Tell me how they get in with this schedule.? Please justify. Opponent Rank(nn) Opponent (w-l-t) Time\ Score All Games Conf Games Comments 09/03 vs St. Joseph's (3-14-1) W 2-1 1-0-0 0-0-0 James Madison/Confort Inn Invitaional 09/05 vs Northeastern (3-10-4) W 2-0 2-0-0 0-0-0 James Madison/Confort Inn Invitaional 09/10 vs Virginia Tech (9-10-1) W 3-1 3-0-0 0-0-0 Virginia Tech Classic 09/12 vs Liberty (9-10-2) W 2-0 4-0-0 0-0-0 Virginia Tech Classic 09/16 at VMI (10-9-1) W 2-0 5-0-0 0-0-0 09/19 at Bucknell (7-9-3) W 2-1 6-0-0 0-0-0 (OT) 09/24 vs Longwood (1-16-0) W 3-0 7-0-0 0-0-0 James Madison Tournament 09/26 vs St Francis (PA) (10-6-3) T 1-1 7-0-1 0-0-0 James Madison Tournament (OT) 10/01 * Towson (8-7-2) W 5-1 8-0-1 1-0-0 10/03 * Delaware (4-13-1) W 4-1 9-0-1 2-0-0 10/08 * VA Commonwealth(15) (11-5-2) W 3-1 10-0-1 3-0-0 10/10 * UNC Wilmington(25) (12-6-2) W 2-1 11-0-1 4-0-0 10/15 Howard (4-9-3) W 4-0 12-0-1 4-0-0 10/22 * at Old Dominion (13-5-2) L 0-1 12-1-1 4-1-0 10/24 * at William and Mary (9-7-4) W 1-0 13-1-1 5-1-0 (OT) 10/29 * at Drexel (5-12-0) W 2-1 14-1-1 6-1-0 10/31 * at Hofstra (11-9-1) L 1-2 14-2-1 6-2-0 11/05 * at George Mason (7-11-1) W 2-1 15-2-1 7-2-0 11/12 Old Dominion (13-5-2) L 1-3 15-3-1 7-2-0 Colonial Athletic Conf Tournament Combined W-L-T record of Opponents: 149-173-35 Exhibition matches are excluded from these totals
Let me give this a shot. 1. 15 wins is impressive, but not a guarentee. 2. 7-2 in the CAA is a very impressive record in one of the better soccer conferences in the nation. 3. Who could have guessed that VA Tech would have had such a poor record. I agree that opponets like Longwood, Howard and Northeastern could have been replaced with better opponets. The bottom line is that if the 19 matches they played, they came beat 15 of their opponets. Not too sure if this convinces you though.
JMU is a lock because: They have 15 wins and among all the teams vying for an at-large spot, only UNC-Greensboro have more. (Maryland and Santa Clara also have 15 wins.) They only have three losses. Only UNC-G and Notre Dame have fewer losses. (UCLA, Cal and Hartwick also have three losses). Put together, that gives you the second-best winning percentage of all the teams vying for an at-large pick. Second best record is gonna make you a lock for 26 spots. It just does. Factor in that JMU plays in a conference that will have three (Hofstra, Old Dominion and VCU) and possibly four (UNC-Wilmington) other teams in the NCAAs, and it shows they are playing in a solid conference. If UNC-W makes it, the CAA will have as many as the ACC likely will get and that could be as many as any conference in the country, depending on how man Big Ten and Big East schools get in. I'll be the first to admit JMU's non-con schedule was soft. But, 15-3 is tough to ignore.
Big fat thumbs down. JMU's women's team makes it in while not being nationally ranked (and not winning the CAA), and that was a pleasant surprise. However, when something like that happens, you gotta expect a justifying reverse force. In this case, it was the nationally ranked JMU men's team that gets a big fat snubbidy-do-dah. However, our American Football team is performing surprisingly well. GO DUKES!