I am grateful to have a vote in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 media poll for the 2025 season. I’ll publish my ballot every week and provide some reasoning for my order.
Notes at the bottom.
FCS Top 25
1. North Dakota State
2. South Dakota State
3. Montana
4. Montana State
5. Tarleton State
6. North Dakota
7. UC Davis
8. Southern Illinois
9. Tennessee Tech
10. Lehigh
11. Illinois State
12. Monmouth
13. Harvard
14. Abilene Christian
15. Mercer
16. Jackson State
17. Villanova
18. Northern Arizona
19. Austin Peay
20. Rhode Island
21. West Georgia
22. SFA
23. Presbyterian
24. Southeastern Louisiana University
25. Lamar
Leaving: Idaho, Youngstown State
Entering: Villanova, Lamar
Idaho exits my ballot after a 49-33 home loss to Northern Colorado. Even without its starting quarterback Joshua Wood, who is battling a knee injury suffered against Montana, it’s a bad loss and puts the Vandals at 2-4 overall and 2-2 vs. the FCS with no real needle-moving wins. Youngstown State also exits my ballot after its 35-17 loss at media poll No. 13 North Dakota. Although it’s back-to-back losses vs. ranked opponents, I felt there were a couple of more deserving teams to move in over a 3-3 YSU team (3-2 vs. the FCS with no ranked wins).
Two teams entering my ballot are Villanova and Lamar. Villanova has won three straight since its loss to Monmouth, including beating two teams on the road that were hovering around my Top 25 — New Hampshire and Elon. Nova is now 4-2 overall and 4-1 vs. the FCS. Lamar keeps on winning, even if it isn’t by large margins over weaker opponents in recent games, and is now 5-1 overall and 5-0 vs. the FCS, featuring its win over ranked South Dakota.
North Dakota and UC Davis slide up a spot after impressive wins. UND beat Youngstown State 35-17 to improve to 4-2 overall and 4-1 vs. the FCS. YSU was ranked in the coaches poll. UC Davis beat media poll No. 14 Northern Arizona 45-24 to improve to 5-1 overall and 5-0 vs. the FCS.
Abilene Christian moved up a few spots after its 30-13 win at media poll No. 21 West Georgia. ACU now has three wins over teams in my ballot (SFA, Austin Peay, UWG) and is 4-3 overall, 4-1 vs. the FCS. Austin Peay moves back a couple of spots after a 34-20 loss at unranked Eastern Kentucky, but stays ahead of West Georgia due to its head-to-head win. EKU is a team to keep an eye on as it’s 3-3 overall and 3-1 vs. the FCS (loss to UWG).
Mercer moves up several spots after its 38-14 win at Princeton, who was 2-1 entering Saturday. The Bears are 5-1, winning five straight after their loss to Presbyterian. It’s fair to say that Mercer would likely win in a rematch after making a quarterback switch. The Bears are rolling since that loss and look like a different team led by freshman Braden Atkinson, who is completing 70.1% of his passes for 1,515 yards, 16 touchdowns, and four interceptions.
In the Top 5…
NDSU continues to show there should be no debate on who is No. 1, beating media poll No. 8 Southern Illinois 45-17. The Bison are 6-0 with three currently-ranked wins. SDSU has been choppy the last couple of games. Yet in these two recent games, the Jackrabbits have a road win at ranked Youngstown State in which they led by two scores in the fourth quarter, and a 31-3 win vs. Northern Iowa this weekend. You know you’re in a good spot as a program when there is nit-pickiness going on at 6-0 with three then-ranked wins, one currently-ranked win. But SDSU has a lot to clean up offensively and on special teams if it wants a shot at beating NDSU in a couple of weeks in Brookings. The defense, though, looks like a top 3 unit in the FCS alongside NDSU and Montana State.
It’s a bit of a nuisance for national pollsters to have two heated rivalries so close to each other in the rankings. Because there are fair arguments on both sides on who should be higher, and whichever argument you lean more toward will piss off half of a state. I moved Montana ahead of Montana State after the Grizzlies defeated Idaho due to the Griz having two ranked wins and MSU having zero at that point. On Saturday, the Griz trailed Cal Poly 9-0 at halftime while MSU was beating Idaho State decisively, a team that nearly defeated Montana a week before. At that time, I was prepared to move MSU back ahead of Montana. The Cats just looked like a more complete team and have been playing better the last couple of weeks. But … then Montana stormed back. Which, I anticipated the Griz still winning Saturday despite the halftime deficit. While MSU beat Idaho State more handily than Montana did, comparing scores can be dangerous due to matchups, defensive schemes, and home vs. away. Also, the Griz ended up beating Cal Poly 28-9. And if we want to compare scores, UC Davis (a team I have ranked No. 7) only beat Cal Poly 34-27 last week. We can go into roundabout points/counterpoints about who should be ranked higher. Reality is, there is no right answer right now. I expect both teams will win out until they face off at Montana’s place to end the regular season. To my understanding, per social media sources, me ranking MSU ahead of UM would be because I have a bias against UM. Me ranking UM ahead of MSU would be because I give UM too much benefit of the doubt and/or I got bullied into it.
Tarleton State continues to show off its talent and depth, winning 41-23 at Utah Tech. The Texans improved to 7-0 despite being without several players on the 2-deep, including their starting quarterback and top two running backs. Utah Tech, by the way, is a team that lost to ranked UC Davis and ranked Northern Arizona by one score. Tarleton’s resume is highlighted with an FBS victory over Army. It doesn’t have any ranked wins yet, but three upcoming opponents are currently ranked. To my eye, I’d still pick my Top 4 to beat Tarleton on a neutral field, but I still believe the Texans are built to compete within the top tier. I’ve been hyping this program up since 2021, yet will be labeled the cliche term “hater” for not having the Texans higher. The only opinion that matters, though, is the playoff committee’s. And if Tarleton wins out, which is an if in the ultra-competitive UAC, the Texans will have the resume, quality wins, respectable year-end strength of schedule (29th) on par with NDSU (21st) and Montana (28th), and the respect of the UAC being the No. 3 FCS conference to have a legit argument from the committee for a high playoff seed.
And that’s a massive decision for the playoff committee. The difference between the No. 2 and 3 seed, which often comes down to small separators on resumes, can be the difference between reaching the national championship game or not.
