After spending years as one of the top teams in the FCS, James Madison will make the leap to the FBS in 2022. Texas State will meet the Sun Belt newcomer in its first game of conference play.
The Bobcats have never faced JMU, but the teams’ stories are intertwined — Texas State hired former Dukes head coach Everett Withers in 2016, who’d gone 18-7 during his two years at JMU. Now, more than three years since Withers was removed from the maroon and gold’s program, the two teams will finally meet.
JMU is now led by head coach Curt Cignetti, who took the team to the FCS championship game in 2019 and two trips to the national semifinals in the years since, going 33-5 over the past three seasons. Now, the program looks to sustain its success in the NCAA’s top subdivision.
