One stupid rule means this unbeaten college football team legally can’t win a championship

Four of the last five college national champions have gone undefeated – so you’d think if you’re still unbeaten after 10 weeks, you’d have a shot at the title, right?

Well, with most schools having played nine games, just seven have gone 9-0.

Five of them are currently the top five in the College Football Playoff rankings – Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, Florida State and Washington. If any of them stay unbeaten, they’ll definitely make the playoff (since Michigan and Ohio State still have to play each other), and get to play for the title.

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Sixth is Liberty, who play in an incredibly easy conference that’s made up of discards, offcuts and teams new to the top level of the sport. Nobody is giving them any credit and they don’t deserve much; even if they go unbeaten they won’t have the resume to challenge the true contenders, though we’ll at least note them.

The seventh, though, is interesting – James Madison University, aka the Dukes of Harrisonburg, Virginia, have had two damn good seasons.

Last year the Dukes went 8-3, and would’ve won the East division of the Sun Belt conference (made up of the best non-power conference schools across the south of the United States) if not for something we’ll explain further in a moment.

This year has been even better – the Dukes are 9-0, and are probably the best team outside the power conferences. An unbeaten Sun Belt champion would be a shoo-in for the big bowl game spot (in the New Year’s Six) allocated to the best non-power conference team, earning them a big payday and some much-deserved spotlight at the pointy end of the season.

There’s just one problem. They’re not allowed to be that team – heck, they’re not even eligible for any bowl game, unless not enough teams qualify and they fall backwards into one – because of an arcane college football rule.

The Dukes are in just their second year at the top level of college football, the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), after being perennial championship contenders in the second-tier Football Championship Subdivision (FCS – these names are very stupid, and have been since they changed from the much-catchier I-A and I-AA, pronounced 1-A and 1-Double-A).

But when teams move up a division, they are banned from participating in the post-season of the relevant sport. For basketball, it’d be the NCAA’s March Madness tournament – as we saw earlier in 2023 when Fairleigh Dickinson, only in the tournament because their actual conference champion Merrimack was ineligible, stunned No.1 seed Purdue as a No.16 seed. And in football, that means you can’t play in a bowl game.

Theoretically this rule has some merit. You don’t want to incentivise teams moving up to the top level to cash in on having a good team for one year, and then suddenly becoming a financial disaster when they can’t maintain the level of funding needed to compete with their new rivals.

But that was never James Madison’s scenario. At the FCS level, they were always a title contender, among the absolute cream of the crop with their facilities and their fanbase.

Under coach Curt Cignetti they’ve continued their success, currently sitting as the second highest-ranked non-power conference team in the national polls (which don’t take bowl eligibility into account). Computer metrics agree they’re probably the best of the bunch.

So as the Dukes keep on winning, pressure keeps on building. Virginia’s attorney general actually stepped in, sending a letter to the NCAA about their situation, though it was dismissed by the governing body. Local politicians have tried to cash in on the growing unrest by talking up their support for the Dukes leading up to state elections on Tuesday (US time).

But as it stands, being bowl ineligible also means they can’t win their conference, because the Sun Belt doesn’t want to have a situation where its champion can’t play in the best bowl game the conference is tied into.

The school applied for a waiver before the season started, but The Athletic reported the NCAA didn’t want to set a precedent which other movers could use in their favour.

Still, that isn’t enough for the Dukes, who this week sent a letter to the NCAA Board of Directors asking to be exempted from the laws.

“Our university has embarked on this transition in ways that no other institution has since the transition rules changed 23 years ago; and our student-athletes have achieved an astonishing, unprecedented level of success during this period,” the letter read.

“Relief that allows our student-athletes to participate in a bowl game, as their play has earned, is warranted.

“Relief is warranted as a matter of student-athlete welfare. The membership recognises postseason participation as a fundamental element of the student-athlete experience. If relief is provided, our student-athletes would potentially have the rare opportunity to participate in a prestigious New Year’s Six bowl contest.

“Our team includes cohorts of students who have been through COVID disruptions, missed out on earned opportunities last year, and face uncertain prospects for postseason play again this year despite their sustained excellence. Postseason participation is a reward for on-field success, and it serves as a special and high-profile developmental opportunity.”

The NCAA is set to consider the fresh request over the coming days and weeks, but they can’t take too long. It’s only a few weeks until the conference championships; the Dukes, 6-0 in the Sun Belt already, are close to locking up the East division for a second straight year… though as it stands, they wouldn’t actually win it, for a second straight year.

Unfortunately college football isn’t a sport known for either quick processes or fairness.

No-one is saying the Dukes have to be made post-season eligible so they can make the four-team playoff – even if they go unbeaten, this shapes as a season with at least four power conference teams with much stronger resumes, and either no losses or one.

But there’s a genuine chance this rule keeps JMU from one the biggest bowls of the year (likely the Peach Bowl), missing a huge showcase game against a big-name team which could help them massively with recruiting. Not to mention the unfortunate fate of the current players, who are winning all of these games for no reward at the end.

Even if they end up back-dooring their way into a minor bowl game because not enough teams qualify overall, it’s simply not fair.