Athlon College Football FCS Top 25

[FanofFCS]

Athlon College Football
1. North Dakota State (14-1)
2. Montana State (11-2)
3. Georgia Southern (10-4)
4. Sam Houston State (11-4)
5. Villanova (8-4)
6. Appalachian State (8-4)
7. Eastern Washington (11-3)
8. Towson (7-4)
9. Montana (5-6)
10. South Dakota State (9-4)
11. New Hampshire (8-4)
12. Richmond (8-3)
13. Central Arkansas (9-3)
14. Northern Iowa (5-6)
15. Cal Poly (9-3)
16. Northern Arizona (8-3)
17. James Madison (7-4)
18. Chattanooga (6-5)
19. Wofford (9-4)
20. Eastern Illinois (7-5)
21. Tennessee State (8-3)
22. Delaware (5-6)
23. Youngstown State (7-4)
24. Illinois State (9-4)
25. The Citadel (7-4)

[FCS_pwns_FBS]

Montana State is too high.
Where the heck is ODU?
Wofford is too low.
Tennessee State?
Villanova at 5?

[DFW HOYA]

PL shut out yet again, used to get 1 or 2 in every year.

Is this a function of playoff performance or strength of schedule?

[NoDak 4 Ever]

Montana State is too high.
Where the heck is ODU?
Wofford is too low.
Tennessee State?
Villanova at 5?

Everybody says MSU too high but they only seem to **** the bed in December. They will have a good regular season then step on their dicks in the playoffs.


PL shut out yet again, used to get 1 or 2 in every year.

Is this a function of playoff performance or strength of schedule?

Both

[ursus arctos horribilis]

Montana State is too high.
Where the heck is ODU?
Wofford is too low.
Tennessee State?
Villanova at 5?

Holy christ they have Montana in the top 10! That's flat out ridiculous. I do think there will be much improvement and Montana was mere points away from a much better record last year but I'd have to see something in real life before putting us in the top 10...or maybe even 25 right now.

[Gil Dobie]

Where the heck is ODU?


FBS

[darell1976]

5 Big Sky teams in the top 16!! As for Montana in the top 10, they must either think last year was a fluke or they are just a name sake and belong in the top 10.

[danefan]

Villanova at 5, yet no Stony Brook?

Did they ignore the first round of the playoffs last year?

The CAA is going to be tough this year.

[eaglemachine]

FBS

ODU is on the same fbs timetable as GS. If GS is ranked ODU should be to.

[Apphole]

Still the best poll I've seen so far. Still early.

Wofford too low
Chatty too high
JMU too low
GaSo too high

Agree ODU should be included.

[kdinva]

ODU is on the same fbs timetable as GS. If GS is ranked ODU should be to.

I agree, yet ODU is playing a 1-A/1-AA transitional schedule, Ga. Southern and App. St. are playhing a SoCon/1-AA schedule.........confusing, I agree.

[Canyoncat]

I agree, the Cats are a little too high at #2. Somewhere in the 8 - 6 range is probably about right. EWU should be in the top 5 and in front of the Cats due to going farther in the playoffs and they beat us last year. Both teams return a lot of talent on both sides of the ball.

[Ivytalk]

xsmhxxsighxWake me when an Ivy gets some pre-season respect.

Any Ivy.

Except maybe Penn.

[CID1990]

Still the best poll I've seen so far. Still early.

Wofford too low
Chatty too high
JMU too low
GaSo too high

Agree ODU should be included.

I agree it seems to be a more well thought-out poll than others I've seen, but I really think UTC has a breakout year, and could well be ranked to low here.

I think Wofford is about right. We open the SoCon schedule with them in Charleston, so there will be a little clarity on them (and us) early in the season.

[ngineer]

PL shut out yet again, used to get 1 or 2 in every year.

Is this a function of playoff performance or strength of schedule?

combination, i guess, since there as no "playoff performance" last year. Plus, Virtually all PL teams are going through a 'transition' right now with a lot of graduation creating a big 'unknown factor' about how good the replacements will be. Only Colgate has a "star" returning, but a lot of question marks will be surrounding him.

[NoDak 4 Ever]

xsmhxxsighxWake me when an Ivy gets some pre-season respect.

Any Ivy.

Except maybe Penn.

Maybe when Ivy joins the FCS instead of whatever they are doing now.

[ngineer]

New Hampshire comes into Goodman the end of September, and Colgate has a some early big name competition, I think, and Lafayette may have a CAA opponent as well in September, so we'll know by then just how good and balanced or not so good and balanced the League will be this year.

[Vitojr130]

xsmhxxsighxWake me when an Ivy gets some pre-season respect.

Any Ivy.

Except maybe Penn.


Wake me when they decide to play everyone else in the playoffs :D

[NoDak 4 Ever]

Wake me when they decide to play everyone else in the playoffs :D

or anyone else, ever

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

New Hampshire comes into Goodman the end of September, and Colgate has a some early big name competition, I think, and Lafayette may have a CAA opponent as well in September, so we'll know by then just how good and balanced or not so good and balanced the League will be this year.

I think Colgate and/or Lehigh will be at the tail end or high up in the "ARV" section of the TSN Poll to start the year. If Lehigh starts off 3-0 they'll be ranked for sure heading into the UNH. Colgate will be too if they can survive their first 4 games at 3-1. Fordham would jump in with a win over Villanova. Lafayette has the potential to turn some heads.

[bluehenbillk]

You can tell there was very little research done to actually prognosticating 2013 with this poll.

[eaglewraith]

Still the best poll I've seen so far. Still early.

Wofford too low
Chatty too high
JMU too low
GaSo too high

Agree ODU should be included.

Too high? We've finished in the top 4 the last 3 seasons, even with some assistant coaches leaving and player turnover. What justifies us being too high?

[Gil Dobie]

Still the best poll I've seen so far. Still early.

Wofford too low
Chatty too high
JMU too low
GaSo too high

Agree ODU should be included.

If ODU, GSU or App St are undefeated and rated #1 at the end of the year, do they proclaim themselves National Champions?

[BullDog85]

GSU and Appy also added more scholies...they are not FCS anymore. Can not qualify for NCAA Championship games...are not FCS anymore.

[eaglewraith]

GSU and Appy also added more scholies...they are not FCS anymore. Can not qualify for NCAA Championship games...are not FCS anymore.

But we're considered FCS Independent, so for this year we are still an FCS team. We are not FBS yet.

[Apphole]

Too high? We've finished in the top 4 the last 3 seasons, even with some assistant coaches leaving and player turnover. What justifies us being too high?

Losing every defensive star. Not saying you should be out of the top ten, but #3 is too high.

It is a preseason poll though, so I'm sure 99% of this was playoff performance based.

[asumike83]

I think Colgate and/or Lehigh will be at the tail end or high up in the "ARV" section of the TSN Poll to start the year. If Lehigh starts off 3-0 they'll be ranked for sure heading into the UNH. Colgate will be too if they can survive their first 4 games at 3-1. Fordham would jump in with a win over Villanova. Lafayette has the potential to turn some heads.

If Fordham beats Villanova, they'll deserve to be ranked but I don't think it's all that likely. A 3-1 start would probably merit ranking for Colgate since they have Air Force, UNH and Albany and were a playoff team last season. In Lehigh's case, I think they need to beat UNH to get into the top 25. Starting the season with wins over CCSU, Monmouth and Princeton wouldn't get them in my poll, although others may feel differently.

[seantaylor]

Losing every defensive star. Not saying you should be out of the top ten, but #3 is too high.

It is a preseason poll though, so I'm sure 99% of this was playoff performance based.

Our offense will be unstoppable. We return pretty much everyone on the two deep. And we get a defensive star back from academic suspension.

[eaglewraith]

Losing every defensive star. Not saying you should be out of the top ten, but #3 is too high.

It is a preseason poll though, so I'm sure 99% of this was playoff performance based.

We lost a defensive/ST star, a great kicker, our starting QB, and 3 All American OL the year before and we still were 3 minutes away from playing in the national championship game this year. If we had a kicker worth a damn we might would have been undefeated in FCS heading into the title game.

We lost a few defensive stars this year, but we're returning mainly the whole offense. We might be in some closer games but hopefully we won't have any problems scoring points. I think we're top 5 at the worst.

[Lehigh'98]

We lost a defensive/ST star, a great kicker, our starting QB, and 3 All American OL the year before and we still were 3 minutes away from playing in the national championship game this year. If we had a kicker worth a damn we might would have been undefeated in FCS heading into the title game.

We lost a few defensive stars this year, but we're returning mainly the whole offense. We might be in some closer games but hopefully we won't have any problems scoring points. I think we're top 5 at the worst.

Did you guys address your kicking need via recruiting. That playoff performance was embarassing by them. Watching that ODU game I was thinking they better keep putting it in the endzone to have a chance.

[Eaglesrus]

Did you guys address your kicking need via recruiting. That playoff performance was embarassing by them. Watching that ODU game I was thinking they better keep putting it in the endzone to have a chance.

We signed a couple, including one that's coming all the way from New Jersey. I just hope at least one is as good as they appeared to be in high school.