Despite early report, WSU/James Madison won’t feature College Gameday after all

PULLMAN – Turns out, Washington State won’t be playing in the kind of spotlight that was rumored to be coming to its next game.

According to a Saturday evening report from JMU Sports News, ESPN College GameDay was set to come to the Cougars’ road test against No. 21 James Madison next weekend, potentially bringing another dimension of excitement to what will already be a big game. But on Sunday morning, GameDay announced it would go to USC/Oregon instead, making the rare decision to visit the same school twice in one season.

WSU and James Madison will kick off at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. local time) on ESPN+, the Dukes announced on Sunday. The game has already been announced as a sellout.

That removes what would have been a special opportunity for the Cougars and head coach Jimmy Rogers, who had a chance to secure a signature win on the national stage. His group narrowly missed two of those opportunities earlier this season, falling in close losses to the SEC’s Ole Miss and the ACC’s Virginia, both on the road.

But Washington State can still earn a notable win in this contest. In just its fourth year in FBS, James Madison has risen to No. 21 in this week’s AP Top 25, surging squarely into the College Football Playoff conversation. The Dukes, 9-1 on the season, have only lost to Louisville this fall.

The Cougs (5-5) earned a 28-3 win over Louisiana Tech on Saturday night and head to Harrisonburg, Virginia, with a healthy dose of momentum. They haven’t taken part in a College GameDay game since 2018, when the crew visited Pullman and watched former QB Gardner Minshew lead WSU to a win over Oregon.