Has any college football program experienced as much success and upheaval simultaneously as the James Madison Dukes? They only joined the top level of college football in the 2022 season and, by year's end, had become the first team to ever be ranked in its inaugural season in the Football Bowl Subdivision. In their second season, 2023, the Dukes hosted "College GameDay" and played in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Then coach Curt Cignetti departed for Indiana, taking many of the team's top players with him. Despite that, the Dukes kept on winning under the next coach, Bob Chesney, and even made the College Football Playoff in 2025. Yes, in their fourth season at the top level, the Dukes had a shot at a national title.
Then Chesney left for UCLA, so surely the Dukes are due for a backslide now, right? The school recently announced they've sold out season tickets for the fourth straight year. "The streak of sellouts spans three head coaches as the Dukes enter their first season under the leadership of Billy Napier," the school said in a news release.
Napier, most recently the coach of the Florida Gators, now takes the reins of a young but positively surging program. If you want to see it in person, you'd probably better act quickly. "Fans still wishing to attend home JMU football games this fall may purchase single-game tickets, with availability varying across five games," the release explained.
"JMU's Oct. 3 Family Weekend matchup with Marshall is fully sold out of public tickets with student reservations later in September. The 2025 season marked the first time JMU sold out of all tickets to all six home games, with the goal of a repeat for the 2026 campaign." That tracks, as the Dukes are rapidly flying through program milestones that some of the longest-tenured teams in the sport have yet to reach. At this rate, they'll be national champions before you know it.
Perhaps the next order of business is to expand Bridgeforth Stadium beyond its capacity of about 25,000. The demand seems to be there, and if the Dukes keep winning, it's surely to grow even more.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
