From JMUsports.com:
American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco has announced that James Madison University will join the conference as an affiliate member for women's lacrosse beginning July 1, 2022.
With the addition of the Dukes for the 2023 spring season, The American will have seven schools that compete in women's lacrosse: Cincinnati, East Carolina and Temple as full members, while JMU, Florida, Old Dominion and Vanderbilt will compete as affiliate members. South Florida will begin women's lacrosse competition in The American for the 2024 season.
"We are pleased to add James Madison's highly successful women's lacrosse program to the American Athletic Conference," said Aresco. "JMU is firmly established as one of the nation's top programs, with sustained success that aligns with our conference's objective of competing for championships at the highest level. We look forward to further strengthening our profile in women's lacrosse with another perennial NCAA tournament contender. I would like to thank Jeff Bourne and congratulate him for his leadership of an outstanding program."
"Membership in the American Athletic Conference provides a great opportunity for our lacrosse program," JMU Director of Athletics Jeff Bourne said. "We believe JMU lacrosse strengthens The American with our program's storied tradition and a great presence within the footprint of the lacrosse community. We have been a consistent factor in the postseason, including a recent national championship in 2018. For JMU, The American is a great blend of challenging opponents within a natural, geographic proximity while also providing the opportunity to continue to compete for conference championships and postseason appearances. We'd like to thank Mike Aresco and The American for this opportunity and look forward to great competition."
James Madison enters the 2022 season with a streak of six consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, which includes the 2018 season, when the Dukes won the NCAA Championship. JMU has made 17 total NCAA tournament appearances, has won 13 regular-season conference championships and 12 conference tournament titles. Head coach Shelley Klaes is in her 16th season at James Madison and has a 184-85 record (.684) with the Dukes with seven Colonial Athletic Association championships and eight NCAA tournament appearances.
"This is a big-time move for James Madison University," Lacrosse Head Coach Shelley Klaes said. "The American Athletic Conference will position JMU lacrosse to continue to compete for championships at the conference and national level. The conference's relationship with ESPN will add momentum to our championship journey and allow our team to showcase our talent to JMU Nation and beyond! This is all part of an upward trend for JMU with athletics going to the FBS level and the university reclassifying to an R2 research institution, which demonstrates our commitment to growing our brand and prestige nationally. Alignment with like-minded universities becomes paramount for the future of our program."
The move coincides with the recent announcement that JMU Athletics will leave the Colonial Athletic Association on June 30 with the majority of sport programs joining the Sun Belt Conference, which currently does not sponsor women's lacrosse. The conference realignment is the result of several years of department-wide success with national championships in football (2016) and lacrosse (2018). JMU football has been a consistent national entity with five semifinal appearances in six years and two occasions hosting ESPN College GameDay (2015, 2017). JMU softball advanced to the national semifinals of the Women's College World Series in 2021 and men's soccer reached the national quarterfinals in 2018. As a department, JMU has compiled an overall winning percentage above .650 over the last seven years, ranking among the top 20 athletics programs in the nation. The broad sport success has included 11 different sports capturing conference titles over seven years and a top-100 LEARFIELD Director's Cup finish each year.
The American Athletic Conference enters in its fourth season of Division I women's lacrosse in 2022. The American placed three of its six teams – Florida, Temple and Vanderbilt – in the 2021 NCAA tournament, while Florida and Temple join JMU as ranked in the 2022 IWLCA/Inside Lacrosse preseason top-25 poll.
Photo: Getty Images