Preseason Rankings
James Madison
Sun Belt
2025-26
Overall
Predictive Rating+2.0#132
Expected Predictive Rating+0.0#1
Pace63.3#303
Improvement--

Offense
Total Offense+2.2#108
First Shot--
After Offensive Rebound--
Layup/Dunks--
2 Pt Jumpshots--
3 Pt Jumpshots--
Freethrows--
Improvement--

Defense
Total Defense-0.2#171
First Shot--
After Offensive Rebounds--
Layups/Dunks--
2 Pt Jumpshots--
3 Pt Jumpshots--
Freethrows--
Improvement--
NowWin NextLose Next
#1 Overall Seed 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
#1 Seed 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Top 2 Seed 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Top 4 Seed 0.0% 0.1% 0.0%
Top 6 Seed 0.1% 0.2% 0.0%
NCAA Tourney Bid 17.5% 23.9% 14.6%
At-Large Bid if not Auto Qualifier 0.1% 0.2% 0.0%
Average Seed 12.6 12.2 12.8
.500 or above 81.4% 92.4% 76.5%
.500 or above in Conference 84.5% 90.8% 81.7%
Conference Champion 22.5% 30.5% 19.0%
Last Place in Conference 0.7% 0.3% 0.9%
First Four0.1% 0.1% 0.1%
First Round17.5% 23.9% 14.6%
Second Round2.3% 3.8% 1.6%
Sweet Sixteen0.4% 0.6% 0.3%
Elite Eight0.1% 0.0% 0.1%
Final Four0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Championship Game0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
National Champion0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Next Game: Akron (Away) - 30.6% chance of victory

Projected Seeding Not in Tournament  

Projected Record by Quad
QuadProjectedProjected Cumulative
Quad 1a0 - 10 - 1
Quad 1b0 - 10 - 1
Quad 21 - 21 - 4
Quad 35 - 56 - 8
Quad 413 - 319 - 12


Date Opponent Result/Prediction Record Conf Rating Offense Defense
  Nov 03, 2025 108   @ Akron L 72-77 31%    
  Nov 09, 2025 361   Coppin St. W 78-57 97%    
  Nov 12, 2025 202   @ Longwood W 72-71 55%    
  Nov 15, 2025 297   @ LIU Brooklyn W 68-61 72%    
  Nov 18, 2025 136   Towson W 67-64 61%    
  Nov 24, 2025 209   @ Florida International W 71-69 57%    
  Nov 25, 2025 177   Nebraska Omaha W 73-70 62%    
  Nov 29, 2025 101   @ George Mason L 62-68 29%    
  Dec 03, 2025 329   NC Central W 77-62 91%    
  Dec 06, 2025 260   Norfolk St. W 73-63 81%    
  Dec 17, 2025 195   @ Old Dominion W 69-68 54%    
  Dec 20, 2025 243   @ Georgia Southern W 74-71 61%    
  Dec 28, 2025 17   @ Arkansas L 62-80 6%    
  Jan 04, 2026 137   @ Arkansas St. L 70-73 40%    
  Jan 07, 2026 185   Marshall W 74-67 71%    
  Jan 10, 2026 195   Old Dominion W 72-65 72%    
  Jan 15, 2026 204   @ Appalachian St. W 63-62 54%    
  Jan 17, 2026 185   @ Marshall W 71-70 52%    
  Jan 22, 2026 167   South Alabama W 67-61 68%    
  Jan 24, 2026 197   Texas St. W 72-65 72%    
  Jan 29, 2026 130   @ Troy L 66-69 40%    
  Jan 31, 2026 276   @ Southern Miss W 75-70 67%    
  Feb 04, 2026 233   Louisiana W 73-64 77%    
  Feb 12, 2026 283   Georgia St. W 78-66 84%    
  Feb 14, 2026 204   Appalachian St. W 66-59 73%    
  Feb 18, 2026 274   @ Coastal Carolina W 69-64 66%    
  Feb 21, 2026 283   @ Georgia St. W 75-69 68%    
  Feb 25, 2026 243   Georgia Southern W 77-68 77%    
  Feb 27, 2026 274   Coastal Carolina W 72-61 82%    
Projected Record 18 - 11 12 - 6





Numbers in tables represent percent chance of outcome occurring.




Projected Sun Belt Finish

0-18 1-17 2-16 3-15 4-14 5-13 6-12 7-11 8-10 9-9 10-8 11-7 12-6 13-5 14-4 15-3 16-2 17-1 18-0 Total
1st 0.2 1.4 4.1 6.5 6.0 3.1 1.2 22.5 1st
2nd 0.2 2.0 5.3 5.6 2.8 0.7 0.0 16.6 2nd
3rd 0.1 1.6 4.6 4.8 1.6 0.1 12.8 3rd
4th 0.0 0.9 4.1 3.7 1.0 0.1 9.8 4th
5th 0.0 0.4 3.3 3.8 1.0 0.1 8.5 5th
6th 0.2 1.8 3.6 1.3 0.1 7.0 6th
7th 0.1 1.0 2.9 1.7 0.2 5.9 7th
8th 0.0 0.5 2.1 1.9 0.3 4.7 8th
9th 0.0 0.2 1.3 1.9 0.4 0.0 3.9 9th
10th 0.1 0.8 1.6 0.7 0.0 3.3 10th
11th 0.0 0.1 0.5 1.0 0.6 0.1 2.2 11th
12th 0.1 0.3 0.7 0.5 0.1 1.5 12th
13th 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.1 0.0 1.0 13th
14th 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.3 14th
Total 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.8 1.6 2.6 4.1 6.0 7.5 9.9 11.1 11.4 12.7 11.4 9.4 6.7 3.2 1.2 Total



Sun Belt Regular Season Championship

Record Champion Total Outright 2-Way 3-Way 4-Way 5-Way 6-Way 7-Way 8-Way
18-0 100.0% 1.2    1.2
17-1 98.7% 3.1    3.0 0.2
16-2 89.6% 6.0    4.8 1.1 0.0
15-3 68.9% 6.5    3.7 2.4 0.3 0.0
14-4 36.2% 4.1    1.5 1.9 0.6 0.1
13-5 11.4% 1.4    0.2 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0
12-6 1.4% 0.2    0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0
11-7 0.0%
10-8 0.0%
9-9 0.0%
Total 22.5% 22.5 14.5 6.2 1.5 0.3 0.0 0.0



NCAA Tournament Selection

Conf RecordRecord ChanceTourney
Bid
AutoAt-LargeAvg
Seed
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 No Bid At-Large if not Auto
18-0 1.2% 60.6% 57.7% 2.9% 10.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.2 0.0 0.5 6.8%
17-1 3.2% 54.4% 53.5% 0.9% 11.5 0.0 0.0 0.9 0.6 0.2 0.0 1.5 1.9%
16-2 6.7% 47.4% 47.4% 12.0 0.0 0.8 1.6 0.7 0.1 0.0 3.5
15-3 9.4% 39.3% 39.3% 12.4 0.4 1.8 1.2 0.3 0.0 5.7
14-4 11.4% 28.4% 28.4% 12.9 0.1 1.1 1.3 0.7 0.1 8.1
13-5 12.7% 19.1% 19.1% 13.2 0.0 0.5 1.1 0.7 0.1 10.2
12-6 11.4% 11.1% 11.1% 13.8 0.0 0.1 0.5 0.5 0.2 0.0 10.1
11-7 11.1% 7.2% 7.2% 14.3 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.0 10.3
10-8 9.9% 2.5% 2.5% 14.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 9.7
9-9 7.5% 1.3% 1.3% 14.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 7.4
8-10 6.0% 0.6% 0.6% 15.2 0.0 0.0 6.0
7-11 4.1% 0.7% 0.7% 19.3 0.0 0.0 4.1
6-12 2.6% 2.6
5-13 1.6% 1.6
4-14 0.8% 0.8
3-15 0.3% 0.3
2-16 0.1% 0.1
1-17 0.0% 0.0
0-18 0.0% 0.0
Total 100% 17.5% 17.4% 0.1% 12.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 2.4 5.9 5.1 2.7 0.9 0.1 82.5 0.1%


Optimistic / Pessimistic Scenarios

ChanceTourney
Bid
Avg
Seed
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Win Out 0.0% 100.0% 4.3 16.5 49.4 17.6 16.5