7–1 (4–1 Sun Belt). 2026 season, games through Oct 24, 2026.
Thu, Oct 29, 7:30 PM ET. SP+ projection: James Madison 39, Troy 15. Big Al's pick: James Madison (93%).
| Stat | Value | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Points per game | 41.4 | 5th |
| Yards per play | 6.65 | 36th |
| Success rate | 45.4% | 51st |
| Explosive play rate | 14.2% | 28th |
| Yards per carry | 5.89 | 24th |
| Yards per pass attempt | 7.66 | 68th |
| Sack rate allowed | 3.0% | 17th |
| 3rd down conversion | 35.6% | 99th |
| Stat | Value | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Points allowed | 18.2 | 25th |
| Yards per play allowed | 5.54 | 55th |
| Success rate allowed | 37.9% | 40th |
| Explosive plays allowed | 10.3% | 52nd |
| Yards per carry allowed | 4.30 | 38th |
| Yards per attempt allowed | 7.13 | 73rd |
| Sack rate | 7.6% | 35th |
| 3rd downs allowed | 36.4% | 50th |
Braeden Wisloski (WR), Camden Coleman (QB), Cole Keller (TE), Corey Scott (WR), George Pettaway (RB), Makai Jackson (WR), Michael Scott (WR).
| Week | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | vs. Liberty | W 20–13 |
| 2 | vs. Wagner | W 87–3 |
| 3 | at San Diego State | W 26–13 |
| 4 | at Old Dominion | W 46–20 |
| 5 | vs. Marshall | W 45–17 |
| 6 | at Georgia Southern | W 27–24 |
| 7 | vs. Georgia State | W 49–22 |
| 8 | at App State | L 31–34 |
Ranks are out of 138 FBS teams. Stats from play-by-play; scoring counts FBS opponents only. Compare James Madison with any team.
College football, 2026 season
Data-driven picks for every FBS game + interactive charts you can customize to support any narrative (except Big 12 supremacy).
Picks and projected scores for every FBS game this week, and how last week went.
Who's good, who's lucky and who's paying off, as of the latest games. Tap any number to see where it comes from.
Who's playing best and worst right now, from each team's last three games against FBS opponents.
Our Top 25 and the 12-team playoff field if the season ended today. Think we've got it wrong? Build your own.
Make your own case. Everything you build can be saved as an image for the group chat.
Every team and 708 players. Put two stats against each other, track one week by week, or rank the field, then share it to the group chat. Below are two team charts, one conference at a time so every team gets a label, and this week's trend.
Drag a team by its handle (⋮⋮) to move it; with a keyboard, focus the handle and use the up and down arrow keys. To put a different team in a spot, pick it from that row's menu; if it's already ranked somewhere else, the two trade places. Your ranking is saved in this browser.
About
Everything on this site starts with someone else's data, and we credit all of it. The projections, picks, rankings and tiers are our own math on top.
| Source | What we use | How often |
|---|---|---|
| CollegeFootballData.com, via the public cfbfastR files | Schedules, final scores, pregame Elo, play-by-play and box score stats, rosters | Usually posted Sunday or Monday morning after games |
| SP+ by Bill Connelly (CFB Update) | Overall, offense, defense and special teams ratings | Weekly |
| PRIME (primecfb.com) | Net, offense, defense and special teams ratings, strength of schedule, strength of record | Weekly |
| AP Top 25 (via NCAA.com) | Rankings and points, including others receiving votes | Sunday afternoons |
| AFCA Coaches Poll (via Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, SI) | Rankings and points, including others receiving votes | Sundays |
| 247Sports | Team talent composite, star counts, 2026 transfer portal rankings | Preseason |
| The NIL Standard | Estimated NIL roster values | Preseason |
| us-atlas (U.S. Census Bureau boundaries) | State shapes for the map | Once |
Rushing yards here exclude sacks, so they run higher than official totals. Ranks are out of the 138 FBS teams.
About
Last updated October 26, 2026.
This is a free site for fun and information. Use it, share it, argue with it, but don't treat it as a promise about Saturday.
Big Al's CFB Lab publishes college football statistics, projections and opinions. Everything here is for information and entertainment. Projections and picks are estimates from public data and can be wrong, sometimes badly.
Nothing on this site is advice to place a bet. If you choose to bet, you're responsible for following the laws where you live, and you must be of legal age. If gambling stops being fun, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER.
Our numbers come from the sources listed on the Sources and methods page and from our own calculations. We try to keep them accurate and current, but we can't guarantee that every number is complete, correct or up to date.
You're welcome to share images you make with the share tools and to link to any page. Please keep the Big Al's CFB Lab credit on shared images. Team and school names belong to their owners; we use them only to identify teams.
Please don't overload the site, try to break it, or copy the whole thing to republish as your own.
The site is provided as is. To the extent the law allows, we aren't liable for losses that come from using it or relying on it.
We may update these terms as the site grows. The date at the top shows the latest version.
About
Last updated October 26, 2026.
There are no accounts and no ad trackers. The only personal information we collect is your email address, and only if you sign up for the newsletter.
The site remembers a few choices in your browser's local storage so they're there next time: the teams you last compared, your filters and chart settings, and any Top 25 you build. That information stays in your browser. It isn't sent to us, and you can clear it any time by clearing your browser's site data.
Images you make with the share tools are created in your browser. We don't upload or keep them.
When you sign up for the newsletter, your email address goes to Beehiiv, the service that sends it. We use it only to send the newsletter. Every issue has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing removes you from the list.
Our host, Cloudflare, keeps standard server logs, such as IP addresses and the pages requested, to run and protect the site. We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which doesn't use cookies or track you across sites.
The site isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.
If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top.
Drag a team by its handle (⋮⋮) to reseed it; with a keyboard, focus the handle and use the up and down arrow keys. Pick a different team from a row's menu to swap it in. Your field is saved in this browser.
The first issue is coming soon.
Projected scores come from SP+ offense, defense and special teams, plus 2.5 points for the home team. With betting lines on (the switch is in the footer), each card shows the spread and our pick against it. Open Details for the full read, or Head to head for every stat.
"Off by" is how far the final margin landed from the projected margin.
Straight-up picks: did our pick win? Big Al's pick is the team at least two of SP+, PRIME and Elo favor. Big Al and SP+ picks start in Week 8; Elo picks go back to Week 1.
Each column is that week's ranking. Arrows compare the latest poll to the week before. NR means not ranked.
Rankings come from cfbtrack.com. Week 1 is the preseason poll; each later week is the poll released before that week's games.
SP+ vs. payroll is the average, across a conference's teams with an NIL valuation (positive means its teams play better than their payrolls predict). Blue-chip ratio is the share of all its rostered players who were 4- or 5-star recruits.
Ranks are national, out of 138 FBS teams. A top-10 team also counts toward the top 25 and top 40, and everyone outside the last cutoff counts as weak. Open a conference to see its teams.
Seeds 1–4 get first-round byes. Seeds 5–8 host the first round.
The columns on the right show where each team would be seeded under the other ratings. A dash means out.
Three ratings look at a team in three different ways. Big Al's pick is the team at least two of them favor.
Each row puts one team's unit against the unit it faces, by national rank out of all FBS teams. An edge is a gap of 25 spots or more.
Ratings: SP+ via CFB Update; PRIME via primecfb.com. Box and play stats computed from CollegeFootballData.com play data (via the public cfbfastR files), FBS games only for scoring. Rushing yards here exclude sacks, so they run higher than official totals. Ranks are out of 138 FBS teams.