FBS-FCS Trades: James Madison to the ACC, Wake Forest to the CAA

After the 2017 season, Idaho football dropped from the FBS to the FCS, becoming the first program to drop divisions during the modern FBS-FCS era. The Vandals were also the first program to leave the FBS entirely since Pacific discontinued its program after the 1995 season.

In ending their four-year run in the geographically illogical Sun Belt, Idaho joined the Big Sky, their former home from 1963-96, as a full member. And in accepting Idaho, the Big Sky didn't eject a current member or ship a member to the Sun Belt in exchange for the Vandals. (Although North Dakota transitioned into the Missouri Valley Football Conference to keep the Big Sky at 13 members.) But what if they had to? In an alternate universe, what if the Sun Belt could pluck a Big Sky member in return for Idaho? 

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We're living in that alternate universe of conference trades by a proposing one-for-one trade between the ACC and CAA: ​

In: James Madison

Out: Wake Forest

UNC Wilmington, a non-football-playing member of the CAA, had an athletics budget just north of $18 million for the 2017-18 year. At the time, it was lower than Danny Manning's buyout (of a fully guaranteed contract that runs through 2025), and even two years later, is just barely higher than Manning's reported buyout of $15 million.

This is primarily driven by football but the best part of the James Madison-for-Wake Forest swap is shipping Danny Manning's outrageous contract to the CAA, a league with men's basketball salaries in the mid-six figures.

Manning and Wake Forest are out, and James Madison is in, gifting the ACC with an elite FCS football program that could compete immediately in the ACC. The Dukes, who have reportedly considered an FBS jump recently, are 69-15 with three national championship appearances (one win) since 2014 and have three FBS wins in the last decade, including a win in Blacksburg in 2010.

If this trade went into effect immediately, what would their respective 2020 schedules look like?

James Madison keeps Villanova on the schedule (although it shifts to a non-conference home game), and adds former FCS teams in Old Dominion and App State:

Wake Forest, meanwhile, is now visiting Villanova as a conference foe on Oct. 24 instead of hosting the Wildcats as a non-conference foe on Sept. 19. And, ironically, they'll add an ACC team they weren't scheduled to play, North Carolina:

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