[Sly Fox]

Not that it really matters much to us but look at that jump based on our VMI win ...

Team (No. 1 Votes) 2011 Record Points Previous Ranking

1. North Dakota State (26) 9-0 698 1
2. Montana State (2) 9-1 671 2
3. Georgia Southern 8-1 627 4
4. Sam Houston State 9-0 619 5
5. Northern Iowa 7-2 585 6
6. Lehigh 8-1 536 7
7. Montana 8-2 525 8
8. Appalachian State 6-3 497 3
9. Wofford 6-3 489 9
10. New Hampshire 7-2 464 11
11. Old Dominion 8-2 420 12
12. Towson 7-2 367 17
13. Maine 7-2 356 10
14. Harvard 6-1 259 20
15. Liberty 7-3 237 22
16. Illinois State 7-3 203 24
17. Delaware 5-4 183 19
18. Jackson State 7-2 168 14
19. James Madison 5-4 157 13
20. Tennessee Tech 5-3 139 15
21. Furman 6-3 123 NR
22. North Dakota 6-3 119 25
23. Indiana State 5-4 102 16
24. South Dakota 5-4 97 23
25. Central Arkansas 7-3 77 NR

Others receiving votes: Jacksonville State (69); Norfolk State (64); Eastern Kentucky (62); Brown (54); Portland State (21); Drake (17); William & Mary (16); San Diego (13); Youngstown State (10); Alabama State (9); Florida A&M (9); Southern Utah (8); Cal Poly (5); Alabama A&M (4); Jacksonville (4); Pennsylvania (4); Massachusetts (3); Chattanooga (1).

1 North Dakota State Bison 2290 83
2 Montana State Bobcats 2212 7
3 Sam Houston State Bearkats 2100 2
4 Northern Iowa Panthers 1931
5 Georgia Southern Eagles 1920
6 Wofford Terriers 1723
7 Lehigh Mountain Hawks 1662
8 New Hampshire Wildcats 1625
9 Montana Grizzlies 1575
10 Towson Tigers 1468
11 Maine Black Bears 1359
12 Old Dominion Monarchs 1315
13 Appalachian State Mountaineers 1302
14 Furman Paladins 1000
15 Illinois State Redbirds 944
16 Liberty Flames 881
17 Harvard Crimson 740
18 Central Arkansas Bears 708
19 James Madison Dukes 542
20 Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens 519
21 Indiana State Sycamores 342
22 Norfolk State Spartans 318
23 Brown Bears 283
24 Portland State Vikings 250
25 Eastern Kentucky Colonels 171

Most Significant Win: Furman Paladins

Most Significant Loss: Appalachian State Mountaineers

26 Georgetown Hoyas 163
27 Alabama State Hornets 71
28 Chattanooga Mocs 68
29T Cal Poly Mustangs 57
29T South Dakota Coyotes 57
31 Youngstown State Penguins 52
32 Stony Brook Seawolves 37
33 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 35
34 Alabama A&M Bulldogs 28
35 North Dakota Fighting Sioux 23
36 Jackson State Tigers 22
37T Southern Utah Thunderbirds 20
37T Duquesne Dukes 20
39 William & Mary Tribe 14
40 Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles 13

[Kolzilla41]

How is the coaches poll out already? Normally it doesn't post until late afternoon, right?

[jcmanson]

Coaches poll is such a joke. App State #8 with 3 losses? Jackson State still ranked? Stony Brook did not receive a single vote? Norfolk State did not receive a single vote? North Dakota ranked? South Dakota ranked at 5-4 with 2 D2 wins?

[ProudPapa73]

Coaches poll is such a joke. App State #8 with 3 losses? Jackson State still ranked? Stony Brook did not receive a single vote? Norfolk State did not receive a single vote? North Dakota ranked? South Dakota ranked at 5-4 with 2 D2 wins?

Agreed! Not sure the coaches are spending much time on their votes, but then again why should they? I wouldn't put too much stock in this poll. Let's just keep winning ballgames!
Go Flames!!!

[Sly Fox]

Team (First-place votes) Record Points Previous Rank

1. North Dakota State Bison (143) 9-0 4,004 1
2. Montana State Bobcats (16) 9-1 3,847 2
3. Sam Houston State Bearkats (1) 9-0 3,673 4
4. Georgia Southern Eagles 8-1 3,425 5
5. Northern Iowa Panthers 7-2 3,309 6
6. Lehigh Mountain Hawks 8-1 3,131 8
7. New Hampshire Wildcats (1) 7-2 2,957 9
8. Montana Grizzlies 8-2 2,785 10
9. Wofford Terriers 7-2 2,718 11
10. Appalachian State Mountaineers 6-3 2,572 3
11. Old Dominion Monarchs 8-2 2,401 12
12. Towson Tigers 7-2 2,350 14
13. Maine Black Bears 7-2 2,070 7
14. Illinois State Redbirds 7-3 1,665 17
15. Delaware Blue Hens 5-4 1,342 16
16. Liberty Flames 7-3 1,258 22
17. Furman Paladins 6-3 1,246 NR
18. Harvard Crimson 7-1 1,090 23
19. Central Arkansas Bears 7-3 1,048 25
20. James Madison Dukes 5-4 895 13
21. Jackson State Tigers 7-2 525 15
22. Norfolk State Spartans 8-2 468 NR
23. Alabama State Hornets 7-2 438 NR
24. South Dakota Coyotes 5-4 437 24
25. Eastern Kentucky Colonels 6-3 427 NR

Others receiving votes: Indiana State 360, Brown 270, Jacksonville State 261, Portland State 217, Tennessee Tech 206, Alabama A&M 193, North Dakota 126, Georgetown 124, William & Mary 91, Stony Brook 55, San Diego 54, Southern Utah 53, Chattanooga 39, Cal Poly 34, Duquesne 24, Bethune-Cookman 24, Murray State 23, Massachusetts 11, Drake 11, Albany 9, Lafayette 9, Richmond 9, Florida A&M 8, Penn 6, Bryant 5, Samford 5, UT Martin 5, Grambling State 4, Texas State 3, The Citadel 1, Northwestern State 1, South Dakota State 1, Yale 1, Jacksonville 1.

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[Schfourteenteen]

Am I the only one who thinks 16 is too high? There isn't a single win on our schedule against a team that has received votes. How can we be above JMU?

[Sly Fox]

The poll is based on where teams are perceived to be right now. Everyone knows that JMU today is nowhere near as good as they were to start the season after being decimated by injuries all over the place.

I agree with many that Stony Brook should be getting Top 25 love but their resume isn't any better than ours.

[jcmanson]

Am I the only one who thinks 16 is too high? There isn't a single win on our schedule against a team that has received votes. How can we be above JMU?

Please tell me who should be higher? I hear you with JMU. So that puts us at 17. Who else should be ranked higher?

To be honest, filling out the bottom half of the poll this year (15-25) has been quite a task. A lot of parity on the FCS level this year.

[BJWilliams]

I vote on the AGS poll and 15-25 has routinely been a clusterbomb every week. it almost seems like at least half of them lose any given week and you end up with 3 or 4 just on the outside who ALSO lose and it makes it almost impossible to fill in those last few spots

[Schfourteenteen]

I don't want to go off a specific poll - too much variation, so here are the teams I'd put in front.

Appalachian State Mountaineers
Central Arkansas - loss to Sammy Houston and 2FBS losses, 1 in OT. Northwestern St. is pretty good, since they havent gotten blown out by SHS yet....so I give them the nod.
Delaware Blue Hens
Furman Paladins - Beat 2 top 10 teams in the last 3 weeks. Coastal is not the same team.
Georgia Southern Eagles
Harvard
Illinois State Redbirds
James Madison - Beat Liberty
Lehigh Mountain Hawks
Maine Black Bears
Montana Grizzlies
Montana State Bobcats
New Hampshire Wildcats
North Dakota State Bison
Northern Iowa Panthers
Old Dominion Monarchs
Portland State - Probably a stretch, but they did beat the defending champs on that red eyesore. 8 points combined losses between Mont and Mont St and a blowout loss to TCU. Really wish they would have played an FCS OOC.
Sam Houston State Bearkats
Towson Tigers
Wofford Terriers




After that is a crap shoot yeah. Liberty, Brown, Portland State, Norfolk State, Indiana State all have "good losses" without anything to hang their hat on. Liberty at #20 or 21 looks about right.

[Schfourteenteen]

To be honest, filling out the bottom half of the poll this year (15-25) has been quite a task. A lot of parity on the FCS level this year.

It's difficult because there aren't that many cross conference games to gauge off of. Teams are picking up a DIA game or two and a DII game, leaving one or at most 2 OOC games to work with.

[jcmanson]

I can agree with you on that. There's really only 3 teams you listed where a legitimate argument could be made for Liberty to be ranked higher - Portland St, Harvard, and Furman. That would put them at #17. I really don't think 15/16 is off that much. And some voters have a hard time ranking a 4 loss JMU or Delaware team. Thus, you get the 15/16 mark.

[SumItUp]

1414141414, good list, but I think Liberty is deserving to be in the mix and a ranking of 15-20 is accurate. It is too difficult to say specifically. Here are a few comments.

Portland State - It's hard to break the top 20 when you only have 4 D1 wins with 2 weeks to go.
Illinois State - They continue to climb, but they were hurt with a headscratching loss to Eastern Illinois in week 1
James Madison - They did win the head to head, but they are falling fast. I have watched almost every one of their games this year and they were not the same team after Thorpe was removed. With the injuries to their offensive line, they are having difficulty sustaining any drives in the last 6 quarters. They do not look like the same team that came to Lynchburg earlier this year.
Delaware - I have watched 1 of their wins and 3 of their losses. This team has not executed like the team that played for a championship last year. They look lost on offense. 4D1 wins puts them in a similar position to Portland State.
Harvard - With the Ivy League not playing much against full scholarship teams, it is difficult to judge where they belong. They are the class of the Ivy this year, but what does that mean? Personally, if you do not choose to participate in the playoffs or compete regularly against the top competition, the best you can hope for is Paper Tiger champion.
Central Arkansas - After starting 0-3 in D1 competition, they have won 6 straight. If they beat Texas State, they are a legitimate contender for a 15-20 spot. If not, they will fade away.
Furman - They are coming on strong with 3 good wins in the last 3 weeks, but they have to beat Elon next week or they will not reach 7 D1 wins and make the playoffs. Their loss to Coastal Carolina does not look at this point.

I don't see the good losses for Norfolk State (Bethune-Cookman?) & Indiana State. ISUb scored a late TD against NDSU to cut the lead from to 11. It was a competitive game, but I would not consider it a good loss.

If Liberty wins the finale against Stony Brook, they will be ranked between 12-15. If they lose, they will finish the year ranked 22-25.

[01LUGrad]

I know about the whole "if's and but's" thing, but if we had pulled out that win at Lehigh, we'd just about have an at-large bid locked up right now.

(Spare me the whole, "You can't say that because it didn't happen" nonsense. I get it.)

[flamesfilmguy]

I know about the whole "if's and but's" thing, but if we had pulled out that win at Lehigh, we'd just about have an at-large bid locked up right now.

(Spare me the whole, "You can't say that because it didn't happen" nonsense. I get it.)

If If's and Buts where candy and Nuts we'd all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[BJWilliams]

and some Pepto Bismol for the indigestion