With the completion of the 2018 FCS season last Saturday comes the final release of the AGS poll this season. Due to the fact that there were 5 rounds of playoff games for voters to mull over we saw quite a bit of churn especially towards the bottom half of the poll from the final regular season poll. Not surprisingly North Dakota State was the unanimous #1 going wire-to-wire this year after winning their 7th FCS title in the last 8 years. They were followed by runner-up Eastern Washington at #2 and semifinalists South Dakota State and Maine at #3 and #4, respectively. UC Davis climbed up a spot to #5 to round out the top 5.
As for teams making big leaps they were headlined by Northern Iowa who jumped up 11 spots to #14 after beating Lamar in the first round and giving UC Davis all they could handle in the second round. Southeast Missouri State climbed up 8 spots to a season high at #15 after upsetting Stony Brook in the first round. Montana State rose 5 spots to #16 after a solid win over Incarnate Word in the first round. Duquesne shot up 11 spots to make their first ever appearance in the AGS top 25 coming in at #21 following their surprising (and convincing) first round win over Towson. Lamar also cracked the AGS top 25 for the first time ever rising 2 spots to come in at #25 after taking UNI to the wire in the first round.
Surprisingly enough there wasn’t much for big drops in this poll. Teams like Weber State, Stony Brook, and Elon took modest 4 spots drops to #7, #19, and #23 after falling a bit short of expectations in the playoffs. Indiana State also dropped 4 spots to #24 and Furman dropped 5 spots and out of the top 25 to #27 despite being (somewhat controversially) left out of the playoff field. The biggest fall of this poll belonged to Towson who plummeted 13 spots all the way out of the top 25 finishing at #26 after a lopsided first round upset loss to Duquesne.
The CAA led the way placing 6 teams into the top 25. They were followed by the Big Sky and MVFC who each had 4 and the Ivy League, OVC, SOCON, and Southland who each had 2 teams in the top 25. In all there were 11 conferences represented in the top 25 and all 14 conferences (including FCS Independents) were represented in the poll including the ORV teams.
Full results below:
| Rank | Change | Team | Total Points | First Place Votes |
| 1 | – | North Dakota State Bison | 1775 | 71 |
| 2 | – | Eastern Washington Eagles | 1701 | |
| 3 | 2 | South Dakota State Jackrabbits | 1620 | |
| 4 | 5 | Maine Black Bears | 1499 | |
| 5 | 1 | UC Davis Aggies | 1462 | |
| 6 | -2 | Kennesaw State Owls | 1374 | |
| 7 | -4 | Weber State Wildcats | 1366 | |
| 8 | – | Colgate Raiders | 1313 | |
| 9 | -2 | James Madison Dukes | 1142 | |
| 10 | 1 | Wofford Terriers | 1061 | |
| 11T | 1 | Nicholls State Colonels | 973 | |
| 11T | -1 | Princeton Tigers | 973 | |
| 13 | 1 | Jacksonville State Gamecocks | 802 | |
| 14 | 11 | Northern Iowa Panthers | 705 | |
| 15 | 8 | Southeast Missouri State Redhawks | 682 | |
| 16 | 5 | Montana State Bobcats | 598 | |
| 17 | – | North Carolina A&T Aggies | 555 | |
| 18 | -2 | Dartmouth Big Green | 538 | |
| 19 | -4 | Stony Brook Seawolves | 375 | |
| 20 | -2 | Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens | 357 | |
| 21 | 11 | Duquesne Dukes | 333 | |
| 22 | 2 | East Tennessee State Buccaneers | 332 | |
| 23 | -4 | Elon Phoenix | 326 | |
| 24 | -4 | Indiana State Sycamores | 255 | |
| 25 | 2 | Lamar Cardinals | 249 | |
| ORV: | ||||
| 26 | -13 | Towson Tigers | 228 | |
| 27 | -5 | Furman Paladins | 166 | |
| 28 | – | San Diego Toreros | 108 | |
| 29 | -3 | Incarnate Word Cardinals | 96 | |
| 30T | 5 | Alcorn State Braves | 20 | |
| 30T | -1 | Idaho State Bengals | 20 | |
| 32 | 2 | Illinois State Redbirds | 18 | |
| 33 | -3 | Monmouth Hawks | 13 | |
| 34 | 4 | Harvard Crimson | 12 | |
| 35 | -2 | Samford Bulldogs | 8 | |
| 36T | -5 | Rhode Island Rams | 7 | |
| 36T | NR | Western Illinois Leathernecks | 7 | |
| 38 | -2 | Chattanooga Mocs | 3 | |
| 39 | NR | Montana Grizzlies | 2 | |
| 40 | NR | North Dakota Fighting Hawks | 1 | |
Dropped out of the poll:
Eastern Kentucky Colonels
Northern Arizona Lumberjacks
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