As the calendar is about to hit August college football is right around the corner and with that comes the preseason release of the AGS Top 25. 84 voters from the AnyGivenSaturday.com user community submitted ballots to create this consensus. Defending champion North Dakota State returned at #1. They were followed by last year’s runner-up Eastern Washington at #2. A familiar face in James Madison rose 6 spots from their final 2018 position to start off at #3. One of last year’s semifinalists in South Dakota State was #4 and UC Davis rounded out the top 5 coming in at #5 after bursting onto the national scene in 2018. Each of the top 4 teams received first place votes which was the most teams to receive #1 votes since 2016.
Among the teams the AGS community sees making the biggest leaps in 2019 are the Towson Tigers who rose 13 spots from the final 2018 poll to the #13 ranking in this poll. Illinois State jumped up 18 spots to come in right behind them at #14. Furman rose 10 spots to #17 and Montana climbed 14 spots to #25. While many of the teams at the top of the poll are familiar names overall 12 of the 40 teams listed in the 2019 preseason poll were not listed in the 2018 preseason poll.
There were 10 conferences represented in the top 25 (and the other 3 all had at least one team among the ORV). They were led by the Big Sky, CAA, and MVFC who each placed 5 teams into the top 25. The OVC, SoCon, and Southland all had 2 teams and the Big South, Ivy League, Patriot League, and MEAC each had a single team placed into the top 25.
We’d also like to send a special thank you to the Sports Information Directors at the following schools for taking the time to send us some information on their football teams that allowed us to make this preseason poll the best it could be: Alabama State, Butler, Cal Poly, Campbell, Charleston Southern, Chattanooga, Davidson, Dayton, Eastern Washington, Furman, Grambling, Idaho, Illinois State, Indiana State, Jacksonville, Kennesaw State, Mercer, Montana, Montana State, Norfolk State, North Alabama, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, Portland State, Sacramento State, South Dakota, South Dakota State, Southern Illinois, Southern Utah, Stetson, UC Davis, Weber State, Wofford, and Youngstown State.
Full results below:
| Rank | Change | Team | Total Points | First Place Votes |
| 1 | – | North Dakota State Bison | 2037 | 59 |
| 2 | – | Eastern Washington Eagles | 1902 | 8 |
| 3 | 6 | James Madison Dukes | 1888 | 12 |
| 4 | -1 | South Dakota State Jackrabbits | 1836 | 5 |
| 5 | – | UC Davis Aggies | 1818 | |
| 6 | -2 | Maine Black Bears | 1524 | |
| 7 | – | Weber State Wildcats | 1456 | |
| 8 | 2 | Wofford Terriers | 1420 | |
| 9 | 4 | Jacksonville State Gamecocks | 1320 | |
| 10 | 1 | Nicholls State Colonels | 1183 | |
| 11 | -5 | Kennesaw State Owls | 1118 | |
| 12 | 4 | Montana State Bobcats | 949 | |
| 13 | 13 | Towson Tigers | 929 | |
| 14 | 18 | Illinois State Redbirds | 872 | |
| 15 | -1 | Northern Iowa Panthers | 780 | |
| 16 | -8 | Colgate Raiders | 691 | |
| 17 | 10 | Furman Paladins | 639 | |
| 18 | 5 | Elon Phoenix | 604 | |
| 19 | 5 | Indiana State Sycamores | 510 | |
| 20 | -5 | Southeast Missouri State Redhawks | 441 | |
| 21 | -10 | Princeton Tigers | 376 | |
| 22 | -2 | Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens | 367 | |
| 23 | NR | Central Arkansas Bears | 346 | |
| 24 | -7 | North Carolina A&T Aggies | 339 | |
| 25 | 14 | Montana Grizzlies | 287 | |
| ORV: | ||||
| 26 | -4 | East Tennessee State Buccaneers | 226 | |
| 27 | -8 | Stony Brook Seawolves | 206 | |
| 28 | NR | Sam Houston State Bearkats | 196 | |
| 29 | -11 | Dartmouth Big Green | 160 | |
| 30 | 9 | Duquesne Dukes | 93 | |
| 31 | NR | Yale Bulldogs | 85 | |
| 32 | NR | Eastern Kentucky Colonels | 75 | |
| 33 | 5 | Chattanooga Mocs | 74 | |
| 34 | -5 | Incarnate Word Cardinals | 71 | |
| 35T | NR | New Hampshire Wildcats | 52 | |
| 35T | -5 | San Diego Toreros | 52 | |
| 37 | -7 | Alcorn State Braves | 47 | |
| 38 | -13 | Lamar Cardinals | 40 | |
| 39 | -4 | Samford Bulldogs | 33 | |
| 40 | -3 | Western Illinois Leathernecks | 29 | |
Dropped out of the poll:
Harvard Crimson
Idaho State Bengals
Monmouth Hawks
North Dakota Fighting Hawks
Rhode Island Rams
Join the discussion here: https://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?231057-AGS-Poll-Results-WEEK-0-POLL-2019-SEASON