksonville State, two FCS schools that are moving up to join Conference USA, will technically be “reclassifying institutions” and likely play a mix of FCS and FBS teams the next two years. A win against them by an FBS school will count as an FBS win.

https://theathletic.com/news/james-madison-accepts-invitation-to-join-sun-belt-source/uhnkq6265t2r/
 
I hope their fans enjoy games with Arkansas State, Texas State and the rest of the SBC. I supposed Marshall and ODU might have some local interest, but they may miss us (and W&M) more than we ever miss them. And their travel costs are going to skyrocket.

Since we won't be playing JMU any more, I'd like to see us playing Furman and The Citadel again on a regular basis. Two historic rivals, and great places to road trip for games. My brother lives in Greenville, about three miles from Furman, and loves it.
 
I hope their fans enjoy games with Arkansas State, Texas State and the rest of the SBC. I supposed Marshall and ODU might have some local interest, but they may miss us (and W&M) more than we ever miss them. And their travel costs are going to skyrocket.

Since we won't be playing JMU any more, I'd like to see us playing Furman and The Citadel again on a regular basis. Two historic rivals, and great places to road trip for games. My brother lives in Greenville, about three miles from Furman, and loves it.
Our OOC schedule is predetermined for the next 3 seasons.2024 we’ll be playing 12 regular season games.Each season will include 8 yet to be determined CAA games as well.



 
Last edited:
Our schedule is predetermined for the next 3 seasons.2024 we’ll be playing 12 regular season games.Each season will include 8 yet to be determined CAA games as well.



I like that Wofford game in 2024. Had missed that.
 
I hope their fans enjoy games with Arkansas State, Texas State and the rest of the SBC. I supposed Marshall and ODU might have some local interest, but they may miss us (and W&M) more than we ever miss them. And their travel costs are going to skyrocket.

To be fair I'm not sure they'll really be playing those teams with much regularity. SBC looks to have an easy East/West breakdown. They'll get Marshall ODU Coastal App St. Ga State GA Southern probably Southern Miss or Troy every year. Maybe they'll have a West crossover game or two each year. To me that's not bad, especially since they had a lot of CAA games they didn't care for either and were far away. I don't know how it will work out with divisions but seems silly they wouldn't handle that way. Travel costs will increase but if Eastern focused as expected it's not crazy, they'll figure it out. They'll eventually pick up extra power conf games each year too which helps funding. Never here to defend JMU but the new SBC is a decent landing spot & those West sbc schools won't hold much relevancy. We'll see.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ur2K
^^Agree. I think it should be a pretty entertaining conference for them.

I hope their alumni are ready to open their wallets to support it.
 
Travel costs in their Olympic sports will be greatly inflated. Those sports almost all play a complete round-robin conference schedule, not a divisional one. If they're happy with it, then so be it.
 
With the Sun Belt going to 16 schools, there's no way they're going to do round robin in sports with broad sponsorship...that's too many games.

CAA is pretty much round robin because they only have 10 schools. A-10 at 14 schools doesn't do round robin in many sports. Some sports don't even have specific pairings...like swimming, you're free to schedule whoever you want as long as you face a certain minimum number of conference members during the season.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GKiller
I think its a great spot for JMU. I'll watch some of those games. App, Marshall, GA Southern, JMU, ODU (I know missing a few) is a solid regional conference. I don't think Olympic costs will go up much at all.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT