I am grateful to again have a vote in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 media poll for the 2022 season. I’ll publish my ballot every week and provide some reasoning for my order.
Notes at the bottom.
FCS Top 25
25. Eastern Kentucky
24. Fordham
23. William & Mary
22. Furman
21. Elon
20. Southern Illinois
19. SEMO
18. Incarnate Word
17. Southeastern Louisiana University
16. Samford
15. Mercer
14. Richmond
13. UT Martin
12. Austin Peay
11. Holy Cross
10. Chattanooga
9. Jackson State
8. Missouri State
7. Weber State
6. Delaware
5. Sacramento State
4. Montana State
3. Montana
2. South Dakota State
1. North Dakota State
I reevaluate my order every week, which can result in big jumps and falls. I don’t like to slot teams based on last week’s order since every week of more games we get a clearer picture. So Team A can jump Team B even if both teams had similar wins.
What a Saturday for FCS tackle football. Or so I hear.
I was at a wedding, but I tracked scores throughout the day. On Sunday, I spent a few hours (after a nap) rewatching parts of several games. And then after updating every team’s resume, I feel prepared to reorder my Top 25. Let’s dive into it.
New to my ballot are Southeastern Louisiana University, Southern Illinois, Elon, and Fordham. Leaving my ballot are Villanova, North Dakota, Eastern Washington, and Northern Arizona.
Southeastern beat UIW in a high-scoring shootout, improving to 2-2 overall and 2-0 against the FCS. I put the Lions at No. 17, one spot ahead of UIW, who I had No. 5 last week. SIU is back in my Top 25 after beating No. 19 UND. The Salukis are now 2-2 with a P5 win at Northwestern. I kept them behind the two FCS teams that beat them, SEMO and UIW. Elon is No. 21 after beating ranked William & Mary 35-31. Elon is now 3-0 against the FCS. I kept William & Mary on my ballot, who is 3-1 overall with an FBS win at Charlotte. And Fordham is 3-1 overall, suffering its first loss in a back-and-forth shootout at FBS Ohio. The Rams have great talent at QB, WR, and LB. They own a win over Monmouth, who just beat No. 9 Villanova. The win over Monmouth looks even better now, combined with an impressive showing (albeit a loss) to an FBS team puts them in the Top 25 and gets two Patriot Leagues teams onto my ballot.
Speaking of Villanova, some voters may have a hard time dropping a Top 10 team completely out of their ballot. I do not. I redo my Top 25 every week and try not to let my last week’s opinion overshadow what I see on the field and in team resumes. Things change! Even in a week. Nova lost a ton of star power from last year and many voters were probably holding onto the fact that the Wildcats made the playoffs last year. And I admittedly did too, ranking Nova No. 12 last week. But Nova hasn’t really done much to prove it’s a Top 25 team in 2022, beating up on a struggling Lehigh team, only beating newish D1 member LIU by 17 points, getting dominated by Army, and then losing to Monmouth this weekend. Nova needs to prove itself back into the Top 25.
UND dropped to 2-2 and 2-1 against the FCS, losing by 17 points at SIU. The Fighting Hawks have two narrow wins against UND and NAU, who are a combined 2-6. NAU dropped out too, falling to 1-3 after losing by 17 points to Idaho, who is close to getting Top 25 love. EWU also dropped, but nearly stayed in for me after a close loss to No. 4 Montana State. The Eagles are 1-2 with a narrow win against Tennesse State, who is 0-3.
One notable movement is switching SDSU and Montana around at No. 2 and 3. I said after Week 2 when I flipped Montana to No. 2 that I wouldn’t be scared to switch them back, I just first needed to see if SDSU QB Mark Gronowski was simply rusty, or if he was going to be shaky and inaccurate all season. I was also higher on USD back then than I was on UC Davis, who Montana and SDSU played after Week 2 (Montana dominating, SDSU winning a close game). I’m higher on UC Davis now than in USD. Granted the Yotes gave NDSU a scare this weekend before the Bison rolled in the second half to a 17-point win despite a very sloppy first half.
More importantly, SDSU went on the road to No. 6 Missouri State and won 28-14 in a game it mostly dominated, especially in the first half. Gronowski went 22-29 for 319 yards, four TDs, and zero interceptions. SDSU is 3-1 with two quality wins against Mo State and UC Davis, who nearly beat my No. 7 Weber State on Saturday. The Jacks almost defeated P5 Iowa in their only loss, and have a Massey strength of schedule of No. 9 (through games currently played).
Montana is 4-0 with a strength of schedule of No. 85.
Now, don’t get me wrong … the Griz are looking fantastic, especially in a 53-16 win this weekend over Portland State, who I believe is solid. Montana is arguably the best No. 3 team the FCS has had in years. But I felt strongly all preseason that SDSU is the team best built to knock off No. 1 NDSU, and I believe that again. SDSU is scary good on defense, and its offense is picking up steam. Winning on the road at a highly-ranked team and doing it without several starters was very impressive to me. So I have the Jacks No. 2 with Montana a very close and very good No. 3.
Shoutout to Sac State for FCS over FBS win No. 8 this year, dominating Colorado State 41-10. The Hornets look amazing offensively and defensively. There are just so many weapons on that offense and ways they can attack a defense. I moved them up to No. 5 from No. 7. Delaware and Weber State also moved up a couple of spots while Missouri State fell to No. 8. Montana State stayed at No. 4 for me after a gutsy road win at ranked EWU, narrowly winning without its top four RBs and starting QB Tommy Mellott leaving the game in the first quarter after a scary sequence that saw his head hit the turf hard.
Some other risers who moved up a few spots are Austin Peay, Richmond, and Samford, who I thought all looked really strong in the quarters of game time I rewatched.
