AFCA Coaches Poll - 2018 Preseason

[OhioHen]

Surprised nobody has posted this yet. I came across it in Tuesday's USA Today while on business travel.

This "replaces" the old coaches poll we all love to hate.



Rank

School (1st Place Votes)

2017 Record

Pts.

2017 Rank*



1

North Dakota St. (23)

14-1

647

1



2

James Madison (3)

14-1

623

2



3

South Dakota St.

11-3

579

4



4

Sam Houston St.

12-2

557

3



5

Kennesaw St.

12-2

543

9



6

Jacksonville St.

10-3

530

10



7

Eastern Washington

7-4

454

22



8

Weber St.

11-3

446

5



9

New Hampshire

9-5

430

15



10

Samford

8-4

393

17



11

Wofford

10-3

340

7



12

Northern Iowa

8-5

338

19



13

Elon

8-4

319

21



14

North Carolina A&T

12-0

292

6



15

Central Arkansas

10-2

269

8



16

Delaware

7-4

257

NR



17

Nicholls St.

8-4

241

23



18

McNeese St.

9-2

187

18



19

Villanova

5-6

165

NR



20

Illinois St.

6-5

144

NR



21

Furman

8-5

128

20



22

Stony Brook

10-3

120

11



23

Austin Peay

8-4

119

NR



24

Youngstown St.

6-5

88

NR



25

Montana

7-4

67

NR




*– Ranking in final FCS Coaches Poll of 2017

Others Receiving Votes: Idaho, 41; Northern Arizona, 36; Yale, 22; Grambling St., 14; Monmouth (N.J.), 12; Southern Utah, 11; Sacramento St., 9; Colgate, 8; South Dakota, 6; San Diego, 5; Richmond, 4; Western Illinois, 3; Western Carolina, 2; Lehigh, 1.

[Redbird 4th & short]

top 12 look fine to me .. though I would have SDSU a little lower intially - they reload better than anyone not named NDSU or JMU, but they lost some studs. After that, it seems to have derailed. Though I am fine with any poll that puts my ISUr around 20 as of preseason.

Villanova, Stony Brook, Montana, WIU, and USD all deserve much more love. Some of the top 20 just defy all logic .. NCAT, McNeese St for starters .. some just 5 or so slots too high .. like Wofford, UCA, Elon, SDSU.

But Grambling St and Monmouth ahead of USD and WIU ... really ??? On what planet was this poll taken ??? No, seriously ???

[Professor Chaos]

It's almost frightening how similar this is to the STATS preseason top 25: http://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?209753-STATS-2018-Preseason-Top-25

Makes me wonder if a good chunk of voters did their "research" by just copying that poll. The years have made me overly cynical when it comes to this poll so maybe I'm not giving them a fair shake but I'll take the wait and see approach in the regular season before I give them too much credit. For a preseason poll I think it's pretty reasonable. They even avoided the head scratchers (which are usually lazy mistakes) in the ORV section.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Stony Brook and Furman are vastly underrated....

[McNeese72]

top 12 look fine to me .. though I would have SDSU a little lower intially - they reload better than anyone not named NDSU or JMU, but they lost some studs. After that, it seems to have derailed. Though I am fine with any poll that puts my ISUr around 20 as of preseason.

Villanova, Stony Brook, Montana, WIU, and USD all deserve much more love. Some of the top 20 just defy all logic .. NCAT, McNeese St for starters .. some just 5 or so slots too high .. like Wofford, UCA, Elon, SDSU.

But Grambling St and Monmouth ahead of USD and WIU ... really ??? On what planet was this poll taken ??? No, seriously ???

Yep, we are rated too high to start this season. The voters probably just looked at our last season's record. This team will be a lot different than last year's team.

Doc

[Sammy94]

Yep, we are rated too high to start this season. The voters probably just looked at our last season's record. This team will be a lot different than last year's team.

Doc

Can't fool me Doc. McNeese should be ranked and not just because of the 9-2 record from last season.

[F'N Hawks]

It's almost frightening how similar this is to the STATS preseason top 25: http://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?209753-STATS-2018-Preseason-Top-25

Makes me wonder if a good chunk of voters did their "research" by just copying that poll. The years have made me overly cynical when it comes to this poll so maybe I'm not giving them a fair shake but I'll take the wait and see approach in the regular season before I give them too much credit. For a preseason poll I think it's pretty reasonable. They even avoided the head scratchers (which are usually lazy mistakes) in the ORV section.

Suddenly the ORV is OK to you - why is that?

[JSUSoutherner]

Can't wait for FUBeAR to come in here and **** a brick.

[McNeese72]

Can't fool me Doc. McNeese should be ranked and not just because of the 9-2 record from last season.

Wait?? You didn't get the memo???? 95% of the Southland Conference sucks!! Sam Houston is okay but they make big exits in the playoffs!! And Nicholls is good because they played Georgia and Texas A&M well in the last several years!! You need to get with the narrative here. ;)

Doc

[Professor Chaos]

Suddenly the ORV is OK to you - why is that?
Well, no UND coming off a 3-8 year and no SFA coming off a 4-7 year getting any votes gives them a leg up on the STATS poll where I pointed out those 2 in the ORVs.

[Redbird 4th & short]

Yep, we are rated too high to start this season. The voters probably just looked at our last season's record. This team will be a lot different than last year's team.

Doc
according to KeepRatings, McNeese lost 6.7 starters off their defense . Offense only loses 3.8, which is about average for most teams. And OOC schedule gets a little tougher with BYU and Northern Colorado road games replacing Alcorn St and a 5-6 D-II team. Still don't have to play SHSU again. I would guess 9-2 this year would mean much more than last year, just based on upgrading the OOC schedule.

[F'N Hawks]

Well, no UND coming off a 3-8 year and no SFA coming off a 4-7 year getting any votes gives them a leg up on the STATS poll where I pointed out those 2 in the ORVs.

Without a doubt. Would have tarnished an otherwise flawless ORV section.