FCS Top 25 Ballot through Week 5
We are fast approaching the midway point of the Football Championship Subdivision season and teams face mostly conference opponents for the remainder of the season.
League slates will start to provide clarity on the national landscape because the caliber of competition largely increases across the board. Week 5 was a prime example with the stacked schedule that lived up to my expectations.
Eastern Washington capitalized on its opportunity against a highly ranked conference opponent, and the Eagles made the most noteworthy climb on my ballot this week after defeating Montana.
EWU has a case for No. 1 between its defeat of FBS UNLV and Saturday’s come-from-behind win over Montana. Really, you can interchange any of the top five and you’d have no qualms from me.
Conference competition will help sort much of this out, particularly in the Big Sky, Colonial and Missouri Valley, which make up all but one of my top 10. To that end, there are two teams that made my top 10 and are top 12 overall in the collective FCS STATS Top 12 that face off in Week 6: James Madison and Villanova, and South Dakota State-Southern Illinois.
Rhode Island is facing Delaware in another game with significant impact for shaping the playoff race. Rhode Island is 4-0 for the first time in 20 years, but the top 10-ranked Blue Hens are easily the Rams’ most significant test to date.
A few other notes from my ballot this week:
Duquense, which owns a win over Ohio University, jumped into the top 20 on the strength of a blowout defeat of a good Merrimack team.
Harvard is my first Ivy League to crack the Top 25. The Crimson’s schedule has not been daunting, but they’ve also absolutely steamrolled all comers through three games, including a Holy Cross bunch that’s been in the polls.
Weber State is in with a losing record, which I’ll admit wasn’t easy. The Wildcats have played arguably the toughest schedule in the nation, including two teams I have in the top seven and a Power Five FBS opponent. I cop to being influenced based on reputation and past results.
Prairie View A&M just missed the cut. The Panthers look like the class of the SWAC with Alabama A&M losing this week, and PVAMU’s sole defeat is against surprising Incarnate Word.
South Dakota State
James Madison
Eastern Washington
Sam Houston
North Dakota State
Montana
UC Davis
Villanova
Southern Illinois
Delaware
ETSU
Montana State
North Dakota
Missouri State
Northern Iowa
SELA
Kennesaw State
Rhode Island
Duquesne
UIW
South Dakota
Weber State
UT Martin
Mercer
Harvard