IdaGriz01
Well-known member
With nine ranked teams losing, three of them to unranked opponents, we are bound to see a lot of shuffling in the top-25. But the fact that two top teams lost to ranked opponents by just one point (and one of them in overtime) makes it difficult to predict what the pollsters will do.
Guess, Team (Record), [Current Rank]
#1 Sam Houston (5-0) [1]
#2 EWU (6-0) [4]
#3 NDSU (5-0) [5]
#4 SDSU (4-1) [2]
#5 James Madison (4-1) [3]
#6 Montana (4-1) [6]
#7 Southern Illinois (5-1) [8]
#8 Villanova (4-1) [11]
#9 Montana State (5-1) [10]
#10 ETSU (6-0) [12]
#11 SE Louisiana (4-1) [14]
#12 Delaware (3-2) [9]
#13 Kennesaw State (4-1) [17]
#14 UC Davis (5-1) [7]
#15 Rhode Island (5-0) [18]
#16 Weber State (2-3) [19]
#17 South Dakota (4-2) NR
#18 North Dakota (2-3) [13]
#19 Northern Iowa (3-2) [16]
#20 Incarnate Word (4-1) [20]
#21 UT Martin (4-1) [21]
#22 Missouri State (3-2) [15]
#23 New Hampshire (3-2) [22]
#24 Jacksonville State (3-3) [24]
#25 VMI (4-2) NR
NR SFA (3-3) [23]
NR Nicholls (2-3) [25]
I’m guessing that SDSU and JMU will just barely drop … enough to allow EWU and NDSU to slide into those spots. That leaves the Griz where they are, although it won’t shock me if the pollsters reward Southern Illinois by moving them up another spot. For those who think the Griz don’t deserve to be even that high … get over it. They just managed a comfortable (in the end) win with a freshman QB starting his first game and a lot of twos and threes getting playing time on offense and defense. Not counting Brown and the kicker, six guys had carries and, I swear, I barely recognized half the names.
The big hit will happen to UC Davis, which lost to a team that was 0-4 going in. And the Aggies were down 24-3 at the end of the third quarter. If they don’t score two touchdowns in the 4th quarter, the loss would have looked even uglier.
My “formulas” (or rules of thumb, if you prefer) suggest that Delaware will drop three or four spots after losing to a lower ranked team. Since it was a road game and only a TD difference, I’m guessing a drop from #9 to #12.
Although many would argue that South Dakota should have been ranked, on paper North Dakota lost to an unranked opponent. That would normally suggest a drop of about six spots. However, I expect the pollsters to settle for five since, again, it was a road game and only one TD difference. You will notice that I slotted South Dakota in just above them … more on that in a moment.
It’s hard to know quite what to do with UNI, given how the pollsters always seem to cut them a lot of slack. So, I’m guessing only a three-spot drop after their road loss to #5 NDSU.
Conversely, it seems like the pollsters’ support for Missouri State has always been pretty lukewarm. (They are only 5 points ahead of #16 in the current poll.) My initial guess was to drop them about six after their loss to unranked Youngstown State. However, that would have actually nudged UT Martin down one spot … despite their decisive win over Murray State. So, Missouri State goes all the way down to #22.
My rules of thumb drop both Stephen F. Austin and Nicholls out of the top-25, even though they did lose to ranked opponents. Rarely can a team afford any loss when they’re sitting below #22 or #23.
That, of course, left two spots open in the top-25. One easy answer was to nudge up the top vote-getter in the last poll … VMI. That works because they were only 4 points out of #25 anyway.
South Dakota was not the next voter-getter in that poll. However, I feel comfortable in guessing that the pollsters will reward them with a good spot in the top-25 (their 4-2 record helps a lot in that regard). And, that being said, it makes sense to slot them in just ahead of North Dakota. (Of course, the poll voting doesn’t always make sense, but we’ll give it a go.)
Guess, Team (Record), [Current Rank]
#1 Sam Houston (5-0) [1]
#2 EWU (6-0) [4]
#3 NDSU (5-0) [5]
#4 SDSU (4-1) [2]
#5 James Madison (4-1) [3]
#6 Montana (4-1) [6]
#7 Southern Illinois (5-1) [8]
#8 Villanova (4-1) [11]
#9 Montana State (5-1) [10]
#10 ETSU (6-0) [12]
#11 SE Louisiana (4-1) [14]
#12 Delaware (3-2) [9]
#13 Kennesaw State (4-1) [17]
#14 UC Davis (5-1) [7]
#15 Rhode Island (5-0) [18]
#16 Weber State (2-3) [19]
#17 South Dakota (4-2) NR
#18 North Dakota (2-3) [13]
#19 Northern Iowa (3-2) [16]
#20 Incarnate Word (4-1) [20]
#21 UT Martin (4-1) [21]
#22 Missouri State (3-2) [15]
#23 New Hampshire (3-2) [22]
#24 Jacksonville State (3-3) [24]
#25 VMI (4-2) NR
NR SFA (3-3) [23]
NR Nicholls (2-3) [25]
I’m guessing that SDSU and JMU will just barely drop … enough to allow EWU and NDSU to slide into those spots. That leaves the Griz where they are, although it won’t shock me if the pollsters reward Southern Illinois by moving them up another spot. For those who think the Griz don’t deserve to be even that high … get over it. They just managed a comfortable (in the end) win with a freshman QB starting his first game and a lot of twos and threes getting playing time on offense and defense. Not counting Brown and the kicker, six guys had carries and, I swear, I barely recognized half the names.
The big hit will happen to UC Davis, which lost to a team that was 0-4 going in. And the Aggies were down 24-3 at the end of the third quarter. If they don’t score two touchdowns in the 4th quarter, the loss would have looked even uglier.
My “formulas” (or rules of thumb, if you prefer) suggest that Delaware will drop three or four spots after losing to a lower ranked team. Since it was a road game and only a TD difference, I’m guessing a drop from #9 to #12.
Although many would argue that South Dakota should have been ranked, on paper North Dakota lost to an unranked opponent. That would normally suggest a drop of about six spots. However, I expect the pollsters to settle for five since, again, it was a road game and only one TD difference. You will notice that I slotted South Dakota in just above them … more on that in a moment.
It’s hard to know quite what to do with UNI, given how the pollsters always seem to cut them a lot of slack. So, I’m guessing only a three-spot drop after their road loss to #5 NDSU.
Conversely, it seems like the pollsters’ support for Missouri State has always been pretty lukewarm. (They are only 5 points ahead of #16 in the current poll.) My initial guess was to drop them about six after their loss to unranked Youngstown State. However, that would have actually nudged UT Martin down one spot … despite their decisive win over Murray State. So, Missouri State goes all the way down to #22.
My rules of thumb drop both Stephen F. Austin and Nicholls out of the top-25, even though they did lose to ranked opponents. Rarely can a team afford any loss when they’re sitting below #22 or #23.
That, of course, left two spots open in the top-25. One easy answer was to nudge up the top vote-getter in the last poll … VMI. That works because they were only 4 points out of #25 anyway.
South Dakota was not the next voter-getter in that poll. However, I feel comfortable in guessing that the pollsters will reward them with a good spot in the top-25 (their 4-2 record helps a lot in that regard). And, that being said, it makes sense to slot them in just ahead of North Dakota. (Of course, the poll voting doesn’t always make sense, but we’ll give it a go.)
