Who is favored in James Madison Dukes at Old Dominion Monarchs?

James Madison Dukes are favored on the moneyline.

James Madison Dukes at Old Dominion Monarchs

Sep 26, 2026·5:00 PM CT·Norfolk, VA

By JR·1 min read

JMU(3-0)

ODU(1-2)

AT

5:00 PM CT

TLDR: One team is 3-0 and rolling, the other is 1-2 and searching for answers — the Sun Belt East angle just makes this early-season mismatch matter more.

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James Madison

(3-0)

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Old Dominion

(1-2)

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James Madison arrives unbeaten off a blowout of Wagner and a win over Liberty, while Old Dominion is off to a rocky 1-2 start after losses to Virginia Tech and East Carolina. Old Dominion's run game with Devin Roche gives it a puncher's chance, but its passing struggles and the road favorite's clean record make this look lopsided on paper.

James Madison

Unbeaten through 3 games, outscoring foes 107-16 combined
Blew past Wagner 87-3, offense clicking early
Untested against anything resembling a Sun Belt East offense
Road trip into a division game off a soft schedule

Old Dominion

Devin Roche ran for 102 yards in last week's loss to ECU
Opened the year with a 31-10 win over Norfolk State
1-2 with a blowout loss and a 3-point defeat in 3 weeks
Passing game has struggled to complement the run

James Madison heads into Norfolk unbeaten through 3 games, having blown past Wagner 87-3 and handled Liberty 20-13 to open the year. That kind of scoreboard damage has the Dukes sitting as the heavy favorite here, and Old Dominion's shaky start only widens the gap on paper.

Old Dominion's offense has leaned hard on Devin Roche to do the heavy lifting — he ran for 102 yards in last week's 20-17 loss to East Carolina — because the passing game has been the bigger problem through 3 weeks. That one-dimensional identity is the swing factor: if James Madison can bottle up Roche early, the Monarchs have shown little answer through the air to keep pace.

S.B. Ballard Stadium sits outdoors, and the forecast for Norfolk calls for drizzle and wind around 13 mph — not ideal conditions for a passing attack that's already struggling. That's the kind of detail that can matter more than either sideline once the ball gets wet.

Neither record tells the full story yet. James Madison's 3-0 start came against Liberty and Wagner, a slate that hasn't tested much of anything, while Old Dominion's 2 losses came against a Power opponent and a Sun Belt East rival decided by a field goal. Both marks look better or worse depending on which 3 games you're grading.

This one doubles as an early measuring stick for the Sun Belt East race, and how Old Dominion's ground game holds up against a Dukes defense that hasn't faced anything like this test will say plenty about where both programs are actually trending.

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