With fall camps opening up this week all around the Football Championship Subdivision comes the preseason edition of AnyGivenSaturday.com’s FCS top 25 poll. Defending champion North Dakota State and 2017 runner-up James Madison take up the same positions at #1 and #2, respectively, that they finished 2017 at. South Dakota State also maintained their #3 position in this season’s inaugural ranking that they finished at last year. Coming in at #4 is a new face in Kennesaw State, earning it’s first top 5 ranking in the AGS poll in only the 4th season of the program’s existence. Rounding out the top 5 is Sam Houston State who starts the year in the same #5 position that they finished 2017 in.
As is the norm in preseason rankings there was a lot of volatility amongst teams that the AGS community felt would improve or regress greatly from the end of 2017 into 2018. Amongst the headliners in the former group is Eastern Washington who shot up 15 spots from the final 2017 poll all the way to #6. Delaware also climbed the rankings in the offseason moving up 12 spots to #12 to reach their highest AGS ranking since the 2011 season. Another familiar program that failed to reach the playoffs in 2017 that AGS expects to bounce back this year is Illinois State who moved up 16 spots to #15. The last double digit riser was their MVFC conference mate Youngstown State who moved up 14 spots to #24. Villanova moved into the top 25 at #22 after failing to receive any votes in the final 2017 poll.
On the opposite end of the spectrum was Wofford who moved down 6 spots from the final 2017 ranking to #13 following their losses to graduation and the retirement of their iconic head coach Mike Ayers. Another team dealing with a head coaching change and subsequent drop in the rankings is Central Arkansas who lost 7 spots to come in at #16 to start 2018. Coming in back to back at #20 and #21 were Stony Brook, who dropped 9 spots, and Western Illinois, who dropped 6 spots. The biggest fall for a top 25 team to start 2018 was Southern Utah who plummeted 13 spots to #23. South Dakota, San Diego, and Grambling all start 2018 in the ORV category after finishing 2017 ranked amongst the top 25.
Leading the way in terms of conference representation were the CAA and MVFC who made up nearly half of the top 25 by themselves each placing 6 teams amongst the top 25. They were followed by the Southland who had 4 top 25 teams and the Big Sky and SOCON who each had 3. The Big South, OVC, and MEAC rounded out the field each with a single team ranked amongst the top 25.
Full results below:
| Rank | Change | Team | Total Points | First Place Votes |
| 1 | – | North Dakota State Bison | 2247 | 88 |
| 2 | – | James Madison Dukes | 2150 | 2 |
| 3 | – | South Dakota State Jackrabbits | 1893 | |
| 4 | 2 | Kennessaw State Owls | 1870 | |
| 5 | – | Sam Houston State Bearkats | 1726 | |
| 6 | 15 | Eastern Washington Eagles | 1571 | |
| 7 | 6 | New Hampshire Wildcats | 1545 | |
| 8 | – | Jacksonville State Gamecocks | 1539 | |
| 9 | -5 | Weber State Wildcats | 1492 | |
| 10 | 9 | Samford Bulldogs | 1234 | |
| 11 | 1 | Northern Iowa Panthers | 1099 | |
| 12 | 12 | Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens | 989 | |
| 13 | -6 | Wofford Terriers | 964 | |
| 14 | 4 | Elon Phoenix | 859 | |
| 15 | 16 | Illinois State Redbirds | 717 | |
| 16 | -7 | Central Arkansas Bears | 701 | |
| 17 | 5 | Nicholls State Colonels | 679 | |
| 18 | -1 | Furman Paladins | 658 | |
| 19 | -3 | North Carolina A&T Aggies | 656 | |
| 20 | -9 | Stony Brook Seawolves | 624 | |
| 21 | -6 | Western Illinois Leathernecks | 540 | |
| 22 | NR | Villanova Wildcats | 529 | |
| 23 | -13 | Southern Utah Thunderbirds | 442 | |
| 24 | 14 | Youngstown State Penguins | 420 | |
| 25 | -2 | McNeese State Cowboys | 327 | |
| ORV: | ||||
| 26 | 3 | Austin Peay Governors | 251 | |
| 27 | -1 | Northern Arizona Lumberjacks | 230 | |
| 28 | 2 | Montana Grizzlies | 215 | |
| 29 | -15 | South Dakota Coyotes | 212 | |
| 30 | NR | Idaho Vandals | 207 | |
| 31 | -11 | San Diego Toreros | 136 | |
| 32T | 3 | Richmond Spiders | 84 | |
| 32T | -6 | Yale Bulldogs | 84 | |
| 32T | -1 | Sac State Hornets | 84 | |
| 35 | -10 | Grambling State Tigers | 43 | |
| 36 | 1 | Colgate Raiders | 27 | |
| 37 | -9 | Monmouth Hawks | 26 | |
| 38 | NR | Maine Black Bears | 22 | |
| 39 | NR | Montana State Bobcats | 19 | |
| 40 | NR | UC Davis Aggies | 14 | |
Dropped out of the poll:
Central Connecticut State Blue Devils
Lehigh Mountain Hawks
Western Carolina Catamounts
Join the discussion here: http://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?209343-AGS-Poll-Results-PRESEASON-POLL-2018-SEASON
