2023 Polls

[JackJD]

After Saturday's game, some of us were talking and the consensus was the top three teams ranked in FCS polling probably wouldn't change. Some thought Montana State should move up to #2 but others thought a move up would be highly unusual in a loss, even a very close (as in 'could have gone either way)' loss.

Here's a link to today's Stats Perform Top 25....No change in the top four. SDSU remains #1; NDSU remains #2 and Montana State remains #3. William & Mary stay at #4. The 'Fightin' Ecks of Idaho moved in to #5.

https://theanalyst.com/na/2023/09/bi...s-top-25-poll/

[Cats2506]

Coaches poll left us at #3 also, I'm a bit surprised but maybe they do look at more than just the final result of the game.

[JackJD]

Had the Bobcats won, I think the polls would have either moved the Bobcats to #1 and left NDSU in #2 or NDSU would be #1 and MSU #2. So, under the circumstances, I think there was no reason to take MSU out of #3. If the Bobcats won and the margin was 1 TD or less, swapping MSU and SDSU to 1 and 3 respectively would have been a reasonable result.

Link to NCAA Site and the current FCS Coaches poll:
https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/footba...s-coaches-poll

[jbjack]

Coaches poll left us at #3 also, I'm a bit surprised but maybe they do look at more than just the final result of the game.

I always scratch my head when a lower ranked team drops in the polls after a loss to a higher ranked team. It's one thing if the lower ranked team gets good and whipped, or if a team nipping at the lower ranked teams heels throttles another highly ranked team, but when #1 beats #3 by four points and it takes all of 60 minutes to decide the outcome, there's no reason to drop. If the voters think team X is better than team Y on Sunday, it only stands to reason that team X should beat team Y the following Saturday.

[mnjackrbt]

Confuses me as well when teams move around a lot after close loses to comparable teams. Any of the top 2-5 teams at any sport are the elite of the elite and could beat each other anytime. IMO, #1 SDSU probably beats #4 William & Mary about 58% of the time, #3 Montana State about 55% of the time, and #2 NDSU about 52% of the time. That's pretty much coin flip odds. Win majority at home, lose majority on the road.

[Cats2506]

If the game had the same result and it was played in Bozeman we would have dropped 3-4 spots, but since it was in Brookings we held our spot.

[Prairiehaas]

If the game had the same result and it was played in Bozeman we would have dropped 3-4 spots, but since it was in Brookings we held our spot.

I'm thinking even then the Bobcats would have held their spot. There was nothing in that game that indicated weakness for either team vs. the field. Now had NDSU played and beat say UND 44-7 that could've resulted in a drop for SDSU.

[JackJD]

Here are the Jeff Sagarin ratings of FCS top 25 and the remainder of the MVFC that didn't make the top 25 (games through 9/9/23). In the past, Sagarin rankings were published by USA Today but USA Today is no longer publishing the Sangarin rankings. The link to the Sagarin website is listed below.

Keep in mind Sagarin ranks all 261 D1 football teams. The following list is Sagarin's top 25 FCS teams plus the remaining MVFC teams. The first number is the ranking among all NCAA D-1 teams (both FBS and FCS). The second number (in parenthesis) is the rank among just FCS teams. Those numbers are followed by the school's name, the rating number based on Sagarin's formula, and, last, the school's conference.


52 (1) South Dakota State 74.06 MVFC

66 (2) North Dakota State 71.57 MVFC

69 (3) Montana State 70.45 BIG SKY

92 (4) Southern Illinois 64.73 MVFC

100 (5) Weber State 63.47 BIG SKY

105 (6) Idaho 62.65 BIG SKY

109 (7) Sacramento State 61.61 BIG SKY

114 (8) NorthDakota 60.09 MVFC

117 (9) NorthernIowa 59.91 MVFC

119 (10) UCDavis 59.16 BIG SKY

120 (11) Furman 59.06 SOUTHERN

121 (12) Youngstown State 58.91 MVFC

125 (13) Montana 58.19 BIG SKY

127 (14) Incarnate Word 58.06 SOUTHLAND

135 (15) William&Mary 56.78 COASTAL

138 (16) Yale 56.31 IVY LEAGUE

139 (17) Central Arkansas 55.84 UNITED ATHLETIC

142 (18) New Hampshire 55.39 COASTAL

143 (19) Illinois State 54.81 MVFC

146 (20) Eastern Washington 54.22 BIG SKY

147 (21) Holy Cross 53.99 PATRIOT

149 (22) SE Missouri State 53.92 BIG SOUTH / OVC

151 (23) Princeton 53.24 IVY LEAGUE

143 153 (24) Abilene Christian 53.04 UNITED ATHLETIC

155 (25) SE Louisiana 52.58 SOUTHLAND

The remainder of the MVFC:
162 South Dakota 51.49
165 Missouri State 51.33
194 Indiana State 43.43
209 Murray State 38.95
220 Western Illinois 37..23

http://sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm

[OldHare]

The 7 Big Sky and 7 MVFC illustrates the support for football in these conferences. The remaining MVFC teams face an uphill climb to gain relevance in the league or in WIU case look for a different conference to be competitive. There may be considerable difference in financial support for teams in the same conference.

[JackJD]

Below is a link to the FCS Coaches Top 25 Poll (through 9/17/23) on the NCAA site. Here's the top five:
1. SDSU
2 NDSU
3 Montana State
4. Sacramento State
5. William and Marry

Other MVFC teams in the top 25:
13 Southern Illinois
14 UND
24 Youngstown


Of note:
10 The 'Fightin' Ecks of Idaho


Here's the link:
https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/footba...s-coaches-poll

[JackJD]

In the Stats Perform Top 25 FCS rankings, the first five match the Coaches Poll (see the preceding post).

Other MVFC teams in the top 25
12 Southern Illinois
14 UND
24 Youngstown

Idaho's Fightin' Ecks ranked 7 the Stats poll.


Link to the Stats Perform poll on the NCAA site:
https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/footba...orm-fcs-top-25

[JackJD]

Current FCS Sagarin D1 FCS rankings (Week 4: Includes games through 9/23/23)

Note: The last Sagarin ranking posted in this thread was for games though 9/9/23. I didn’t post Sagarin rankings for last week (games through 9/16/23) but the “prior” Overall D1 Rank showing below IS for games through last weekend, 9/16/23.

Sagarin ranks all 261 D1 football teams. The following list shows the top 25 FCS teams and also lists the remaining MVFC teams which are not in the top 25. The first number is the FCS team’s current ranking (games through 9/23/23). The second number is the FCS team’s overall Sagarin D1 ranking among all 261 D1 schools. The number that follows (in parenthesis) was the FCS team’s overall Sagarin D1 ranking from last week (games through 9/16/23). Next is the FCS team and its conference..

Sagarin Overall D1 School and its
FCS Rank Rank (Prior) Conference

1 46 (45) South Dakota State – MVFC
2 61 (65) North Dakota State – MVFC
3 66 (64) Montana State – Big Sky
4 95 (98) Idaho – Big Sky
5 101 (104) Southern Illinois – MVFC
6 103 (108) Sacramento State – Big Sky
7 116 (112) Furman – Southern
8 117 (113) Northern Iowa – MVFC
9 119 (122) North Dakota – MVFC
10 120 (123) Weber State – Big Sky
11 121 (116) Central Arkansas – United Athletic
12 123 (118) Holy Cross – Patriot
13 127 (120) Incarnate Word – Southland
14 129 (116) Youngstown State – MVFC
15 133 (139) UC Davis – Big Sky
16 137 (131) Eastern Washington – Big Sky
17 139 (134) New Hampshire – Coastal
18 140 (135) William and Mary – Coastal
19 141 (138) Western Carolina – Southern
20 142 (143) Tennessee - Martin – Big South / OVC
21 144 (147) Austin Peay – United Athletic
22 145 (145) Delaware – Coastal
23 147 (152) Missouri State – MVFC
24 149 (144) Montana – Big Sky
25 150 (150) Villanova – Coastal


The remainder of the MVFC:
156 (162) South Dakota
158 (151) Illinois State
201 (205) Murray State
202 (198) Indiana State
227 (226) Western Illinois


http://sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm

[JackJD]

From the website NCAA.com, here's the current (games through 9/23/23) FCS Stats Perform Top 25 Poll)
[Note: Even though SDSU continues to be listed as #1, some idiot inputting information for the NCAA site lists the Jackrabbits' win/loss record as 2-1. Of course, football fans know the Jacks are 3-0. The NCAA site has an email address at which one may report errors...I've sent a message about the incorrect win/loss record.

EDIT: SDSU's record corrected this morning (9/25/23) to 3-0 so I've corrected the listing below.

Far right column is last week's ranking in the poll.

1	South Dakota State (52)	3-0		1
2	North Dakota State (3)	3-0		2
3	Montana State	2-1		3
4	Sacramento State (1)	3-0		8
5	William & Mary	3-0		4
6	Holy Cross	2-1		6
7	Idaho	2-1		5
8	Furman	2-1		7
9	UIW	2-1		10
10	Weber State	2-1		9
11	New Hampshire	2-1		11
12	Southern Illinois	3-0		15
13	Montana	3-0		12
14	North Dakota	2-1		14
15	UC Davis	2-1		16
16	Southeast Missouri State	1-2		13
17	Rhode Island	2-1		21
18	North Carolina Central	2-1		17
19	Delaware	2-1		22
20	Samford	1-2		18
21	Mercer	2-1		20
22	Florida A&M	2-1		23
23	Western Carolina	2-1		NR
24	Youngstown State	2-1		25
25	Villanova	2-1		24

thers Receiving Votes (schools listed on two or more ballots): UT Martin 96; Southeastern Louisiana 72; Eastern Washington 68; Northern Iowa 57;Central Arkansas 50; Fordham 37; Campbell 33; Abilene Christian 30; UAlbany 19; Tennessee State 11; Gardner-Webb 8; Tarleton State 8; Austin Peay 6; Eastern Illinois 4; Harvard 2; Stephen F. Austin 2

[JackJD]

The FCS Coaches poll for games through 9/23/23 is listed below, taken from NCAA.com. The far-right column is last week's rank.

1	South Dakota State (26)	3-0		1
2	North Dakota State	3-0		2
3	Montana State	2-1		3
4	Sacramento State	3-0		6
5	William & Mary	3-0		4
6	Holy Cross	2-1		5
7	Furman	2-1		8
8	Weber State	2-1		7
9	UIW	2-1		9
10	Idaho	2-1		10
11	Montana	3-0		T-11
12	New Hampshire	2-1		T-11
13	Southern Illinois	3-0		18
14	North Dakota	2-1		13
15	UC Davis	2-1		16
16	Delaware	2-1		19
17	Samford	1-2		14
18	Rhode Island	2-1		20
19	North Carolina Central	2-1		17
20	Southeast Missouri State	1-2		15
21	Mercer	2-1		21
22	Fordham	2-1		T-22
23	Florida A&M	2-1		24
24	Youngstown State	2-1		NR
25	Harvard	1-0		NR

Others Receiving Votes: Northern Iowa, 30; Western Carolina, 26; Princeton, 20; Eastern Washington, 19; Chattanooga, 13; Central Arkansas, 10; Illinois State, 9; Austin Peay, 8; Jackson State, 7; Stephen F. Austin, 7; Yale, 7; Eastern Kentucky, 5; Hampton, 5; Richmond, 4; Villanova, 4; Southeastern Louisiana, 1.

[filbert]

The W-L records on both polls are screwed up...Delaware, Montana and Sac State are all 3-1 for instance. Samford is 1-3. Somebody didn't finish the job of updating the records from last week, it appears.