NEW ORLEANS – No. 25 James Madison (11-1, 8-0 SBC) is seeking its first Sun Belt football title in Friday’s Credit Union 1 Sun Belt Football Championship presented by Visit Pensacola at Bridgeforth Stadium in Harrisonburg, Va. The game is set for 7:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. CT and will be broadcast nationwide on ESPN.
The Dukes are appearing in the championship game for the first time in their second eligible season after transitioning to the FBS level. James Madison will attempt to add to the home team’s 5-1 all-time record in the championship game. The Dukes are 6-0 at home this season.
A James Madison win over Troy (8-4, 6-2 SBC) would give East Division teams a 4-3 edge in championship games all-time. A Dukes victory would also make James Madison the second team in conference history to complete an unblemished run through the Sun Belt regular season and win the championship game (Louisiana, 2021).
Since joining the Sun Belt ahead of the 2022 season, James Madison owns a 39-10 record. The Dukes are 25-7 against Sun Belt Conference opposition, including the seventh all-time unblemished 8-0 run through the Sun Belt regular-season schedule in 2025.
James Madison is riding a 10-game winning streak—the third-longest in the country trailing only No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana—into Friday night’s championship game. The Dukes also join the Buckeyes and Hoosiers as 1-of-3 teams to boast an unbeaten record in conference play this season.
James Madison opened its season with a 45-10 victory over Weber State, as the defense came down with three interceptions and held the Wildcats to just 148 yards of total offense. The Dukes then carried a 14-14 tie with bowl-bound Louisville into the fourth quarter, before the Cardinals recovered a game-changing strip sack in the end zone to take the lead in an eventual 28-14 win.
From that point forward, James Madison has rattled off 10-straight wins en route to its first Sun Belt East Division title, first Credit Union 1 Sun Belt Football Championship presented by Visit Pensacola berth and first College Football Playoff ranking at No. 25 in this week’s edition.
During that span, James Madison has won its games by an average score of 39.5 to 15.4 and has averaged 469.6 yards per game while allowing 263 yards per game. The Dukes have held 7-of-10 teams to under 300 yards of total offense and have been particularly stingy down the stretch, conceding just 34 second-half points and one fourth-quarter touchdown.
James Madison opened its 10-game winning streak with a 31-13 non-conference win over Liberty, then rattled off seven-straight Sun Belt wins over bowl-bound Georgia Southern, 35-10; Georgia State, 14-7; bowl-bound Louisiana, 24-14; in-state rival and bowl-bound Old Dominion, 63-27; bowl-bound Texas State, 52-20; Marshall, 35-23; and App State, 58-10.
The Dukes stepped out of conference action with a 24-20 win over bowl-bound Washington State to complete an unbeaten 6-0 season at home in front of a sixth-consecutive sell-out crowd at Bridgeforth Stadium. In the regular-season finale, redshirt junior quarterback Alonza Barnett III accounted for four total touchdowns in a 59-10 win over bowl-bound Coastal Carolina to cap the third unblemished Sun Belt campaign of the championship game era.
The James Madison defense paces the Sun Belt and ranks fifth in the nation in total defense at 253.5 yards per game, fifth in rushing defense at 84.7 yards per game, 10th in scoring defense at 16.0 points per game and 12th in passing defense at 167.8 yards per game. Offensively, the Dukes top the Sun Belt and rank sixth in the country at 239.8 rushing yards per game and 10th in scoring offense at 37.8 points per game.
Senior linebacker Trent Hendrick leads the defensive unit with 7.6 tackles per game, while redshirt freshman defensive lineman Sahir West paces the Dukes with 8.5 tackles for loss and 4.0 sacks on the year. Redshirt junior defensive back Justin Eaglin has hauled in four interceptions to rank 16th in the country.
Barnett III threw for 2,440 yards and 20 touchdowns and rushed for 459 yards and 13 touchdowns. He ranks ninth in the country with 16.7 points responsible for per game, 17th with 13.33 yards per completion and 22nd with 13 rushing touchdowns. Redshirt junior running back Wayne Knight ran for 1,083 yards and eight touchdowns and added 368 yards and a score through the air. Joining Knight among Barnett’s top targets are junior wide receiver Landon Ellis (532 yards, 5 touchdowns) and redshirt senior wide receiver Nick DeGennaro (387 yards, 4 touchdowns). Knight paces the Sun Belt and ranks fourth in the nation with 139.75 all-purpose yards per game, while Ellis is tied for seventh in the Sun Belt with five touchdown receptions on the year.
Friday night’s meeting will be the fourth in the all-time series between Troy and James Madison. The teams split two matchups in the FCS Playoffs, before James Madison escaped Troy with a 16-14 win in the first clash as Sun Belt Conference foes in 2023. The win—which gave James Madison a 2-1 edge in the all-time series—was part of the Dukes 10-0 start to an eventual 11-2 campaign and was Troy’s lone conference loss in an 11-3 Sun Belt championship season. The Credit Union 1 Sun Belt Football Championship presented by Visit Pensacola will be the first-ever FBS meeting between the two programs in Harrisonburg, Va.