Email from Karl Benson to the James Madison AD

Using the FOIA to obtain information from James Madison university, the good people of Liberty Flames Nation's website were able to pull out a nugget of gold among the normal boring stuff.


http://www.libertyflamesnation.com/2013/04/2014-map-of-sun-belt.html

This email at the link was sent in late February from Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson to James Madison athletic director Jeff Bourne. In the email, Benson sent a map of the Sun Belt to Bourne showing the future of the Sun Belt.

A few things to take from the email...

1. This was sent about a month before the Sun Belt invited Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Idaho, and New Mexico State to join the Sun Belt. Appalachian State and Georgia Southern are both on the map as members in 2014 while Idaho and New Mexico State are not. UALR and UTA are also not on the map. The exclusion of Idaho and NMSU from the map can be for one of two reasons. Either the Sun Belt only put full members on the map or Idaho and NMSU were only added after the Sun Belt was forced to wait by prospective schools mulling invitations. Most likely leaning towards the full members only theory.

2. The map includes both James Madison and Liberty in the mock up for 2014. That seems to prove that those two schools were part of the top Sun Belt choices and would stand to reason that they still are. Speaking of top choices, Benson said recently in a media interview on ESPN 1420 that Liberty was not on the short list. Either Benson was deliberately misleading the public on the Sun Belt intentions, Liberty said or did something to take themselves off the short list, or Benson's short list consists of only James Madison. Questions also arise whether Benson sent different maps to different schools.

3. It seems very sloppy in the cloak and dagger game of realignment that a commissioner would send something as big as a mock up map done by the Sun Belt to an email that could be obtained by the FOIA. Honestly, it is hard to know where the truth really lies on that issue.

4. Is the information out of date with it being sent in February and today being April 9? It would be a reasonable guess that the Sun Belt would have made overtures to James Madison and Liberty if not invitations fior Sun Belt membership with the original group of four. Questions remain about interest from the schools as JMU has made no public comment and Liberty has said publicly that they are going after a Sun Belt invite. Could the Sun Belt have already moved to another candidate (Jacksonville State, Lamar, etc.) at this point?

5. If that map did work out, Troy would be a big winner in the short term being the only East division football program with a fully developed and successful FBS team. The other members would have been: Georgia State (FBS in 2013), Georgia Southern (FBS in 2014), Appalachian State (FBS in 2014), Liberty (FBS in 2014), and James Madison (FBS in 2014). The Sun Belt may have to petition the FBS skip a transitional year in 2014 for those schools as otherwise only Troy and Georgia State would be eligible for the postseason in 2014. The only difference now would be that South Alabama would stay in the east and give the Sun Belt 3 postseason eligible teams in 2014. Keep in mind that this is all hypothetical based on the email.

What do you think? Does this email revelation keep in pace with what has already been known? Let's discuss in the comments section.