Dukes for Duke: No. 19 James Madison’s CFP hopes could hinge on Blue Devils winning ACC

By Canadian Press on December 4, 2025.

James Madison coach Bob Chesney and athletic director Matt Roan didn’t know until after the team’s charter flight home from Saturday’s lopsided win at Coastal Carolina that California was threatening to upset visiting SMU — a game with a potential impact reaching all the way across the country to the Dukes’ campus in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

There’s a good chance they’ll be better prepared for scoreboard watching this weekend.

When Cal finished off the Mustangs, it kept SMU out of the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, opening a path for JMU to reach the 12-team College Football Playoff if it beats Troy in Friday’s Sun Belt championship game. The Dukes could earn the final automatic bid that goes to the five highest-ranked conference champions, especially if five-loss Duke beats No. 16 Virginia (No. 17 CFP) in Saturday’s ACC title game.

“We were big Cal fans on Saturday night and, obviously, we’re big Duke Blue Devil fans now,” Roan said. “I think that creates a legitimate path.”

JMU — in just its fourth season competing as an FBS program — cracked the CFP rankings at No. 25 on Tuesday night after being ranked in the AP Top 25 poll for four straight weeks.

Two Group of Five conference teams are ranked ahead of JMU, though No. 20 North Texas (No. 24 CFP) and No. 21 Tulane (No. 20 CFP) play each other in Friday’s American Conference title game for a likely win-and-in scenario.

Virginia would be poised to earn the other automatic bid if it beats Duke. But a Blue Devils win as a currently unranked team raises the possibility that the Dukes (11-1) could stand as the fifth highest-rated conference champion and squeeze the ACC out of the playoff entirely.

“That’s where we’re at this point in time,” said Chesney, who is expected to take over at UCLA after this season. “If the committee isn’t going to do it or not allow us in, let’s find another way in. And that’s another alternative route.”

Not that Chesney thinks his current team should need that other path.

The Dukes’ lone loss came Sept. 5 at Louisville, which at the time still had star running back Isaac Brown. JMU led that game 7-6 at the half and was tied 14-14 after three quarters. But the Cardinals recovered a fumble in the end zone for the winning score and then got a 78-yard touchdown run from Brown to finish with a two-score victory.

Since then, the Dukes have won 10 straight, including a 63–27 win against Old Dominion on Oct. 18 and a 24-20 win against Washington State on Nov. 22.

“We’ve done everything in our power with the schedule that we faced and that’s all that we could do,” Chesney said. “Put our best foot forward every single week, handle our business and do what we’re supposed to do. I think the one little blemish on our record, I think when you go back and look at the time and who it was against, it’s very different than maybe some other people’s losses.”

Of course, there is no path to the CFP without a win against Troy. That’s why, even as the talk of playoff paths and Chesney’s imminent departure for UCLA swirls around the team, the Dukes are trying to focus on the task at hand.

“I think if you chose to get away from it it’s not that hard,” senior defensive back and team captain Jacob Thomas said. “My phone’s on ‘do not disturb’ all the time. The noise is the noise and you can’t really worry about it. We’re focused on doing our job this Friday and whatever happens after that happens after that.”

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Mike Barber, The Associated Press