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. Montana State
3. Montana
4. Tarleton State
5. Lehigh
6. Mercer
7. Harvard
8. Tennessee Tech
9. UC Davis
10. North Dakota
11. Youngstown State
12. Monmouth
13. Illinois State
14. South Dakota
15. Villanova
16. Abilene Christian
17. SFA
18. Rhode Island
19. Jackson State
20. South Dakota State
21. Lamar
22. Southeastern Louisiana University
23. Austin Peay
24. Northern Arizona
25. West Georgia
Leaving: Southern Illinois, Western Carolina
Entering: Austin Peay, West Georgia
There wasn’t a ton of big movement in my ballot this week. Only five of my Top 25 teams lost to FCS opponents, and four of them lost to ranked teams.
A small movement within my Top 10 was Mercer moving up a spot at 9-1 with nine straight wins. I love how their offense is playing right now, led by freshman quarterback Braden Atkinson (3,238 passing yards, 33 TDs, 5 INT).
South Dakota moved up a few spots as it improved to 8-4 with its third straight ranked win. It’s been a heckuva turnaround for the Yotes, and they’ll enter the playoffs hot.
USD defeated SIU, who exits my ballot at 6-5 with only five D1 wins. WCU also exited my ballot after a tough home loss to ETSU, dropping its record to 6-5 and likely costing itself a playoff spot.
Entering my ballot are two teams that I’ve previously ranked for several weeks this year. Austin Peay is back in at 7-4, featuring an FBS win and one currently-ranked win. West Georgia is also back in, finishing its second season in the FCS with an 8-3 record. It owns solid wins over ETSU and Southern Utah, two teams that could finish with seven wins this year.
I was ready to unrank SDSU after it fell behind Illinois State 35-0. But the Jackrabbits battled back and nearly made it a one-score game. SDSU is 7-4 with a couple of currently-ranked wins, but it is on a four-game losing streak as injuries to several All-MVFC-level players have accumulated, resulting in a rapid decline in the rankings. Three of those losses came against ranked opponents, including a one-score loss at USD, who is rising up the Top 25 rankings.
