FCS Top 25 Ballot thru Week 4
Ranking in the Championship Subdivision through the month of September is a doozy. The bevy of matchups with FBS programs and resulting imbalanced schedules present a challenge, as does the variable of expectations vs. performance.
For example, Weber State has been a perennial Big Sky Conference contender most of the last half-decade, and opened the season in the top 10. The Wildcats are now 1-3 following a heartbreaking loss to UC Davis. But the defeat against the unbeaten Aggies — a team that opened the season knocking off Tulsa — joins blemishes to James Madison, a national championship contender; and Utah.
Those are hardly bad losses — but then, does a team deserved to be ranked solely because it scheduled up (and due to its reputation, as a program without the recent success Weber State enjoyed wouldn’t even be in the conversation for simply playing a challenging scheduled relatively tough)?
Another interesting case is Jacksonville State. The Gamecocks are also fixtures in the Playoffs, and their Week 2 win over Florida State is one of the highlights of the non-conference season. But reality is that both Florida State and Div. I newcomer North Alabama, Jacksonville State’s other win, are a combined 0-8. The Gamecocks losing to UT Martin this week to fall to 2-2 was enough for me remove them from my ballot.
Both made the cut in the aggregate voting, which you can check out here at FCS STATS.
As the calendar turns to October, conference play should provide much more clarity for future polls. In the meantime, here’s my last ballot of September:
Sam Houston
The defending national champion continues to cruise along, returning from a bye to beat then-No. 25 Central Arkansas on the road, 45-35.James Madison
The Dukes were on a bye this week and through no fault of their own, had their best win lose some luster with Weber State falling to UC Davis. Still, James Madison has been absolutely dominant through three games with margins of 58, 48 and 13 (and the latter really was more lopsided than that).South Dakota State
Last season’s national runner-up could easily be ranked No. 1, and garnered the second-most first-place votes on FCS STATS ballots. Really, any of the top three has a case. The Jackrabbits reinforced their case on Saturday with a 44-0 dismantling of MVFC counterpart Indiana State.Montana
The Griz defense has been absolutely dominant through three games, returning from bye in Week 4 to overwhelm Cal Poly in a 39-7 romp. Montana’s held every opponent to seven points, thanks in large part to linebacker Patrick O’Connell. O’Connell is arguably the early pace-setter to win the Buck Buchanan Award.North Dakota State
The dynastic Bison are off to a 3-0 start, and business really picks up for them coming off their bye week. A matchup with in-state rival North Dakota is one of the best games in a loaded Week 5.Eastern Washington
One of the leading innovators in passing offense, Eastern Washington continues to put up astounding numbers en route to a 4-0 start. The Eagles racked up 554 this past week at Southern Utah, and continued an eye-popping offensive stretch with scores of 63, 62 and 50 in the last three. That offense against Montana’s defense headlines the stacked weekend to come.UC Davis
Another Big Sky Conference team checks in the top 7, and this might be the most surprising. The Aggies have two of the most impressive on any FCS resume thus far, beating Tulsa and Weber State both on the road in defensive grinds.Villanova
Villanova fell from the ranks of the undefeated, but did so at Penn State. That’s not exactly a damning loss. Credit to the Wildcats for hanging tough for a quarter-and-change, and tacking on some fourth quarter points to cover the point spread (if you care about such things). A win in Week 3 over a good Richmond team slightly edges out CAA rival Delaware on my ballot.Delaware
The Fighting Blue Hens were on bye after a loss to Rutgers. Delaware’s one of the teams I’m most interested to see get into the meat of conference season: UD emerged unexpectedly in the spring season and advanced to the semifinals, and started the season with a pair of double-digit-point wins against opponents it should handle. Just how good the Blue Hens can be remains something of a mystery.Southern Illinois
In one of the stranger games of Week 4, Southern Illinois fell behind Illinois State 17-0 in the third quarter — then proceeded to score 35 points in 24 minutes. My biggest question mark about the Salukis in the spring season was their offensive consistency, and they’re responding to that resoundingly through the first four games.North Dakota
I noted in the intro that I have tried to avoid ranking exclusively based on the peculiar spring season, and North Dakota’s an interesting case study. The Fighting Hawks emerged as one of the spring’s standout teams thanks to a balanced and innovative offense. Their schedule thus far into the fall hasn’t been particularly challenging, save a trip to Utah State in Week 2 which they led for the better part of three quarters but completely collapsed in the fourth.
The matchup with NDSU this week will shed some light on just how prepared UND is to compete for a Missouri Valley Football Conference championship.Montana State
After a near-miss loss at Wyoming to open the season — which, to be honest, loses a bit of its luster after the Cowboys struggled to beat dreadful UConn this week — Montana State is 3-0. Two of those wins were routs of non-scholarship programs Drake and San Diego, but the Bobcats did handle themselves well in a 30-17 win over Portland State to kick off the Big Sky slate.ETSU
Since its 23-3 throttling of Vanderbilt in Week 1, ETSU has scored 38, 45 and this past week, 55 points. The most recent outing was also the Buccaneers’ most impressive win of the season — yeah, including at Vandy — with an overtime win over a good Samford team.SELA
The high-scoring Lions were on bye this week. SELA sits at 2-1, with the loss coming in a 45-42 shootout against Louisiana Tech. Interestingly, the Lions scored more against Tech than SMU in a similarly thrilling contest, which the Mustangs won, 39-37.Missouri State
Missouri State needed a fourth-quarter rally to win a hard-fought MVFC contest that could have significant bearing come Selection Sunday. The Bears’ win over South Dakota improved them to 2-1 on the season, with all three games against quality opponents (Oklahoma State and Central Arkansas previously).Northern Iowa
The mantra emanating from Cedar Falls after preseason Iowa State fell to .500 this weekend could have understandably sounded like this:
A one-score loss to the Cyclones is Northern Iowa’s only blemish, while the Panthers rolled in wins over Sacramento State and a St. Thomas program new to Div. I. The coming month will reveal the playoff worthiness of UNI, with games upcoming against South Dakota and North Dakota State — and Youngstown State is not to be overlooked before then.Richmond
At 2-2, I could not rank the Spiders than higher than this over teams with better records. But this week’s loss at Virginia Tech showed some real mettle in this team, which lost quarterback Joe Mancuso just minutes in yet still played the Hokies to a near-stalemate. The feistiness of the Spiders defense against Virginia Tech bodes well for Richmond’s chances in the CAA. I reiterate my stance that this is a playoff team.VMI
The reigning SoCon champion began its title defense with a nice win over Wofford last week, and improved to 3-1 in the process. Freshman Collin Ironside looks to be settling into the Keydets potent passing offense nicely.Rhode Island
Rhody’s spot in the Top 25 comes with wins against largely unimpressive competition, thus it could be argued the Rams don’t deserve to be as high as No. 19. I’ll cop to some eye-test bias on URI, however, which just looks strong in those games. Quarterback Kasim Hill is flying under the radar as one of the nation’s most exciting playmakers. Should Rhode Island handle a struggling Stony Brook this week, that Oct. 9 home date with Delaware becomes one of the most intriguing dates on the FCS calendar.Alabama A&M
A&M has had a flair for the dramatic, winning three close contests — including the first two over South Carolina State and Bethune-Cookman by a combined four points. While they’ve had to work for them, the Bulldogs continue to pile up victories and have not lost since Nov. 16, 2019.Kennesaw State
Another team that I’m arguably ranking based on reputation, Kennesaw State’s schedule picks up with Jacksonville State this week. Win over the Gamecocks, and the rest of the slate sets up nicely for the Owls to run the table against FCS competition.UT Martin
Since losing to FBS Western Kentucky in Week 1, UT Martin has scored at least 31 points in three straight wins over FCS competition. Most recently, and earning it a place on my ballot, was as 34-31 win at Jacksonville State.Incarnate Word
A newcomer to my ballot, UIW has won three straight including a defeat of FBS program Texas State. The Cardinals rolled in wins over FCS competition Prairie View (which is 3-1) and McNeese, and suffered its only loss in overtime at Youngstown State to open the season.South Dakota
The Coyotes provide an example of commanding respect through early-season defeat. USD opened the season losing a nail-biter to Big 12 member Kansas, and actually lost in Week 4 as well. But the Coyotes gave Missouri State fits on the road and led going into the fourth quarter. Upcoming home games against Indiana State and North Dakota could solidify South Dakota as a contender for a playoff bid.Mercer
The Bears went viral in Week 1 when their placekicker missed a PAT to close out a rout of NAIA Point University, 69-0. Mercer followed that up against Alabama, making one of the most wide-ranging first two weeks of the season, but scoring 14 points against the Crimson Tide is a pretty decent acquittal. Coming off a bye week, Mercer scored an emphatic win over Furman, which I had at No. 25 a week ago. That’s good enough to land the Bears in the final spot of my ballot this week.
