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 State
4. Tarleton State
5. Illinois State
6. Rhode Island
7. Montana
8. North Dakota
9. Idaho
10. Southern Illinois
11. Abilene Christian
12. UC Davis
13. Jackson State
14. Lehigh
15. Villanova
16. Northern Arizona
17. Austin Peay
18. Tennessee Tech
19. West Georgia
20. Lamar
21. South Dakota
22. Nicholls
23. UIW
24. SFA
25. Gardner-Webb
Leaving: Southern Utah, ETSU
Entering: West Georgia, Lamar
Southern Utah was bumped off my ballot after losing 30-27 to non-scholarship San Diego. ETSU was also bumped, more so to make room for Lamar and West Georgia, who had impressive victories.
Entering my ballot are West Georgia and Lamar. West Georgia dominated a ranked Nicholls team 34-10, an upset I called in my predictions article. The Wolves are 2-0, also crushing Samford in Week 1. Lamar scored a massive upset, defeating No. 4 South Dakota 20-13. South Dakota plummets in my ballot at 0-2. It has a lot of work to do on both sides of the ball. We’ll see if that was just a clunker after a decent start in the game, or a sign of things to come for the Yotes.
I swapped South Dakota State and Montana State at No. 2 and 3 after the Jackrabbits won in Bozeman, 30-24 in double-overtime. SDSU is 2-0 with two ranked wins. But with how much North Dakota State has dominated inferior opponents, it’s hard to bump the Bison off of the No. 1 spot. Despite being 0-2, I kept Montana State in my Top 3. You have to look beyond just the record. MSU’s loss at Oregon can be thrown out, and it was right there with SDSU on Saturday. Dropping the Bobcats just because of their record shouldn’t happen. They pass the eye test if you believe SDSU is No. 2. If we ranked off of records, then it’d be easy. A 3.8 GPA general studies student isn’t necessarily smarter than a 3.6 GPA pharmacy student.
Most years, a team outside the usual contenders steps up to threaten the top. Tarleton State could be that team this season. The Texans are 3-0 with two dominating wins over struggling Portland State and Mississippi Valley State, along with an impressive FBS win over Army, which just beat Kansas State. They have talent on offense, plus experience and depth on the defensive side.
Abilene Christian rose several spots after beating ranked SFA 28-20. North Dakota continues its rise and enters the Top 10. UND defeated Portland State 50-20 a week after nearly upsetting Kansas State. PSU scored a couple of garbage time touchdowns after trailing 43-6. The Fighting Hawks visit Montana this weekend, and the winner there could have an argument to get into the Top 5.
New Hampshire and Monmouth are two 2-0 teams I’m keeping a close eye on and are just outside of my ballot. With winnable FBS games this weekend, they could soon be bumped in.
