HARRISONBURG — James Madison officials said Saturday that an estimated 14,000 spectators packed the school’s Quad for the return of ESPN’s “College GameDay” to the school.

“That was a pretty intimidating atmosphere when you get up there on that stage,” said JMU coach Mike Houston, who was interviewed by ESPN’s Maria Taylor live during the program. “Plus, the lady interviewing me was about 2 inches taller than I was, but what a special deal.”

“College GameDay” made its first trip to Harrisonburg in October of 2015. It drew about 12,000 to the Quad then, school officials said.

And unlike the first time around when JMU fell to Richmond after analyst Lee Corso dressed like James Madison and donned the Duke dog’s head gear, top-ranked JMU proved Corso right Saturday. Corso picked JMU to win again, and the Dukes followed with a 30-8 Colonial Athletic Association victory over Villanova.

“I don’t see it every week. I’m not on these campuses every week, but when you look around right there and you see the support we have here at JMU, there’s a reason why we talk about this being a special place,” Houston said. “That kind of support, I don’t care what kind of school — FBS, FCS, Big Ten, whatever — there’s very few schools that have that kind of support.”

Lee Fitting, vice president of college sports at ESPN and a 1996 graduate of JMU, said he could have never imagined the show coming to Harrisonburg while he was in school.

“Not in my wildest dreams,” Fitting said. “Then even as I was producing ‘College GameDay’ for years, it was never on the radar.

“The first time we came, ‘The Bear’ Chris Fallica, our researcher, was the one who drew attention to Madison and the success they were having and the game against Richmond, so we sort of just gave it a go. And to be back twice is something I never would have dreamed of.”

The game drew the second-largest crowd in school history as 25,993 saw JMU pick up its 18th straight victory. It also was the 300th win in program history.

“It’s great thing to be able to show the rest of the world the type of passion and the type of enthusiasm we have in our community and on our team,” JMU senior linebacker Kyre Hawkins said.