HARRISONBURG – James Madison will begin the postseason where it spent the entire regular season – at No. 1.
JMU earned the top seed for the FCS playoffs, which begin this Saturday. That means, should the Dukes continue to win, they will play all their postseason contests at Bridgeforth Stadium in Harrisonburg up until the Jan. 6 national championship game, which will be held at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.
“Today we woke up and kind of knew we would be the No. 1 seed,” said senior quarterback Bryan Schor. “With that being said, it’s still pretty exciting to get the No. 1 seed and to know that we’re going be at home at Bridgeforth for our playoffs.”
JMU has yet to lose a home game under second-year coach Mike Houston.
“Going into yesterday’s game the kids all knew what was on the line,” Houston said. “It was more than just the [Colonial Athletic Association] championship, they knew most likely the No. 1 seed in the nation was on the line, home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and an undefeated and untied regular season, there were so many things at stake.”
The Dukes’ 31-3 win over Elon secured the unblemished 11-0 regular-season mark with an 8-0 run toward the outright CAA title. It also gave the Dukes a bye into the second round of the postseason when they will host the winner of Lehigh-Stony Brook on Dec. 2 at 2 p.m.
The Seawolves (9-2, 7-1 CAA) and Mountain Hawks (5-6, 5-1 Patriot League champion) will meet this Saturday at 2 p.m. in Stony Brook, N.Y.
“You look at a team the caliber of Stony Brook,” Houston said. “And that’s not really what you want to see there in your potential second round matchup.
“You know they will be a quality team if that’s who we face.”
A total of four CAA teams have reached the postseason.
JMU has the league’s automatic qualifying berth. Stony Brook is one of three at-large qualifiers joining Elon (8-3, 6-2 CAA) and New Hampshire (7-4, 5-3 CAA).
The Missouri Valley Football Conference led all leagues with five playoff berths.
The other seven seeded squads are No. 2 North Dakota State, No. 3 Jacksonville State, No. 4 Central Arkansas, No. 5 South Dakota State, No. 6 Sam Houston State, No. 7 Wofford and No. 8 Southern Utah.
If the seeded teams win out, JMU would have to beat Southern Utah in the quarterfinals and Central Arkansas in the semifinals to reach the final.
“It’s definitely a blessing to be at the top right now,” senior defensive end Andrew Ankrah said. “This is exactly where we wanted to be.”
Last year JMU beat New Hampshire, Sam Houston State and North Dakota State before beating Youngstown State in Frisco to capture the second national championship in school history.
Houston said JMU would use its bye week for self-evaluation while starting initial preparations for both Lehigh and Stony Brook. The coach added both the staff and players would get Thanksgiving off to go home to be with their families.
