I am grateful to again have a vote in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 media poll for the 2024 season. I’ll publish my ballot every week and provide some reasoning for my order.
Notes at the bottom.
Delaware and Missouri State, FCS-to-FBS transitioning teams, are not eligible to be voted on in the poll.
FCS Top 25
1. South Dakota State
2. North Dakota State
3. Montana
4. Montana State
5. Villanova
6. South Dakota
7. Idaho
8. Chattanooga
9. Central Arkansas
10. Sacramento State
11. Western Carolina
12. UC Davis
13. Illinois State
14. Southern Illinois
15. William & Mary
16. Elon
17. Lafayette
18. Furman
19. Eastern Illinois
20. Tarleton State
21. Nicholls
22. Youngstown State
23. Richmond
24. UIW
25. North Dakota
Leaving: UAlbany
Entering: North Dakota
Tbh … I wish we could have another week to submit our next ballots. As I tweeted Thursday, there are often overreactions to FCS-FBS results. I believe FCS vs. FCS games are the best gauge of how good an FCS team is.
There are so many examples in past years of us voters (myself included) getting caught in the trap of FCS-FBS results.
We’ve seen ugly FCS-FBS performances and that FCS team still went on to make a deep playoff run.
We’ve seen FCS teams push FBS opponents despite being massive underdogs and that FCS team goes on to have a mediocre season.
We’ve seen FCS over FBS wins and that FCS team not even make the playoffs.
How good or bad an FCS team looks against FBS competition is not always an indication of how it’ll fare against FCS opponents.
Because there were so many FCS-FBS games and only one ranked FCS vs. FCS matchup (Nova beat YSU), there was little movement in my ballot.
Some may compare this ballot to the preseason ranking that I submitted on July 30. So just a heads up that some of the movement was already happening before Week 1 games as my opinion shifted on some teams — William & Mary’s stock was already rising and then it got a decisive win over a solid SoCon squad VMI, Illinois State was already bumped ahead of Southern Illinois, North Dakota had been bumped up from preseason No. 29 to No. 26.
Idaho bumped up a couple of spots after it pushed CFP contender Oregon. The Vandals deserve flowers for that. But again, I want to see how it looks against FCS competition to get a true gauge of the team. Are they that good? Did they pour everything into this game? Did they catch Oregon sleeping and the Ducks couldn’t get back in sync? Let’s see how it looks against Wyoming and two solid FCS teams in the non-conference before bumping them up too much.
As far as teams moving in and out — UAlbany went from my preseason No. 24 to outside my ballot for now. The Great Danes received the benefit of the doubt after their semifinal run. But their defense was entirely gutted, and the passing game has new names. After a back-and-forth 27-21 win over LIU, an NEC member that went 4-7 last year, they need to prove they are one of the 25 best teams in the FCS.
That allowed UND to slide in from preseason No. 26 to No. 25. The Fighting Hawks lost 21-3 at Iowa State. So it wasn’t a “wow” performance that put UND in the Top 25. But it was a better-than-expected showing (it could have easily been a 14-10 type of ball game in the fourth) combined with UAlbany’s underwhelming performance that got the Hawks into the Top 25. Plus … I’m 50/50 right now on who I’m going to pick when Montana travels to UND this weekend. Perhaps I’m getting ahead of the curve and ranking the Hawks right now. Or perhaps they’ll drop out with a 0-2 start.
We shall see.
But thankfully, next week should see some more moving and shaking in the Top 25 as we get some good FCS vs. FCS matchups. I am especially looking forward to:
Campbell at WCU
Elon at NC Central
UT Martin at SEMO
UIW at SDSU
SIU at Austin Peay
Montana at UND
Lafayette at Monmouth
Tennessee State at NDSU
