HARRISONBURG – James Madison will play more road games than home games next season for the first time since 2014.
The school and the Colonial Athletic Association announced the Dukes’ 2018 regular-season football schedule on Wednesday.
“I’d rather be here at Bridgeforth, but it happens every once in a while,” JMU coach Mike Houston said.
JMU will open its campaign with back-to-back trips in the non-conference – to FBS North Carolina State and to Norfolk State – before hosting Robert Morris in its first home contest and final non-league game.
North Carolina State is paying JMU $425,000 for the Dukes to visit Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C., on Sept. 1 to kickoff the season. JMU is 6-20 all-time against the FBS, but is 2-1 in its last three tries after beating East Carolina University this season and SMU in 2015.
“We open with N.C. State, so it gives me a chance to get back to North Carolina,” Houston, a North Carolina native, said. “That’ll be a great challenge. I expect them to be a Top 25 program next year and they’re one of the top teams in the ACC this year.”
The Wolfpack came in at No. 20 in the College Football Playoff committee’s initial rankings released on Tuesday.
Once the Dukes begin CAA action, they are slated to match up with four teams currently in the STATS FCS Top 25.
JMU’s CAA opener is on Sept. 22 at home against William & Mary.
In conference play, JMU will host Elon (Oct. 6), Stony Brook (Oct. 27) and Rhode Island (Nov. 10) in addition to the Tribe, and will travel to Richmond (Sept. 29), Villanova (Oct. 13), New Hampshire (Nov. 3) and Towson (Nov. 17).
The bye week is Oct. 20.
“This is starting a new four-year schedule rotation,” said Brian Gordon, the CAA associate commissioner for football. “Obviously, you play the teams in your pod (for JMU that means Elon, Richmond and William & Mary) annually and then you rotate with the teams that aren’t in your pod.”
Gordon said the league’s goal was to achieve balanced schedules for all member schools as it rolled out the new four-year rotation.
“We work with a schedule programmer who has a software,” Gordon said. “But we give him a lot of criteria to use like rivalry games that need to be played and obviously the pods, plus we try to create travel equity.
“Like for JMU, JMU wouldn’t fly to the three northern schools all in one year.”
Gordon said the league’s 2019 schedule mirrors the 2018 schedule except the home and road opponents are flipped. So in 2019, JMU hosts the schools it travels to (New Hampshire, Richmond, Towson and Villanova) in 2018 and travel to the schools in 2019 that it hosts (Elon, Rhode Island, Stony Brook and William & Mary) in 2018.
JMU won’t play Albany, Delaware or Maine in either of the next two seasons.
Gordon, who joined the conference’s staff a year ago, said one of the goals with the new four-year outline is to eliminate the common problem of one school having to face multiple teams coming off bye weeks in the same year.
JMU faced Maine and Delaware this year after each came off its bye week earlier this season.
“That was one of the priorities,” Gordon said. “We did that this year.
“The computer guys call it fresh, tired and even. So if you’re playing a team off a bye, their fresh and you’re tired. It’s a formula. We’ve tried to limit it so that no team is more than plus or minus-1 with the net.”
JMU won’t face any conference opponent coming off a bye week in 2018.
“I’m excited for that,” Houston said.
Two new league opponents next year for the Dukes are Stony Brook and Towson. JMU met the SeaWolves and Tigers last in 2015, with the Dukes winning both contests.
“We’ve got William & Mary and Richmond both very early in the schedule, which is something a little different for our alumni and our football team,” Houston said. “Then you get a couple of new teams on the schedule with Stony Brook and Towson. I’ve seen both of them on film this year and that’ll be certainly a challenge with both of them. But it’ll be exciting to have Stony Brook here.
“Nothing is easy in this conference.”
