FCS Polls

[Sodakbull]

Will this be the same story as last year? Idaho got all kinds of hype early on and then they ended up getting beat by UAB at home in the playoffs. We know how they did in Brookings the next week! They have a third string freshmen quarterback starting. That’s a tall task for any freshmen no matter how talented he is. I am not trying to take anything away from their accomplishments this year, but I am not on their hype train yet.

[jakejc795]

Good question this early in the season. Villanova is 3-0 on the season and ranked #5 in each poll but sits at 125 in the Sagarin computer analysis. Chattanooga, with an 0-3 record, is ranked 23/24 in the polls and 149 in Sagarin's computer hard drive. Sagarin's ratings make better sense with each passing week. The early polls seem to be heavily influenced by last year's performance. All good fun to see who is talking about your favorite team.

Villanova's win vs 'guins was somewhat impressive early, but I'm not sold on Youngstown right now.

It'll be interesting to see how Towson, another one of 'nova's opponents, fares in Fargo

[jakejc795]

Will this be the same story as last year? Idaho got all kinds of hype early on and then they ended up getting beat by UAB at home in the playoffs. We know how they did in Brookings the next week! They have a third string freshmen quarterback starting. That’s a tall task for any freshmen no matter how talented he is. I am not trying to take anything away from their accomplishments this year, but I am not on their hype train yet.

Should learn much more on Hobo Day when Vandals face Bobcats in Bozeman

[jakejc795]

Will this be the same story as last year? Idaho got all kinds of hype early on and then they ended up getting beat by UAB at home in the playoffs. We know how they did in Brookings the next week! They have a third string freshmen quarterback starting. That’s a tall task for any freshmen no matter how talented he is. I am not trying to take anything away from their accomplishments this year, but I am not on their hype train yet.

I was trying to remember when Jacks beat Alsbama-Birmingham

[jakejc795]

Right now about the only 2 teams that have are Montana St. and Idaho.

At least they play each other. Grizz avoid the Vandals this season though.

That's another thing -- the Jacks have to play USD. UND, and NDSU every year.

Big Sky teams can't say the same for their conference schedules vis a vis contending teams

[jbjack]

Right now about the only 2 teams that have are Montana St. and Idaho.

I would agree with this. The current poll isn't about how teams fared down the stretch last year or how we think things will shake out as the season goes on. This isn't like mid to late season last year where there seemingly no teams that should be rated 5-10. There are candidates for number 1 after week 3 that aren't located on I29 and end with DSU. Frankly, getting dinged a couple spots in three poll might do this team some good.

[SteelSD]

They look that way at first glance, but the computer rankings have them 42 and 51 spots back of the Jacks. They both have FBS wins against bad teams, which doesn't help them with the computer.

Compare how Idaho looked against Oregon and how we looked against OSU. Then compare the rankings of those two teams. MSU had a bad first half in their FBS game but has been rolling since then. We’ve played about one good half of football so far.

Now I’m not saying we aren’t going to get rolling but it’s hard to defend our level of play this point to either of those two teams. If they had come into the season ranked about us are you saying we’ve shown enough to have been moved above them?

[91jack]

Will this be the same story as last year? Idaho got all kinds of hype early on and then they ended up getting beat by UAB at home in the playoffs. We know how they did in Brookings the next week! They have a third string freshmen quarterback starting. That’s a tall task for any freshmen no matter how talented he is. I am not trying to take anything away from their accomplishments this year, but I am not on their hype train yet.

I think it is to early for me to judge the difference between SDSU and Idaho.

1) Who is better Oklahoma State or Oregon?
2) Who is better between Wyoming and Incarnate Word?

SDSU will get much better once all the new parts learn how to play together. I do not follow Idaho to know how much they lost. SDSU will play a much tougher schedule but will the "season" them or beat them up?

[jakejc795]

#7 SIU loses to SEMO at home. Next game is vs. 'Yotes on 9/28.

[bigticket1]

#7 SIU loses to SEMO at home. Next game is vs. 'Yotes on 9/28.

You knew that it was going be tough on them after losing their starting QB.

[jakejc795]

You knew that it was going be tough on them after losing their starting QB.

Yes, I don't envy them (and not just because they are headed to Vermillion soon).

Now, I'm watching Idaho-ACU game and pondering how I want that to end. Currently ACU is coming back but down by 10.

[JackJD]

We moved up four spots on Sagarin's rating after the 9/21/24 games. NDSU lost a couple of places and USD jumped 13 places to move up to the third highest rated FCS team determined by Jeff Sagarin's computer program. NDSU's loss of a couple of places probably has more to do with performance of other schools who slipped in ahead of the Bison.

Remember Sagarin is not an opinion poll but is a computer ranking system based on a number of factors you can study here:
http://sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm

The top 10 FCS teams according to Sagarin's computer at this point (prior week in parenthesis).

54 SDSU (58)
74 NDSU (72)
93 South Dakota 105
94 Montana (85)
98 Central Arkansas (102)
102 Montana State (100)
111 North Dakota (107)
112 Idaho (109)
115 Sacramento State (123)
126 Villanova (127)

[bigticket1]

We moved up four spots on Sagarin's rating after the 9/21/24 games. NDSU lost a couple of places and USD jumped 13 places to move up to the third highest rated FCS team determined by Jeff Sagarin's computer program. NDSU's loss of a couple of places probably has more to do with performance of other schools who slipped in ahead of the Bison.

Remember Sagarin is not an opinion poll but is a computer ranking system based on a number of factors you can study here:
http://sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm

The top 10 FCS teams according to Sagarin's computer at this point (prior week in parenthesis).

54 SDSU (58)
74 NDSU (72)
93 South Dakota 105
94 Montana (85)
98 Central Arkansas (102)
102 Montana State (100)
111 North Dakota (107)
112 Idaho (109)
115 Sacramento State (123)
126 Villanova (127)

Idaho beats a ranked team on the road and drops 3 spots while USD beats Drake at home and rises 12 spots. Color me puzzled.

[Prairiehaas]

Sagarin is a computer ranking system that takes opponents prior performance into account. It also takes their prior opponents current performance into account, and so forth. It is still early in the season so the computers have limited data to work with. Massey utilizes a composite of various rankings, human and computer. The Massey FCS rankings are:

SDSU
NDSU
Idaho
Montana
South Dakota U
Mt St
Villanova
North Dakota U
UD
UC Sacramento

I expect Sagarin and Massey to converge near end of season.