NEWPORT NEWS — With the start of the football regular season just eight days away, the Christopher Newport University football squad was ranked second in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) on Friday. The league office released its annual pre-season poll of coaches as the Captains and seven other NJAC members continue preparations for the 2025 season
Paul Crowley‘s CNU team is coming off a 7-3 overall record in 2024, and a second-place finish in the NJAC behind Salisbury University. The Sea Gulls are the top pick of the conference’s coaches. Christopher Newport won its final five games of the season last year, all NJAC contests, to finish with a 5-1 league record.
CNU opens the 2025 season at home on Saturday, September 6th, hosting the Thunder of Trine University. Kickoff is set for 1:00 p.m. at TowneBank Stadium. It will mark the beginning of the 25th season of Christopher Newport University football, and the Captains will be looking for their 150th win as a program in the season opener. Christopher Newport has won its last four season openers, including a 42-6 victory at Trine last year in Angola, Indiana.
The Captains will play five home and five away contests this fall, including seven NJAC tilts and three non-conference games to open the campaign. The NJAC welcomes a new program for the 2025 season, as the conference has added Vermont State-Castleton to its football membership. The Captains will travel to Castleton, Vermont, to play the Spartans on October 11th.
Tickets for CNU football are on sale at the Freeman Center Ticket Office, and for more information you can call the ticket office at 757-594-7880.
The complete NJAC Coaches Pre-Season Poll with first-place votes in parenthesis:
- Salisbury (6)
- CNU (1)
- Rowan (1) (dark horse)
- TCNJ
- Montclair State
- Kean
- William Paterson
- Vermont State-Castleton
