The FCS top 25, even by week three, has only a handful of undefeated teams thanks to playing FBS opponents, particularly since the FBS went to a 12-game schedule. To better get a handle on how these teams are doing, I'm going to list both their overall record, and their record against just FCS (or lower division) opponents.
This week the ranked teams were ravaged by losses so there were plenty of teams falling out and a lot of big moves.
The SportsRatings FCS Top 25 after week three
Record
lw # Team All FCS Losses/Big wins
1 1 James Madison 2-0 1-0 [email protected] 21-16
2 2 Jacksonville St 3-0 2-0 [email protected] 49-48
3 3 Villanova 2-1 2-0 [email protected] 31-24
5 4 Richmond 1-1 1-0 [email protected] 34-13; wElon 27-21
9 5 Delaware 3-0 3-0 wSDakotaSt 26-3
10 6 Appalachian St 3-0 3-0
8 7 Massachusetts 2-1 2-0 [email protected] 42-37, wWMary 27-23
15 8 William & Mary 2-1 2-1 [email protected] 27-23
23 9 Stephen F Austin 2-1 2-0 [email protected] 48-7; [email protected]
20 10 Eastern Washington 2-1 2-0 [email protected] 49-24; wMontana 36-27
17 11 Northern Arizona 1-1 1-0 [email protected] 41-20
18 12 Pennsylvania 1-0 1-0
-- 13 Texas State 2-1 2-0 [email protected] 68-28; wCalPoly 21-12
21 14 South Carolina St 2-1 2-0 [email protected] 41-10
4 15 Northern Iowa 1-1 1-1 [email protected] 22-20; wNDakotaSt 16-9
24 16 Youngstown St 2-1 2-0 [email protected] 44-14
25t 17 North Dakota St 2-1 2-0 [email protected] 16-9; [email protected] 6-3
25t 18 South Dakota 2-1 1-0 [email protected] 38-7; [email protected] 41-38
13 19 Cal Poly 2-1 2-1 [email protected] 21-12; wMontana 35-33
-- 20 SE Missouri St 2-1 2-0 [email protected] 27-10; wSoIll 24-21
-- 21 Illinois State 2-1 2-0 [email protected] 37-3; [email protected] 24-14
-- 22 Sacramento St 2-1 2-0 [email protected] 52-17; wWeber 24-17
22 23 Furman 1-1 1-0 [email protected] 38-19
7 24 Elon 1-2 1-1 [email protected] 27-21, @Duke 41-27
6 25 Southern Illinois 1-2 1-1 L SEMoSt 24-21, @Illinois 35-3
out:
11 -- Liberty 2-1 1-1 [email protected] 30-23; [email protected] 27-23
12 -- New Hampshire 1-2 1-1 [email protected] 38-16, @RhodeIsland 28-25
14 -- South Dakota St 0-2 0-2 [email protected] 26-3, IllSt 24-14
16 -- Weber St 1-2 1-1 [email protected] 38-20, @SacSt 24-17
19 -- Montana 1-2 1-2 [email protected] 35-33, @EWash 36-27
25t -- Gardner-Webb 2-1 1-1 [email protected] 28-14; [email protected] 38-37ot
James Madison and Jacksonville State hold onto the top spots, as coaches' #2 Villanova holds down third. The Dukes didn't play this week and Jacksonville State beat brand new program Georgia State in overtime. So much for having a breather after the Ole Miss win and edging Chattanooga.
It's interesting to compare our rankings to the coaches' poll. Many of the same teams are there, and they had similar big moves as highly-ranked teams lost. Northern Iowa fell to #15 in their poll, too, but from #10 not #4 as in ours. They dropped Cal Poly from #18 to #22; we dropped them from 13 to 19. The coaches were much kinder to previously-#7-Elon, bumping them down just four spots to #11 while we put them all the way at #24.
We dropped six teams out of the rankings while the coaches kept Liberty, New Hampshire, Weber State, and Montana in. South Dakota State fell out of their poll, and Gardner-Webb was just outside last week's coaches rankings. Due to a three-way tie for 25th place last week only four new teams replace the six we dropped out, bringing us back to a proper 25.
Our rankings stick to the "you beat them, you're ahead of them" philosophy for teams with similar records. But losses to FBS teams don't count when comparing records, so a 2-loss team will be placed ahead of a 1-loss team that they beat, if one of the two losses was to an FBS team.
Tune in next week for more shake-ups.
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