The Sports Network FCS Poll - Week 3

[superman7515]

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfoot2/misc/tsn-div-1aa-poll.htm

1. North Dakota State Bison (140) 2-0 4,085 1
2. Montana State Bobcats (9) 3-0 3,767 3
3. Sam Houston State Bearkats (8) 1-1 3,669 2
4. Youngstown State Penguins (7) 3-0 3,579 5
5. Old Dominion Monarchs 3-0 3,299 6
6. James Madison Dukes 2-1 3,115 4
7. Wofford Terriers (1) 3-0 2,912 9
8. Northern Iowa Panthers 1-2 2,673 7
9. Eastern Washington Eagles 1-1 2,656 10
10. The Citadel Bulldogs 3-0 2,468 21
11. Georgia Southern Eagles 1-1 2,209 11
12. Delaware Blue Hens 3-0 2,120 13
13. Towson Tigers 1-1 2,111 12
14. Montana Grizzlies 2-1 1,959 14
15. Illinois State Redbirds 3-0 1,883 15
16. Lehigh Mountain Hawks 3-0 1,544 16
17. Appalachian State Mountaineers 1-2 1,476 8
18. New Hampshire Wildcats 2-1 1,429 18
19. McNeese State Cowboys 3-0 1,319 19
20. Stony Brook Seawolves 2-1 1,189 17
21. Eastern Kentucky Colonels 2-1 810 20
22. Indiana State Sycamores 2-1 621 22
23. Maine Black Bears 1-1 369 25
24. Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1-1 358 24
25. Central Arkansas Bears 2-1 292 NR

Others receiving votes: Cal Poly 288, Stephen F. Austin 261, Harvard 174, Sacramento State 154, Northern Arizona 149, Samford 99, Bethune-Cookman 88, UT Martin 88, Tennessee State 84, North Dakota 76, South Dakota State 31, Albany 29, Lafayette 29, Eastern Illinois 29, Norfolk State 26, Richmond 19, Tennessee Tech 18, Alabama A&M 16, Alabama State 11, South Carolina State 10, Villanova 10, Howard 4, Florida A&M 4, Grambling State 4, Yale 3, Southern Utah 3, Jacksonville 3, Western Illinois 1, Brown 1, Chattanooga 1

[BEAR]

Yay...we made it back after beating bacon by 67..but not from beating Murray State last week...confusing.

[UNIFanSince1983]

Kind of surprising a team with a 1-2 record is in the top 10...

[NoDak 4 Ever]

Kind of surprising a team with a 1-2 record is in the top 10...

Yeah, I did that myself. Something about playing 2 FBS teams tough. I kind of wish I hadn't now. Maybe just outside.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

I think MSU at #2 in insane, but hey, that's just me....

SBU at #20 way too low

Lehigh, Delaware, Towson, UNH pretty similar imo.

[IaaScribe]

Jacksonville with three points? Good lord.

[UNIFanSince1983]

Yeah, I did that myself. Something about playing 2 FBS teams tough. I kind of wish I hadn't now. Maybe just outside.

I really think we could be one of the best 10 teams in the country, but at 1-2 without playing another FCS team yet we don't really know. We will find out much much more after the next 2 weeks.

[bluehenbillk]

Too Low: Wofford, Illinois St, McNeese St, Stony Brook, Central Arkansas, UT-Martin

Too High: Northern Iowa, Ga Southern, App St, Maine

[MSUBobcat]

MSU is NOT #2. Cal Poly should be in the top 25, not just outside of it.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

NO WAY Montana St is in the top 5 and Eastern Washington shouldnt be in the top 10 hell they didnt even play this week and they moved up?

[dbackjon]

4 teams with FBS wins aren't even ranked: NAU, Sac State, Cal Poly and UT-Martin.

NAU should be ahead of UNH, at least (either neither ranked, or NAU ranked ahead in the poll

[tingly]

Poly was too far down in the poll to be ranked this week. It was a slightly flukey win over Wyoming who wasn't that much of a favorite. Poly got fortunate early in the game with 2 extremely long runs and Wyoming was without their starting QB. They'll get ranked next time if they can avoid yet another UC Davis upset.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Winning a FBS game doesn't automatically make you a Top 25 team. There's plenty of teams that score FBS wins only to fade away into obscurity by mid October.

[Professor Chaos]

Odd so see Montan St jump Sam Houston in both this and the coaches poll. Sam played Baylor very well, it doesn't justify dropping them even if Montana St picked up a nice FCS win.

[Squealofthepig]

Odd so see Montan St jump Sam Houston in both this and the coaches poll. Sam played Baylor very well, it doesn't justify dropping them even if Montana St picked up a nice FCS win.

And Stephen F. Austin is just outside the top 25. If you believe MSU is #2, I think you have to believe SFA is top 15-20 or so, based on their performance last week.

(I believe neither - I have MSU in a group of five teams in the 8-12 range).

[F'N Hawks]

Yeah, I did that myself. Something about playing 2 FBS teams tough. I kind of wish I hadn't now. Maybe just outside.

So two moral victories keeps a team in the Top 10? As we have now found out, Iowa and Wisconsin are not very good this year. That has to be factored in.

[MSUBobcat]

Winning a FBS game doesn't automatically make you a Top 25 team. There's plenty of teams that score FBS wins only to fade away into obscurity by mid October.

No, but being a team that I expect to win all the remaining games except @UND and @EWU to finish 9-2 DOES. If they fade into obscurity by mid October with games @UC-Davis, @UND, @Weber and v. UNC, I would be more than a little surprised.

[Nickels]

MSU at # 2 in front of SAM?!?xlolxxlolxxlolx we demolished that team last year in the playoffs and return a lot more. What has MSU done to deserve #2? Barely beating the southlands 4th best team at home? A close win against drake? Whats with the Wofford # 1 vote?

[alvinkayak6]

Probably came from the Wofford SID or somebody who played them.


MSU at # 2 in front of SAM?!?xlolxxlolxxlolx we demolished that team last year in the playoffs and return a lot more. What has MSU done to deserve #2? Barely beating the southlands 4th best team at home? A close win against drake? Whats with the Wofford # 1 vote?

[slostang]

Poly was too far down in the poll to be ranked this week. It was a slightly flukey win over Wyoming who wasn't that much of a favorite. Poly got fortunate early in the game with 2 extremely long runs and Wyoming was without their starting QB. They'll get ranked next time if they can avoid yet another UC Davis upset.

Yes we were lucky their starting QB was out, but there was nothing flukey about it.

Stats from the game:

First downs: CP-20 WYO-14
Yards: CP-359 WYO-260
TOP: CP-35:39 WYO-24:21
3rd down eff: CP - (9 of 20) WYO - (2 of 12)

If not for a couple of big punt returns by Wyoming, Cal Poly would have ran away with this game. Cal Poly was the better team. Nothing flukey about it.

BTW, Wyoming had never lost to a I-AA/FCS team prior to this game.

[coover]

No, but being a team that I expect to win all the remaining games except @UND and @EWU to finish 9-2 DOES. If they fade into obscurity by mid October with games @UC-Davis, @UND, @Weber and v. UNC, I would be more than a little surprised.

Thanks Bobcat!

I do agree with you regarding Cal Poly's remaining schedule. It's their easiest schedule in, probably, 10 years, and I expect them to do well. And yes, meeting North Dakota in Grand Forks and Eastern Washington in Cheney will be very tough games. I don't think ANYONE can stop North Dakota's offense, though their defense is questionable, and Eastern Washington may be as good as anybody at the FCS level. But I'd like to add a 3rd team, Northern Arizona, who Poly will play at Flagstaff. That will also be a very tough game. Basically, Poly's toughest games will be played away from San Luis Obispo. The one good thing about the above is that the Eastern Washington game is considered "Out of Conference' this year, so even if EWU wins that game, Poly COULD go undefeated in league play. However, with 8 Big Sky contests still ahead of them, the 8 teams they play will certainly have something to say about that, including UC Davis, who Poly plays this weekend.

Now, about the Poll, where Cal Poly only got enough votes to finish 26th ... the poor showing in this poll is of no concern. However, the poll taken after the 12th week of the season is really the only one that counts. And even then, there are still the playoffs to go, where the real winners will be determined.

The voters can leave Poly out of the top 25 ... that's fine ... for now! The respect will come. The respect will surely come!

By the way ... my personal evaluation of the Big Sky places Eastern Washington on top, Montana State 2nd, Cal Poly 3rd and a tie for 4th with two flawed teams, Montana and North Dakota. But the truth is that any of these 5 teams could beat any of the other 4 on "Any Given Saturday". And some of the other teams are very, very good also. No team, including my team, will end the 11 game season with a perfect record. The Big Sky talent is spread around this year throughout most of it's 13 teams.

[cpalum]

Poly was too far down in the poll to be ranked this week. It was a slightly flukey win over Wyoming who wasn't that much of a favorite. Poly got fortunate early in the game with 2 extremely long runs and Wyoming was without their starting QB. They'll get ranked next time if they can avoid yet another UC Davis upset.

Looks like Slostang already covered this but I'll just add this. Your first and last sentences are true but It is absolutely false to say that win was "flukey". Cal Poly has a damn good running game and Wyomng has a poor run defense....you can check that statistically in games prior to this one....when a good run offense plays a poor run defense the running offense wins no fluke, no good fortune.