JMU Selected to Host Third College GameDay for Nov. 18 vs. App State

HARRISONBURG, Va. – The nation's premier weekly college football television program, ESPN's College GameDay, will make its third appearance on James Madison's campus as the show plans to air from the picturesque University Quad on Saturday, November 18. No. 21 JMU (10-0) hosts App State (6-4) in a Sun Belt Conference matchup at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

College GameDay will air on ESPN from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday with live coverage originating from the JMU Quad as the show previews significant games of the day and discusses major news in the sport of college football. The three-hour show concludes with Lee Corso's headgear prediction prior to kickoff for noon games around the country.

Rece Davis hosts the program and is joined weekly by ESPN GameDay analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and Pat McAfee. That group is also joined by college football insider Pete Thamel, reporters Jen Lada and Jess Sims and college football betting analyst 'Stanford Steve' Coughlin.

More details will be shared on JMUSports.com as soon as they are available as they relate to attending College GameDay, location information, other ESPN programming and fan activities. Tickets for the JMU game vs. App State are sold out, but fans can also visit the official secondary ticket marketplace on SeatGeek for additional availability.

The 2023 show will be JMU's third time hosting College GameDay as the Dukes also hosted as an FCS program on Oct. 24, 2015 against Richmond and on Oct. 14, 2017 against Villanova with estimated show attendance over 12,000 for each occurrence. JMU becomes the first on-campus location outside of Power Five institutions to host three times (2 each for Army, Air Force and North Dakota St).

College GameDay will visit a Sun Belt campus for the third time in four seasons as App State hosted in 2022 and Coastal Carolina in 2020. It will be the fourth overall Sun Belt appearance as Troy competed in a neutral site game in 2012 against Navy.

Overall, it will be the 21 show featuring at least one Group of Five team and the 14 originating from a Group of Five campus. College GameDay will produce its ninth show in Virginia with JMU's three and six at Virginia Tech. The 2023 program will be the third of the last four in Virginia to occur in Harrisonburg.

So far in 2023, College GameDay has aired from Charlotte, N.C. (neutral North Carolina vs. South Carolina), Alabama, Colorado, Notre Dame, Duke, Dallas (neutral Texas vs. Oklahoma), Washington, Ohio State, Utah, Alabama again and Georgia. JMU is the first non-Power Five host site in 2023.

JMU improved to 10-0 following a 44-6 victory against UConn on Saturday. The Dukes have been frequent programming on the Worldwide Leader with seven of their first nine games appearing on national networks, including six on the ESPN family (one ESPN, two ESPN2, three ESPNU).

JMU climbed into both top 25 polls after defeating Marshall in October and currently stands at No. 21 in the AP Coaches Polls, marking the second time being ranked in two FBS seasons (No. 25 in 2022 after a 5-0 start). The Dukes are one of seven remaining unbeaten teams in FBS football as of mid-day Saturday with the nation's fourth-longest winning streak and the best road record in the country at 5-0. JMU is 6-0 in the Sun Belt in 2023 and 12-2 overall in league games since joining the conference.

Since beginning its FBS transition in 2022, JMU holds the third-best record among Group of Five schools over the last two years (18-3), trailing only Tulane (20-3). As a second-year transitioning institution assured of a winning record, JMU can be selected for one of FBS football's 41 bowl games if there are not enough eligible teams at 6-6 or better.