AGS Poll: Week 3 Top 25 Results

It was another pretty quiet week in the AGS Top 25 with the only losses amongst last week’s top 25 teams coming from FBS and other ranked FCS opponents. So the top 5 stayed the same with Sam Houston once again edging out South Dakota State for the top spot followed by James Madison, Montana, and North Dakota State in that order.

There still were some teams making modest climbs this week starting with Southern Illinois who moved up 3 spots to #6 after carrying the momentum they built during the tail end of the spring into the fall. South Dakota also used a strong start to the fall to crack the top 25 for the first time this season coming in at #24.

As for teams going in the opposite direction Weber State fell 4 spots to #12 after being soundly beaten at home by #3 JMU. Furman’s brief appearance in the top 25 ended after they fell into the ORV category following their loss to ACC foe NC State.

In terms of conference representation the MVFC led the way again placing 7 teams into the top 25. They were followed by the Big Sky and CAA with 5 each, the AWC with 3, and the SOCON with 2 teams in the top 25. 9 conferences (counting the ASUN and WAC separately) had at least one top 25 team this week.

Full results below:

Rank Change Team Total Points First Place Votes
1 – Sam Houston Bearkats 1300 28
2 – South Dakota State Jackrabbits 1299 18
3 – James Madison Dukes 1247 4
4 – Montana Grizzlies 1200 4
5 – North Dakota State Bison 1145
6 3 Southern Illinois Salukis 971
7 -1 Eastern Washington Eagles 943
8 2 UC Davis Aggies 916
9 -2 Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens 835
10 1 North Dakota Fighting Hawks 796
11 1 Montana State Bobcats 768
12 -4 Weber State Wildcats 714
13 1 Villanova Wildcats 707
14 -1 Northern Iowa Panthers 673
15 – Southeastern Louisiana Lions 611
16 – Missouri State Bears 539
17 – East Tennessee State Buccaneers 512
18 – Jacksonville State Gamecocks 470
19 1 Monmouth Hawks 307
20 1 Austin Peay Governors 291
21 -2 Richmond Spiders 180
22 – Central Arkansas Bears 175
23 – Virginia Military Institute Keydets 158
24 7 South Dakota Coyotes 152
25 -1 New Hampshire Wildcats 151
ORV:
26 – Rhode Island Rams 106
27 -2 Furman Paladins 71
28 1 Nicholls Colonels 61
29 8 Incarnate Word Cardinals 54
30 – Chattanooga Mocs 34
31 1 Princeton Tigers 32
32T -4 Murray State Racers 19
32T 5 Youngstown State Penguins 19
34 -5 Duquesne Dukes 17
35T 5 Samford Bulldogs 14
35T NR Sac State Hornets 14
37 -2 Illinois State Redbirds 13
38 NR Kennesaw State Owls 12
39 – Stephen F Austin Lumberjacks 9
40 NR Harvard Crimson 6

Most significant win: James Madison Dukes
Most significant loss: Weber State Wildcats

Dropped out of the poll:
Dartmouth Big Green
Jackson State Tigers
Wofford Terriers
Yale Bulldogs

Join the discussion here: https://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?280634-AGS-Poll-Results-Week-3-2021

AGS Poll: Week 2 Top 25 Results

Week 2 was a little less tumultuous across the FCS landscape and let us all catch our breath a bit after a chaotic first couple poll releases this fall. There was a change at the top though as Sam Houston inched in front of South Dakota State for the #1 spot. They were followed by James Madison, Montana, and North Dakota State rounding out the top 5 in that order.

There were some bigger movers further down the rankings starting with Missouri State who moved up 5 spots to #16 after an impressive victory over Central Arkansas. Jacksonville State also moved up 5 spots to #18 after a thrilling last second victory over the ACC’s Florida State. New Hampshire and Furman made their 2021 fall debut in the AGS top 25 taking spots #24 and #25, respectively.

Teams heading in the opposite direction were led by Central Arkansas who dropped 5 spots to #21 after their aforementioned loss to Missouri State. VMI tumbled 8 spots to #23 after a lopsided loss to FBS Kent State. Holy Cross and Murray State dropped out of the top 25 this week.

As a conference the MVFC led the way putting 6 teams into the top 25. They were followed by the Big Sky and CAA with 5 each and the AQ7 and SOCON with 3 each in the top 25. 9 conferences (counting the ASUN and WAC separately) put at least one team into the top 25 this week.

Full results below:

Rank Change Team Total Points First Place Votes
1 1 Sam Houston Bearkats 1331 28
2 -1 South Dakota State Jackrabbits 1327 20
3 – James Madison Dukes 1245 2
4 – Montana Grizzlies 1227 5
5 – North Dakota State Bison 1163
6 1 Eastern Washington Eagles 1006
7 -1 Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens 984
8 2 Weber State Wildcats 916
9 – Southern Illinois Salukis 899
10 2 UC Davis Aggies 827
11 -3 North Dakota Fighting Hawks 780
12 -1 Montana State Bobcats 748
13 3 Northern Iowa Panthers 656
14 – Villanova Wildcats 647
15 -2 Southeastern Louisiana Lions 571
16 5 Missouri State Bears 545
17 1 East Tennessee State Buccaneers 489
18 5 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 484
19 3 Richmond Spiders 294
20 – Monmouth Hawks 293
21 -2 Austin Peay Governors 269
22 -5 Central Arkansas Bears 207
23 -8 Virginia Military Institute Keydets 202
24 3 New Hampshire Wildcats 185
25 3 Furman Paladins 156
ORV:
26 7 Rhode Island Rams 74
27 2 Nicholls Colonels 59
28 -3 Murray State Racers 50
29 NR Duquesne Dukes 45
30 1 Chattanooga Mocs 42
31 NR South Dakota Coyotes 30
32 4 Princeton Tigers 25
33 3 Yale Bulldogs 13
34 NR Jackson State Tigers 12
35T -1 Illinois State Redbirds 11
35T 5 Wofford Terriers 11
37T 1 Youngstown State Penguins 9
37T 2 Incarnate Word Cardinals 9
39 NR Stephen F Austin Lumberjacks 7
40T -14 Samford Bulldogs 6
40T NR Dartmouth Big Green 6

Most significant win: Jacksonville State Gamecocks
Most significant loss: Holy Cross Crusaders

Dropped out of the poll:
Holy Cross Crusaders
Kennesaw State Owls
Sac State Hornets
Sacred Heart Pioneers
Southeast Missouri State Redhawks

Join the discussion here: https://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?279843-AGS-Poll-Results-Week-2-2021

The FCS Wedge – 2021-0908 – WK.2 PREVIEW

SHOW LINK

Lance gives a little more guff to Kris for being absent and then moves on to some conference style predictions.

He first tackles the AQ7 mashup for this season. He thinks ACU has stepped up a bit and looks for them to cause a little trouble for at least 1 of the top teams in this conference. UCA is his pick. He loves those 3 letters together apparently.

“Kris” picks EWU to win the Big Sky. Lance goes over all the teams briefly and picks EWU as an omage to Kris I guess?

Big South – gets a look too. You’ll need to listen to get any more information on this one. Okay, Lance like Monmouth.

CAA – JMU is the easy pick but Lance thinks the Delaware Blue Hens are going to go round the outside and take the crown like two trailer park girls.

We slide on by Ivy & MEAC to keep his focus on playoffs.

MVFC – This conference is loaded, there is no doubt about it and who gets the nod? NDSU may squeak by all the other quality and take this over again by the end of the year according to LB.

NEC – Sacred Heart? Bryant? Can CCSU come back from an embarrassment in Week 1 and win the conference. Probably gonna be SHU says Lance.

OVC looks like it will probably go to Austin Peay at first blush.

Patriot League – Holy Cross, nuff said.

Pioneer – Lance thinks Dayton stops struggling but USD still takes it at the end.

SoCon – Furman, ETSU, VMI, seem to look like early favorites. The Paladins get the nod but unfortunately won’t be able to celebrate at Tommy’s Ham House if they win it. I loved that place!

Southland – SELA, Nicholls, UIW look to be the favorites and which one out of these? SELA looks to be the one that should make it.

SWAC – Lance keeps thinking that maybe a team from this league with get back in the playoffs and because it will be an interesting watch he recommends keeping an eye on A&M…Alabama that is, for the crown.

Games Previews:

UNI to Sac State
UCA to Missouri State
Towson to UNH
Sacred Heart to Bryant

The FCS Wedge – 2021-0908 – WK.1 REVIEW

SHOW LINK

It’s Lance Berndt impression time as the mighty Kris Kallem is out sick for this show.

“Kris” thinks the EWU win over UNLV was the biggest win of the week…maybe the century.

Lance goes over the other upsets as well.

The Montana Grizzlies over UW.

Holy Cross over UConn

ETSU over Vanderbilt

The near misses
Northern Iowa – Iowa State
Montana State – Wyoming
Missouri State – Oklahoma State
Bethune–Cookman – UTEP

Key FCS games
UND over Idaho State
NDSU over Albany
Cal Poly win with new system over San Diego

Gardner Webb nearly takes down Georgia Southern.

Lance thinks this looks to be a fairly wide open year for title contenders in the FCS.

Week 1, 2021 Show Link

 

The FCS Wedge – 2021-0901 – WK.0/1 Show

Topics:

Brief talk about the recent history and spring season and then on to the current show.

Best shots at FBS upsets?

Conference realignment discussion, and there is quite a bit to go over this season.

EKU is now part of the ASUN/AQ7 as lance learns…

Teams seem loaded with the time off and Kris & Lance go around a few conferences and provide context.

UIW @ YSU and ISU vs. UND are a couple of the games the two fellers pick as great first week.

Dixie State gets some props for the solid gold schedule this season. Well don Trailblazers, well done. Last time we saw something like that was SUU in 2007. Utah steps up.

SFA is Kris’ pick for a team to step up and Lance goes with the Rhode Island Rams to surprise people this season.

Albany @ NDSU is a good FCS Wk. 1 game. Tough row to hoe for the Great Danes.

Jackson State vs. Florida A&M is a great SWAC matchup this weekend. Coach Prime gonna start strong?

UNA playing SELA is a game worth paying attention too as well.

Wofford @ Elon should be another great start to our FCS game watching season so tune in if you can.

Apparently someone gets fairly defensive about Frisbee’s. Semantics, vernacular, whatever.

The coldest take of the week this week is most watchable movies.

SHOW LINK

AGS Poll: Week 1 Top 25 Results

Week 1 of the 2021 season is in the books and it included 6 wins over FBS opponents so the AGS Top 25 got shook up quite a bit. We start with a new team at the top with South Dakota State edging out Sam Houston by 1 point for the #1 spot. It is the Jackrabbit’s first time ever at #1 in the AGS top 25. James Madison stayed at 3 and Montana jumped up 4 spots to #4 after their impressive win over Washington from the Pac-12. North Dakota State fell one spot to round out the top 5.

As for other teams on the rise Eastern Washington also moved up 4 spots to #7 after getting an win over FBS foe UNLV. UC Davis shot up 13 spots to #12 after cruising to a win over another FBS opponent in Tulsa. East Tennessee State used a win over the SEC’s Vanderbilt to move into the top 25 at #18. Holy Cross, the final team to take down an FBS team this week, also moved into the top 25 coming it at #24.

As for teams going in the opposite direction Monmouth dropped 9 spots after getting dismantled by Middle Tennessee. Jacksonville State also dropped 11 spots to #23 after their own lackluster performance against UAB. Nicholls and Chattanooga both dropped out of the top 25 after taking week 1 losses.

In terms of conference representation the MVFC led the way again putting 6 teams into the top 25. They were followed by the Big Sky with 5, the CAA with 4, the AQ7 with 3, and the OVC and SOCON with 2 each. 10 conference were represented (counting the ASUN and WAC separately) in the AGS top 25 this week.

Full results below:

Rank Change Team Total Points First Place Votes
1 1 South Dakota State Jackrabbits 1355 20
2 -1 Sam Houston Bearkats 1354 29
3 – James Madison Dukes 1256 2
4 4 Montana Grizzlies 1227 5
5 -1 North Dakota State Bison 1196
6 -1 Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens 1048
7 4 Eastern Washington Eagles 980
8 -1 North Dakota Fighting Hawks 852
9 – Southern Illinois Salukis 919
10 -4 Weber State Wildcats 905
11 3 Montana State Bobcats 657
12 13 UC Davis Aggies 650
13 2 Southeastern Louisiana Lions 603
14 2 Villanova Wildcats 601
15 2 Virginia Military Institute Keydets 516
16 3 Northern Iowa Panthers 497
17 -4 Central Arkansas Bears 443
18 13 East Tennessee State Buccaneers 400
19 4 Austin Peay Governors 384
20 -10 Monmouth Hawks 354
21 -2 Missouri State Bears 347
22 – Richmond Spiders 233
23 -11 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 223
24 9 Holy Cross Crusaders 209
25 -4 Murray State Racers 198
ORV:
26 2 Samford Bulldogs 121
27 5 New Hampshire Wildcats 67
28 NR Furman Paladins 65
29 -5 Nicholls Colonels 63
30 -1 Sacred Heart Pioneers 57
31 -13 Chattanooga Mocs 51
32 -2 Sac State Hornets 49
33 – Rhode Island Rams 46
34 3 Illinois State Redbirds 45
35 -9 Kennesaw State Owls 31
36T NR Yale Bulldogs 19
36T 1 Princeton Tigers 19
38 NR Youngstown State Penguins 17
39 1 Southeast Missouri State Redhawks 13
40T NR Incarnate Word Cardinals 6
40T NR Wofford Terriers 6

Most significant win: Montana Grizzlies
Most significant loss: Chattanooga Mocs

Dropped out of the poll:
Albany Great Danes
Alcorn State Braves
Davidson Wildcats
North Carolina A&T Aggies

Join the discussion here: https://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?279126-AGS-Poll-Results-Week-1-2021

AGS Top 25 – How They Fared – Week 1, 2021

Well, it was a bit of a wild weekend to begin the Fall 2021 FCS football campaign. Within the AGS Preseason Top 25, only 9 teams lost, with 8 teams falling to FBS opponents and the remaining FCS matchup being the #18 team (Chattanooga) losing to the #23 team (Austin Peay).

Of the 8 losses to FBS opponents, #19t Northern Iowa and #19t Missouri State had strong showings against Big 12 teams (#7 Iowa State and Oklahoma State, respectively), losing by only a touchdown each. #6 Weber State was the only other loss against a ranked P5 school (#24 Utah). The remaining losses were against G5 opponents.

Despite this, there were also 4 wins against FBS opponents for AGS Top 25 teams, and another 2 wins from teams in the top 40. Perhaps the stunner of the evening was #8 Montana over the #20 FBS team (Washington). #2 South Dakota State, #11 Eastern Washington, and #25 UC Davis also scored victories over G5 FBS opponents. #31 East Tennessee State handily defeated a P5 opponent, while #33 Holy Cross was also victorious. It was a very good showing for the FCS vs. FBS, especially for the Big Sky and Missouri Valley.

Any surprises this week were for the teams outside the top 25 looking in (see above). Of additional note were losses by #27 North Carolina A&T and #35 Alcorn State. Otherwise, only two other teams (#37 Albany and #36 Davidson) ranked #26-40 lost, and both losses were to AGS Top 25 teams (#4 North Dakota State and #17 Virginia Military Institute).

 

Here is a link to the discussion on AGS as well.

https://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?278897-AGS-Top-25-How-They-Fared-Week-1-Fall-2021

Credit for the hard work here go to the poster Preferred Walk-On on AGS.