[No Paywall] Will James Madison’s move set off more realignment dominoes? Here’s what we’re hearing

[u/TheAthletic]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7685559/2026/10/13/james-madison-american-g6-realignment/?unlocked_article_code=1.IVE.7Lod.soIQ8oXcLyaB&source=emp_shared_article&smid=re-share-ta

Conference realignment has quieted down at college football’s Power 4 level recently, but it has been a constant in the Group of 6 ever since the Texas-Oklahoma-SEC earthquake of 2021. That trend continued Monday when James Madison announced it would join the American Conference by July 1, 2028.

It was just four years ago that James Madison moved up from the Football Championship Subdivision to join the Sun Belt. The Dukes found immediate success and last season reached the College Football Playoff as the fifth-highest ranked conference champion.

Why make the move now? And what else could happen in the Group of 6? Here’s what we’re hearing. Some people engaged in the process spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on realignment strategy publicly.

Will the American add more?

JMU’s move will put the American at 15 football-playing members by 2028, an awkward odd number that conferences typically avoid. Adding another football-playing member would make for a cleaner schedule. But as with almost any conference expansion, adding teams splits the revenue pie further. Exorbitant entrance fees are often used to counteract diluted payouts for the rest of a conference.

JMU will pay $23 million to the American and receive a share more in line with recent additions to the conference, according to someone briefed on the move. Per the American’s 2025 tax filing, that share is worth around $7 million annually, which is less than the $12 million-plus that longtime American members receive but much more than the estimated $2 million JMU received from the Sun Belt.

Among other recent moves, North Dakota State paid $12.5 million to the Mountain West to join the league this year while taking a lesser share. Sacramento State paid $18 million to join the MAC and will forgo any MAC revenue for five years.

But entrance fee money gets split up and spent quickly. Long-term brand and health are more important to American Conference decision-makers. They feel JMU brings that.

Miami (Ohio), Liberty and UConn are among other schools that have shown interest, according to people briefed on the conversations. UConn, a member of the American from 2013 to 2019, left the league to join the new football-less Big East in most sports, while the football team began playing as an independent. UConn had hoped to remain a football-only member of the American, but the league denied it.

That relationship is different now. UConn athletic director David Benedict told The Athletic in September that he and American commissioner Tim Pernetti go way back and have had conversations since Pernetti got the job in 2024.