Folks, I’m not going to mince words on this. I just submitted this vote (on behalf of GridironHeroics) a few minutes ago to the FCS godfather, Craig Haley, at STATS/PERFORM as part of the official FCS football poll this week — and it was a toss-up in many ways.
On Monday morning? I’m going to publish more of a postseason/playoff picture with only a few weeks remaining (seeding and at-large projection, etc.) because there are trickier dynamics when it comes to the postseason picture.
The FCS annually has eight top seeds who don’t have to play on Thanksgiving weekend. trust me, these young men and their coaching staffs want to earn that free weekend.
They can go home and enjoy turkey with family and friends without worrying about a game in 48 hours. That playoff breakdown comes in the next story, which you can find pinned to the top of my Twitter acct (@BrianMacWriter) by Monday evening.
This week’s FCS poll ballot explanation is in the Week Seven FCS reaction piece linked below:
WEEK SEVEN FCS REACTION: How did this weekend affect the playoff picture?
FCS PODCAST – BMAC AND THE NACH – ON APPLE PODCASTS
FCS FOOTBALL POLL BALLOT EXPLANATION:
Want to know the reasoning for this week’s vote? It’s available at the link immediately below!
WEEK SEVEN FCS REACTION: How did this weekend affect the playoff picture?
THE VOTE: (note that FCS REC (record vs. FCS) is what the playoff committee will look at — unless the FCS school has an FBS win or a lower-division loss).
| RK | WEEK 7 (OCT 15) | CONF. | REC | FCS REC | STRK | LST WK | WEEK 7 RESULT (Oct. 15) |
| 1 | SDSU | MVFC | 6-1 | 6-0 | W6 | 3 | BEAT NDSU 23-21 (away) |
| 2 | Weber State | BIG SKY | 6-0 | 4-0+ | W6 | 2 | BEAT Portland State by 35 |
| 3 | Sac. State | BIG SKY | 6-0 | 5-0+ | W6 | 6 | BEAT Eastern Wash. 52-28 |
| 4 | Montana State | BIG SKY | 6-1 | 6-0 | W4 | 5 | BEAT North Colorado 30-14 |
| 5 | NDSU | MVFC | 5-2 | 5-1 | L1 | 1 | LOST VS SDSU 23-21 |
| 6 | Idaho | BIG SKY | 4-2 | 4-0 | W4 | 21 | BEAT Montana 30-23 (away) |
| 7 | Montana | BIG SKY | 5-1 | 5-1 | L1 | 4 | LOST Idaho 30-23 (home) |
| 8 | Holy Cross | Patriot | 6-0 | 5-0+ | W6 | 9 | OPEN DATE |
| 9 | Incarnate Word | SOUTHLAND | 6-1 | 5-1+ | W3 | 12 | BEAT Nicholls by 35 |
| 10 | SEMO | OVC | 5-1 | 5-0 | W5 | 8 | OPEN DATE |
| 11 | Southern Illinois | MVFC | 5-2 | 4-2& | W5 | 13 | BEAT West. Illinois 30-7 |
| 12 | William & Mary | CAA | 5-1 | 4-1+ | W3 | 10 | OPEN DATE |
| 13 | Delaware | CAA | 5-1 | 4-1+ | L1 | 11 | OPEN DATE |
| 14 | Chattanooga | SOCON | 5-1 | 5-0 | W2 | 14 | BEAT VMI 41-13 |
| 15 | Mercer | SOCON | 6-1 | 6-0 | W5 | 18 | BEAT ETSU by 22 |
| 16 | Samford | SOCON | 5-1 | 5-0 | W4 | 19 | OPEN DATE |
| 17 | Jackson St. | SWAC | 6-0 | 6-0 | W6 | 20 | BEAT Beth Cookman by 40 |
| 18 | Rhode Island | CAA | 4-2 | 4-1 | W2 | NR | BEAT Elon 17-10 (home) |
| 19 | Elon | CAA | 5-2 | 5-1 | L1 | 7 | LOST TO Rhody 17-10 (away) |
| 20 | North Dakota | MVFC | 4-2 | 4-1 | W2 | 15 | OPEN DATE |
| 21 | Austin Peay | ASUN-WAC | 5-2 | 5-1 | W1 | 16 | BEAT Murray St by 35 |
| 22 | Furman | SOCON | 5-2 | 4-1 | W2 | 22 | BEAT West. Carolina 47-40 |
| 23 | Princeton | IVY | 5-0 | 5-0 | W5 | 23 | BEAT Brown 35-19 |
| 24 | New Hampshire | CAA | 5-2 | 5-1 | W2 | 24 | BEAT Dartmouth 14-0 |
| 25 | Fordham | PATRIOT | 6-1 | 6-0 | W3 | 25 | BEAT Stony Brook by 31 |
A (+) indicates the team has beaten a Group of Five Conference FBS team, and a (&) indicates the team has beaten a Power Five Conference FBS team. FBS wins are key come postseason selection time.
Brian McLaughlin has been a voter on the STATS/PERFORM FCS football poll since 2016, while also voting on the postseason awards — the Walter Payton Award (top offensive player), the Buck Buchanan Award (top defensive player), the Jerry Rice Award (the top freshman in FCS football), and the Eddie Robinson Award (top coach that year).
Brian votes based on his ballot last week, not the final poll tally from the entire group of voters. He believes this keeps his vote to comparing apples to apples and expressing his opinion on what he has seen. When there is a team listed above that doesn’t make it into the publically released FCS football poll, that indicates that no other voter listed the team and that eliminates that team from being even in the “also receiving votes” category.
Also, this year, if a program is ineligible for the postseason yet is playing in one of the playoff-bound conferences (Sam Houston and Jacksonville State are examples) — that program isn’t allowed in the poll. But Ivy Leagues and HBCUs are included because they determine their champions in a different way.
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