The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The 14 member institutions of the Sun Belt are distributed primarily across the southern United States.
The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern Seaboard, as well as some in the Midwest: Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri as well as in the District of Columbia. Although some of its members are state-funded, half of its membership is made up of private, Catholic institutions. Despite the name, there are 15 full-time members, and four affiliate members that participate in women's field hockey and men's lacrosse. The current commissioner is Bernadette McGlade, who began her tenure in 2008.
The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universities, and the conference is headquartered in Richmond. The CAA was historically a Southern conference until the addition of four schools in the Northeast after the turn of the 21st century, which added geographic balance to the conference.
Michael Chester "Mickey" Matthews is a former American football coach. He served as the head football coach at James Madison University (JMU) from 1999 to 2013, compiling a record of 109–71. Matthews coached the 2004 James Madison Dukes football team to an NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship.
James LeRoy Bakken is an American former professional football player who was a punter and placekicker for the National Football League’s St. Louis Cardinals. He was a four-time Pro Bowl selection and was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team for both the 1960s and 1970s.
The James Madison Dukes are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent James Madison University (JMU), in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The name "Dukes" is derived from Samuel Page Duke, the university's second president. The Dukes play as members of the Sun Belt Conference. JMU was a charter member of the Colonial Athletic Association, which sponsors sports at the NCAA Division I level. In football, JMU participates in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of Division I, formerly known as Division I-A. The Dukes officially left the CAA and joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2022, participating in Division I FBS football and other sports sponsored by the conference.
The James Madison Dukes football program represents James Madison University in the sport of American football. The Dukes compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as a member of the Sun Belt Conference (SBC), beginning play within the conference for the 2022 season. The university first fielded a football team in 1972, and the Dukes play at the on-campus Bridgeforth Stadium in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The Dukes are currently coached by Curt Cignetti.
Alexander Von Wood is an American football coach. He is the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach at University of Delaware, a position he has held since 2018. Wood served as the head football coach at James Madison University from 1995 to 1998 and Florida A&M University from 2015 to 2017. He won two national championships as an assistant coach at the University of Miami in 1989 and 1991.
Curt Cignetti is an American football coach who has been the head coach of the James Madison Dukes since 2019. He previously served as the head coach for Elon University and was an assistant coach for the University of Alabama for four years.
The 2011 James Madison Dukes football team represented James Madison University in the 2011 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The Dukes were led by 13th year head coach Mickey Matthews and played their home games at Bridgeforth Stadium and Zane Showker Field. They are a member of the Colonial Athletic Association. They finished the season 8–5, 5–3 in CAA play to finish in a tie for fifth place. They received an at-large bid into the FCS playoffs where they defeated Eastern Kentucky in the first round before falling to North Dakota State in the second round.
The James Madison–William & Mary football rivalry between the James Madison Dukes and the William & Mary Tribe is a match-up between two public universities, James Madison University and the College of William and Mary, in the state of Virginia as well as members of the Colonial Athletic Association. The football series began in 1978 and has been played a total of 44 times as of 2021.
The 2015 James Madison Dukes football team represented James Madison University during the 2015 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by second-year head coach Everett Withers and played their home games at Bridgeforth Stadium and Zane Showker Field. They were a member of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). The Dukes finished the regular season 9–2 to share the CAA championship with William & Mary and Richmond, who all finished with identical 6–2 conference records. They received an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs, where they lost in the second round to Colgate and finish the season 9–3.
The 2016 James Madison Dukes football team represented James Madison University during the 2016 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by first year head coach Mike Houston and played their home games at Bridgeforth Stadium and Zane Showker Field. They were a member of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). They finished the season 14–1 overall with an 8–0 mark in CAA play to win the conference title. They received the automatic bid to the FCS playoffs, where they defeated New Hampshire, Sam Houston State, and five-time defending champions North Dakota State to advance to the National Championship Game, where they defeated Youngstown State. This was their first national championship since 2004.
The 2004 James Madison Dukes football team represented James Madison University in the 2004 NCAA Division I-AA football season, and completed the 32nd season of Dukes football. They were led by head coach Mickey Matthews and played their home games at Bridgeforth Stadium in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The 2004 team came off of a 6–6 record the previous season. JMU finished the season 13–2 with a record of 7–1 in Atlantic 10 Conference play en route to the program's first NCAA Division I-AA national championship.
The James Madison–Richmond football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the James Madison Dukes and the Richmond Spiders. Previously, it was a divisional game in the South division of the Colonial Athletic Association, and conference game in the Yankee Conference and Atlantic 10 beginning with the Dukes entry in 1993. During this period, the teams have combined for three National Championships and fourteen Conference Championships. All of James Madison's home games have been hosted at Bridgeforth Stadium in Harrisonburg, Virginia while Richmond hosted its contests at City Stadium until 2009, and from 2010 onward at Robins Stadium, both in Richmond, Virginia; as of 2016, only one game has been played on a neutral field, a 1985 matchup in Norfolk, Virginia. The rivalry has become increasingly intense over the years, likely due to the stark differences between the two institutions, and the continued success of both programs.
The 2017 James Madison Dukes football team represented James Madison University during the 2017 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by second-year head coach Mike Houston and played their home games at Bridgeforth Stadium and Zane Showker Field. They are a member of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). They finished the season 14–1 overall with an 8–0 mark in CAA play to win the conference title and also finished undefeated in the regular season for the second time in school history. They received an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs, where they defeated Stony Brook, Weber State, and South Dakota State to advance to the National Championship Game for the second straight season, where they were defeated 17–13 by North Dakota State.
The 2019 James Madison Dukes football team represented James Madison University during the 2019 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by first-year head coach Curt Cignetti and played their home games at Bridgeforth Stadium. They competed as a member of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). They finished the season 14–2, 8–0 in CAA play to be CAA champions. They received the CAA's automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs where they defeated Monmouth, Northern Iowa, and Weber State to advance to the FCS National Championship Game where they lost to North Dakota State.
The 2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game was a postseason college football game that determined a national champion in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision for the 2019 season. It was played at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, on January 11, 2020, with kickoff at 12:00 p.m. EST, and television coverage on ABC. It was the culminating game of the 2019 FCS Playoffs.
The 2020 James Madison Dukes football team represented James Madison University as a member of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by second-year head coach Curt Cignetti and played their home games at Bridgeforth Stadium.
The Royal Rivalry refers to the U.S. college rivalry games between the James Madison Dukes and the Old Dominion Monarchs of the Sun Belt Conference. It is an inter-conference match-up between two Div. I FBS public universities, James Madison University and Old Dominion University, in the state of Virginia.
