Why JMU & NDSU Football Should Schedule a Home and Home Series

Hey there. It’s your favorite JMU alumnus/semi-professional gambler who has opinions about stuff.

If you’re a longtime reader of my JMU coverage, you may have seen fewer bylines from me. I write about the Dukes a bit less these days. That’s because I’m instead musing about college football odds, G5 win totals, and other such matters of great import. I’m a company man, after all. 

Every once in a while, though, I still have a thought worth sharing.

It is, unquestionably, the college football silly season – that wonderful time of the year when almost everybody knows almost nothing about the season to come. And in this magical land of content rumormongering, rampant speculation, and volcanically hot takes, I humbly submit the following contribution to the discourse:

JMU and North Dakota State should schedule a home-and-home football series.

Yes, I am serious. 

#RoadToFrisco | Time for a little #TBT as Tyler Gray kicked a career-long 45 yarder to put the Dukes ahead for good in the 2016 national semifinals at the FargoDome! #GoDukes #DefendTheCrown pic.twitter.com/VF2vugcsqG

— JMU Football (@JMUFootball) December 14, 2017

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I miss my midwestern frenemies. We had a fun back-and-forth for a few years! 

Who could forget that time Tyler Gray hit a 45-yarder in the FargoDome to seize control of the game? Never has a kick looked so good set to the backdrop of My Heart Will Go On. With one swing of his foot, the man earned free sticky nugs for life.

Speaking of delicious chicken, I am now reminded of a different event – JMU’s crushing loss to North Dakota State in the 2019 national championship game, where a well-meaning NDSU fan I had met earlier that morning insisted I accompany him to a post-game meal of bottomless chicken tenders. My salty tears made for the perfect dipping sauce. 

My point is that these two programs have history. And it’s a really fun, really weird history. 

Let’s not let that die on the vine! Let’s create an oddball FCS/FBS home-and-home series that’s basically unprecedented in modern college football.

What’s good about this plan? Let’s talk about it. 

It’s Fun.

You know what I want to do? Visit Fargo and watch football when it’s not -75 degrees outside. I am not encouraged that it’s actually a balmy -10 inside of your Fargodome parking lot tent, sir.

You know what else I want to do? Make the Fargo-to-Frisco caravan divert east by about 1,000 miles. Sit with my friends who are NDSU alums while they drink at a Harrisonburg microbrewery.

These things are fun. Making friends with alumni from other schools is one of the best, purest things about a tailgate sport. JMU fans have a very specific kind of cross-national relationship with NDSU fans. 

With all due respect to the fine folks of Muncie, Indiana, these are experiences that virtually no one retains access to when Ball State is on the schedule.

Also: said this a ton in the marathon Twitter space/therapy session, but big ups to NDSU. Bison deserved to win.

I will greatly miss these JMU/NDSU games in the future.

— Chase Kiddy (@chaseakiddy) December 18, 2021

In Modern College Football, This Would Be Refreshingly Weird…

It’s a routine fact of 21st century college football that FBS teams do not travel to FCS schools. It’s beneath their stature, I guess. 

More likely: It’s an unnecessary risk that coaches and programs are too chicken to take. It’s all downside, no upside. If you beat an FCS team, who cares? If you lose, the entire program might unravel. 

But a JMU/NDSU series isn’t as impersonal as, say, West Virginia playing Albany. It also doesn’t have the complicated in-state subtext of something like UVA vs. Richmond. 

Instead, this would be two schools with a shared history, making an unusual and conscious decision to continue that history. In a world of conference mobility and destruction, this would be creationism – evolving and continuing a relationship in spite of the quickening winds of college football conference realignment. There’s something really refreshing about that. 

…And Weird Stuff Gets Attention.

You know what happens when an FBS school makes an unusual home-and-home agreement with an FCS school? It gets covered by the media. 

A JMU/NDSU grudge series is an excellent way to get the attention of College GameDay, or Big Noon Kickoff, or maybe just spawn a bunch of SportsCenter segments. 

It might start a broader dialogue. Why is this happening? Should other teams do this?

At the risk of sounding like someone who works for the BetMGM marketing department: Let’s grab that earned media, baby. 

Live look at me getting ready to fly to Frisco tomorrow: pic.twitter.com/0urWEGH844

— Chase Kiddy (@chaseakiddy) January 7, 2020

The Reasons Not To Do It Are Stupid and Predictable

There is a certain flavor of FBS fan who is going to be very, very against this idea. You know the type. 

JMU is now an FBS program, and we should lord our God-given right to football dominance over all those silly midwestern schools we used to play in December. If North Dakota State wants to have a home-and-home with us so badly, why don’t those prairie cows move to FBS themselves?

Eye roll. 

Putting aside the well-worn topic of NDSU and the Football Bowl Subdivision, I think we have more to gain by treading new ground than by scheduling the same boring buy games and snoozefests that everyone else does. 

Not everyone will agree with that assessment. Some will see a game against North Dakota State — particularly a game in Fargo — as an unnecessary potential roadblock to the new College Football Playoff. With JMU’s transitional ineligibility now expired, the program should be focused on optimizing our path to the Sun Belt championship. With a little luck, that can now also come with a CFP berth, depending on what happens elsewhere in FBS.

I hear that argument. It’s not unreasonable.

There’s an opening scene from the West Wing where President Barlett and his staff are arguing about how and when they should override a bill. Josh Lyman summarizes the staff argument: “Sir, if the House successfully overrides the veto, we’re going to look weak.”

But Bartlett has a wise rejoinder: “If the House successfully overrides the veto, we are weak.”

That’s pretty much how I feel about an NDSU series. If JMU wants to make the playoffs, but it can’t win in Fargo, it doesn’t have an optics problem. It has a not good enough problem.

The other issue that will come is that the schedule is finalized years in advance. JMU already has upcoming games against Louisville, Liberty, and Virginia Tech, and that’s just 2025 and 2026. Where do the Dukes fit in a home-and-home against NDSU?

To that, I say: Week 0. Play it in Week 0. Schedule the historic, boundary-breaking series that could attract loads of media attention during the week when everyone is already desperate for coherent football. 

Given the recent FBS news, I sometimes ask myself a tough question, in quiet moments: with new challenges ahead, and with JMU joining the same level as a Virginia Tech, is it time to finally hang up the 21-16 gimmick?

(the answer is no) https://t.co/Xinmq0SWff

— Chase Kiddy (@chaseakiddy) November 17, 2021

So that’s my case. JMU and North Dakota State should put their heads together and figure out the logistics of a home-and-home series at some point in the next few years. 

I think it’s a good idea to have Liberty on the schedule – if the Flames are going to play a Charmin-soft schedule every year and sleepwalk into the end-of-year polls, JMU should personally make sure it has the opportunity to rank higher than them. 

I love that Virginia Tech is on the schedule again. Many of you know my online brand — could there be anyone on Earth happier to play Virginia Tech in 2026 than me?

I do not regret these future games. I know there are a limited number of Saturdays on the calendar. 

But imagine how fun a history-making series against North Dakota State would be, with the FCS playoff stakes now removed from the equation for both teams. 

Let’s do it.