Well, at least James Madison can say it made theCollege Football Playoff. Because, well, that's about all the Dukes want to remember from Saturday night.
No. 5 Oregon had No. 12 James Madison beaten from the start in a 51-34 win. The Dukes' defense was overmatched, overpowered and overrun. Oregon scored touchdowns on its first five drives of the game. Those five drives totaled 34 points. Those five drives totaled 21 plays.
The scoring streak only ended after Dante Moore threw an interception on a deflected pass at the end of the first half. But the dominance continued into the second half, where JMU had a punt blocked and returned for a touchdown and Oregon had over 50 points before the third quarter was over.
Throwin' DARTS 🎯📺TNT/TBS/truTV/HBOpic.twitter.com/rAy9hiwMru
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff)December 21, 2025
By that point, it was time for the Ducks to pull every important player and prepare to face No. 4 Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl. But they didn't — and JMU kept playing hard. The Dukes offense held its own all night and its point total wasn't an outlier.
Moore finished with four touchdown passes and two interceptions along with a rushing touchdown. Malik Benson caught two of those scores and Jeremiah McClellan and Jamari Johnson had the others.
Oregon made it clear from the start that the Ducks could control the line of scrimmage and were much faster sideline to sideline than JMU's defense. As the third quarter ended, Oregon was averaging over 10 yards a carry as both Dierre Hill Jr. and Jordon Davison had over 60 yards with just five carries apiece.
Don't blame James Madison
Let's get this out of the way. The way the Dukes — and Tulane — were blown out on Saturday night is not an indictment of the 12-team playoff format or a sign that teams from the Sun Belt or any other Group of Five conference don't belong in the College Football Playoff. College football's leaders signed off on the format and both Tulane and James Madison earned berths in the postseason fair and square.
If you want to blame anyone, blame the ACC for being so bad in 2025 that a five-loss team won the conference title. But that's even foolish.
Why? The College Football Playoff format is changing again in 2026, even if the 12-team bracket stays intact.
According to an agreement signed by conference commissioners and Notre Dame, the four power conference champions are guaranteed to be in the field no matter where they are in the rankings in 2026. Two Group of Five teams are not going to make the playoff again.
Notre Dame got a sweetener too. If Notre Dame is in the top 12 in the final rankings, the Irish are in too.
If those rules were in effect in 2025, Notre Dame would be in the playoff instead of Miami, and Duke would be in the playoff instead of JMU.
But the Dukes did exactly what they needed to do to make the playoff this season in a college football world that's growing a wider and wider chasm between the haves and have-nots every year. While schools like Texas Tech and Ole Miss can reshape their rosters in a single offseason and make the CFP thanks to wealthy donors, teams outside the power conferences are more and more serving like farm teams for power conference schools.
Just look at JMU. When former coach Curt Cignetti — now the coach of No. 1 Indiana — took the job with the Hoosiers after the 2023 season, 13 players followed him from JMU to Bloomington. As current JMU coach Bob Chesney heads to UCLA for 2026, it's likely that some of the players on this JMU team will follow him to the West Coast.
If you like upsets and Cinderellas in the NCAA basketball tournament, you should like the possibility of that happening in the College Football Playoff, too. And giving teams outside the power conferences a shot to pull an upset is worth the cost of a blowout or two in the first round.
After all, we're not that far removed from mass consternation about blowouts in the first round of the four-team playoff. Teams like Michigan State and Ohio State got shut out in the semifinals in the four-team format. And Oregon, which led 34-6 over the Dukes at halftime on Saturday night, trailed 34-8 after two quarters of the Rose Bowl a season ago as the No. 1 seed.
Blowouts happen. Not every game is competitive. The 12 years of the College Football Playoff have shown that. But those blowouts make the massive upsets all the more special. And as long as non-power conference teams get the chance to play for the national title, an upset will happen sooner rather than later.
Final: Oregon 51, JMU 34
Oregon finishes the decisive win, even if JMU made it more respectable with some late scores. The Ducks move onto the quarterfinals, where they will face No. 4 Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl.
Updated CFP bracket
Here's what the bracket looks like after the first round is complete (click here for full bracket):
![CFP bracket]()
CFP bracket How Ole Miss put Lane Kiffin drama behind it
New coach Pete Golding guided Ole Miss to a blowout win over Tulane in their playoff game. That had to be cathartic for players, fans and everyone involved in the coaching drama that played out a few weeks ago.
Read more from Yahoo's Dan Wolken reporting from Oxford
It was a victorious night for Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding. (Photo by Wes Hale/Getty Images) (Wes Hale via Getty Images)
