Folks, I’m not going to mince words on this. I just submitted my FCS Poll Ballot (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? I’m going to publish more of a fleshed-out 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.
Think about it. These young players can earn a holiday trip to go home and enjoy turkey with family and friends without worrying about a game in 48 hours. That playoff breakdown comes in the reaction story (linked below). You can always find this on my Twitter acct (@BrianMacWriter) by Monday evening.
Here’s my week’s FCS poll ballot explanation is in the Week Eight FCS reaction piece linked below:
WEEK EIGHT FCS REACTION: How did this weekend affect the playoff picture?
FCS PODCAST – BMAC AND THE NACH – ON APPLE PODCASTS
BMAC’S FCS POLL BALLOT EXPLANATION:
Want to know the reasoning for this week’s vote? It’s available at the link immediately below!
WEEK EIGHT 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 | WK 8 (OCT 22) | CONF. | REC | FCS REC | STRK | WEEK 8 (Oct 22) |
| 1 | SDSU | MVFC | 7-1 | 7-0 | W7 | BEAT AT North Dak by 14 |
| 2 | Sac. State | BIG SKY | 7-0 | 6-0+ | W6 | BEAT Montana OT (home) |
| 3 | Montana State | BIG SKY | 7-1 | 7-0 | W5 | BEAT Weber St by 5 (home) |
| 4 | NDSU | MVFC | 5-2 | 5-1 | L1 | OPEN DATE |
| 5 | Weber State | BIG SKY | 6-1 | 4-1+ | L1 | LOST AT Mont St by 5 |
| 6 | Idaho | BIG SKY | 5-2 | 5-0 | W5 | BEAT Portland State by 35 |
| 7 | Incarnate Word | SOUTHLAND | 7-1 | 6-1+ | W4 | BEAT D2 Faulkner by 70 |
| 8 | Holy Cross | Patriot | 7-0 | 6-0+ | W7 | BEAT at Lafayette by 3 |
| 9 | Montana | BIG SKY | 5-2 | 5-2 | L2 | LOST AT SAC. STATE IN OT |
| 10 | Chattanooga | SOCON | 6-1 | 6-0 | W3 | BEAT Mercer by 20 (home) |
| 11 | William & Mary | CAA | 6-1 | 5-1+ | W4 | BEAT at Towson by 20 |
| 12 | SEMO | OVC | 6-1 | 6-0 | W6 | BEAT at NW State by 35 |
| 13 | Delaware | CAA | 6-1 | 5-1+ | W1 | BEAT Morgan State by 31 |
| 14 | Southern Illinois | MVFC | 5-3 | 4-3& | L1 | LOST AT SO. DAK BY 3 |
| 15 | Samford | SOCON | 6-1 | 6-0 | W5 | BEAT at ETSU by 10 |
| 16 | Mercer | SOCON | 6-2 | 6-1 | L1 | LOST at Chattanooga by 20 |
| 17 | Jackson St. | SWAC | 7-0 | 7-0 | W7 | BEAT Campbell 8 (home) |
| 18 | Rhode Island | CAA | 5-2 | 5-1 | W3 | BEAT Monmouth by 2 OT |
| 19 | New Hampshire | CAA | 6-2 | 6-1 | W3 | BEAT Elon by 18 |
| 20 | Princeton | IVY | 6-0 | 6-0 | W6 | BEAT at Harvard by 27 |
| 21 | Austin Peay | ASUN-WAC | 5-2 | 5-1 | W1 | OPEN DATE |
| 22 | Furman | SOCON | 6-2 | 5-1 | W3 | BEAT at VMI by 38 |
| 23 | Illinois State | MVFC | 5-2 | 5-1 | W3 | BEAT Indiana State by 6 |
| 24 | Elon | CAA | 5-3 | 5-2 | L2 | LOST at New Hamp by 18 |
| 25 | Fordham | PATRIOT | 6-1 | 6-0 | W3 | OPEN DATE |
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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