Old Dominion football coach Bobby Wilder generated a little news when he sat down in the conference room adjacent to his office on Thursday to do a live chat with The Virginian-Pilot.
Wilder broached a subject that many at ODU have hesitated to talk about – he said he hopes that James Madison will join Old Dominion in leaving the Colonial Athletic Association for Conference USA.
“I am hopeful that eventually James Madison will make the move to Conference USA,” he said in response to a question. “I believe, like ECU, that would create a tremendous natural rivalry that would be good for the league and also good for both schools.”
ODU announced in May it will move from the CAA to C-USA in 2013 in most sports. After playing as a Football Championship Subdivision independent in 2013, the Monarchs will join C-USA and the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2014.
Could Old Dominion make a late push to get their former CAA rival James Madison pushed right through the Sun Belt to Conference USA and watch WKU get pushed to the back burner as a CUSA prospect.
Remember, Old Dominion was not a serious candidate for inclusion until a month before invited. Many teams were on the list before ODU but the conference saw something they liked at jumped at the chance.
James Madison has great facilities including a 25,000 seat stadium that could be significantly expanded and would be a natural fit on the east coast with ECU leaving after the 2013 season.
No comments:
Post a Comment