We love Division I football at the Student Section, especially the FCS. With that in mind, we’ll run an FCS Top 10 poll every week, and include a few notes about why we came to the conclusions that we did.
Here’s what the poll looks like after the first full week of the season.
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond (1) | 36 |
| 2 | Eastern Washington (1) | 35 |
| 3 | North Dakota State (2) | 34 |
| 4 | Northern Iowa | 31 |
| 5 | Jacksonville State | 19 |
| Tie | Sam Houston State | 19 |
| 7 | South Dakota State | 14 |
| Tie | Charleston Southern | 14 |
| 9 | James Madison | 5 |
| 10 | Albany | 4 |
| Others receiving votes: Montana 3, Illinois State 3, Chattanooga 3 | ||
| Voters: Kevin Causey, Bart Doan, Terry Johnson, Hokiesmash from allsportsdiscussion.com | ||
Notes and Observations
- Thanks to some high-profile wins over FBS schools this weekend, our panel couldn’t agree on a consensus number one. North Dakota State received the most first place votes, but is currently ranked third behind Richmond and Eastern Washington, which both posted victories over Power 5 conference opponents last weekend.
- Those three teams, along with Northern Iowa, are clearly a step ahead of the others. No other team was ranked in the top 4.
- Our voters chose to reward South Dakota State and Charleston Southern for playing tough competition rather than punish them for losing close games (as many others do).
- The biggest discrepancy between our poll and the FCS poll is that we have Albany in the top 10. But, we were impressed with Great Danes’ resiliency in their win over Buffalo, so they earned the final spot in the poll.
- Public Service Announcement: make sure that you watch Eastern Washington play North Dakota State on Saturday afternoon. It is easily the best 3:30 game on the schedule this weekend… and that includes FBS contests as well.
