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Post by The Cats on Aug 2, 2024 14:05:35 GMT -5
AGS Poll Results 2024 PRESEASON POLL
7/31/2024
This Weeks Published Output
Rank Team: Total Points First Place Votes
1 South Dakota State Jackrabbits 1147 43
2 Montana Grizzlies 1074 1
3 North Dakota State Bison 1070 2
4 Montana State Bobcats 990
5 Villanova Wildcats 938
6 South Dakota Coyotes 879
7 Idaho Vandals 789
8 Furman Paladins 704
9 Chattanooga Mocs 693
10 Southern Illinois Salukis 613
11 Sac State Hornets 597
12 Richmond Spiders 524
13 Central Arkansas Bears 483
14 Albany Great Danes 439
15 Incarnate Word Cardinals 426
16 William & Mary Tribe 329
17 UC Davis Aggies 327
18 Lafayette Leopards 300
19 Nicholls Colonels 260
20 Western Carolina Catamounts 259
21 Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks 253
22 Illinois State Redbirds 209
23 North Dakota Fighting Hawks 209
24 Tarleton Texans 206
25t Weber State Wildcats 185
25t Youngstown State Penguins 185
ORV:
27 Mercer Bears 120
28 Austin Peay Governors 110
29 Elon Phoenix 72
30 Northern Iowa Panthers 69
31 Eastern Illinois Panthers 66
32 North Carolina Central Eagles 65
33 New Hampshire Wildcats 64
34 Holy Cross Crusaders 59
35 Florida A&M Rattlers 53
36 Harvard Crimson 29
37 Duquesne Dukes 22
38 Alcorn State Braves 16
39 Yale Bulldogs 16
40 Alabama State Hornets 13
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Post by The Cats on Aug 4, 2024 10:30:53 GMT -5
HERO Sports FCS Preseason Top 25
FCS Preseason Top 25
1. South Dakota State (3 1st-Place Votes)
2. North Dakota State
3. Montana
4. Montana State
5. South Dakota
6. Villanova
7. Idaho
8. Sacramento State
9. Southern Illinois
10. Chattanooga
11. Central Arkansas
12. UIW
13. Richmond
14. Furman
15. UAlbany
16. Western Carolina
17. William & Mary
18. Tarleton State
19. Delaware
20. Lafayette
21. UC Davis
22. Weber State
23. Youngstown State
24. Illinois State
25. Eastern Illinois
Received votes (ordered from most voting points to least): Nicholls, Elon, UT Martin
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Post by The Cats on Aug 5, 2024 18:38:38 GMT -5
2024 Stats Perform FCS Preseason Top 25 Poll
1. South Dakota State (2023 Record: 15–0, 8–0 Missouri Valley), 1,396 points (52 of 56 first-place votes)
Final 2023 Ranking: 1; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 at Oklahoma State
2. North Dakota State (11-4, 5-3 MVFC), 1,327 (3)
Final 2023 Ranking: 3; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 29 at Colorado
3. Montana (13-2, 7-1 Big Sky), 1,285
Final 2023 Ranking: 2; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 vs. Missouri State
4. Montana State (8-4, 6-2 Big Sky), 1,199 (1)
Final 2023 Ranking: 9; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 24 at New Mexico
5. South Dakota (10-3, 7-1 MVFC), 1,155
Final 2023 Ranking: 4; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 29 vs. Northern State
6. Villanova (10-3, 7-1 CAA), 1,151
Final 2023 Ranking: 6; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 29 vs. Youngstown State
7. Idaho (9-4, 6-2 Big Sky), 1,021
Final 2023 Ranking: 8; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 at Oregon
8. Sacramento State (8-5, 4-4 Big Sky), 874
Final 2023 Ranking: 13; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 29 at San Jose State
9. Chattanooga (8-5, 6-2 SoCon), 868
Final 2023 Ranking: 14; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 at Tennessee
10. Southern Illinois (8-5, 4-4 MVFC), 832
Final 2023 Ranking: 12; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 at BYU
11. Central Arkansas (7-4, 4-2 UAC), 724
Final 2023 Ranking: NR; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 at Arkansas State
12. Furman (10-3, 7-1 SoCon), 678
Final 2023 Ranking: 7; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 at Ole Miss
13. Richmond (9-4, 7-1 CAA), 625
Final 2023 Ranking: 15; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 at Virginia
14. UIW (8-2, 6-1 Southland), 605
Final 2023 Ranking: 22; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 vs. Northern Colorado
15. William & Mary (6-5, 4-4 CAA), 546
Final 2023 Ranking: NR; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 29 vs. VMI
16. UAlbany (11-4, 7-1 CAA), 527
Final 2023 Ranking: 5; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 vs. LIU
17. Lafayette (9-3, 5-1 Patriot), 359
Final 2023 Ranking: 21; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 29 at Buffalo
18. UC Davis (7-4, 5-3 Big Sky), 351
Final 2023 Ranking: 24; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 at California
19. Illinois State (6-5, 4-4 MVFC), 350
Final 2023 Ranking: NR; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 at Iowa
20. Western Carolina (7-4, 5-3 SoCon), 318
Final 2023 Ranking: 23; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 29 at NC State
21. Tarleton State (8-3, 4-2 UAC), 302
Final 2023 Ranking: NR; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 24 vs. McNeese
22. Weber State (6-5, 4-4 Big Sky), 268
Final 2023 Ranking: NR; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 at Washington
23. Nicholls (6-5, 7-0 Southland), 201
Final 2023 Ranking: NR; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 at Louisiana Tech
24. North Dakota (7-5, 5-3 MVFC), 197
Final 2023 Ranking: 16; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 31 at Iowa State
25. Youngstown State (8-5, 5-3 MVFC), 177
Final 2023 Ranking: 19; 2024 Season Opener: Aug. 29 at Villanova
Others Receiving Votes (schools listed on two or more ballots): Elon (6-5, 6-2 CAA) 174; UT Martin (8-3, 5-1 Big South-OVC) 169; Eastern Illinois (8-3, 4-2 Big South-OVC) 139; Mercer (9-4, 6-2 SoCon) 98; Florida A&M (12-1, 8-0 SWAC) 65; North Carolina Central (9-3, 4-1 MEAC) 52; Austin Peay (9-3, 6-0 UAC) 51; Alabama State (7-4, 5-3 SWAC) 17; Holy Cross (7-4, 5-1 Patriot) 17; Eastern Washington (4-7, 3-5 Big Sky) 14; Drake (8-4, 8-0 Pioneer) 8; Duquesne (7-4, 6-1 NEC) 8; Harvard (8-2, 5-2 Ivy) 6; Samford (6-5, 4-4 SoCon) 6; Northern Iowa (6-5, 5-3 MVFC) 4
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Post by wcugrad95 on Aug 5, 2024 22:16:51 GMT -5
The polls that arguably matter the very most (STATS and Coaches) are often the worst of them all. But it is HUGE to start the season in the STATS poll, as it is also one of the ones that it takes you a long time to drop out of. We will certainly be huge underdogs in 2 of our first 4 games, and it will probably be a toss-up given we are on the road at Elon who has also been named in some polls. But even if we are 2-2 heading into SOCON play starting in the polls will probably mean we would still be in the polls with the conference slate ahead of us.
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Post by FLCATAMOUNT on Aug 6, 2024 4:21:10 GMT -5
Chatt and Furman must be loaded this year. In every preseason poll, they are ranked ahead of us. I thought Furman would be down a little this year, but I guess I was wrong. I am glad we have Chatt at our house. Be curious to see what ETSU does. Lamb basically took his team from GW and moved them to Johnson City. Just watching some clips of Lamb, he is a hard guy to like in my opinion.
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Post by wcugrad95 on Aug 6, 2024 17:32:00 GMT -5
While I would argue the Big South has not been as tough as the SoCon in recent years, GWU was a playoff team the last 2 seasons - they beat EKU in a first round game in 2022 and lost to Mercer last season in a pretty close game. Mercer controlled it, but the final was 17-7. So you'd have to think he is at least a pretty good coach and some of those guys who are now Bucs are more than capable FCS players. But I still think it will take a little time. I predict they will be better than last year, and maybe pretty similar to WCU as we started getting competitive to borderline good.
Chat is pretty loaded. The QB and top WR absolutely scorched us last season, and both are back. They are always a phyiscal team, and have what seems to be the consensus top defensive player in the league. Their rankings and position as a pre-season SoCon favorite are certainly no surprise. I predict we will need to score a ton again to stay in the game with them.
Furman seems to be getting back to where they used to routinely be. In the 80s and 90s you could pretty much count on them just being really good nearly every season. They don't have a ton of starters returning, and I know lots of people think the loss of the QB and the big RB who had our number the last several years will be hard to replace. But they play tons of guys (especially on defense) and they will be doing the proverbial re-loading vs re-building.
Mercer is the other team who seems to be at least getting some votes and attention. Made the playoffs last season, always have plenty of "dudes" that can play. Most of the questions are about the new coaching staff, but I still expect they have turned the corner and will be a good team year-in/year-out.
And that is not even talking about Samford who always seems to be a tough game for us and who routinely have FBS-level talent.
The SoCon is certainly not getting any easier! Add to that we play Elon (also seeing some votes here and there) and Montana at their place. 2024 is an extremely stacked schedule for the Cats.
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Post by retiredcat on Aug 6, 2024 18:37:47 GMT -5
Just for the record...we do not play William & Mary in the coming season...we do play Campbell from the CAA(home opener, Sept. 6).
Also, Furman lost 40 seniors off last seasons team and a few more outstanding returnees transferred. I cannot believe the Pals will be within three wins of last season's record.
Next, we have not beaten Samford in Birmingham since 1969 (Bob Waters first season at WCU).
Watch out for ETSU.
No doubt Chattanooga is loaded...but we have had their number the past two seasons.
Our pre-SoCon schedule is the most demanding we have seen in many seasons.
If we are 2-2 going into the SoCon schedule, I will feel good. Assuming we can have a winning SoCon record at home, winning at least two of our four SoCon road games (it might take three) would put is in decent position for a playoff bid.
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Post by wcugrad95 on Aug 8, 2024 11:50:00 GMT -5
Yep - jumping the gun on William and Mary. They play a couple of SoCon teams this year, but not us yet! I agree that we really have to be 2-2 through those first 4 games. No surprise if we lose to NCSU and Montana on the road, but for us (and the SoCon) we really need to beat Elon and Campbell.
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Post by The Cats on Aug 9, 2024 17:41:42 GMT -5
Redshirt Sports FCS Top 25 College Football Rankings
Rank School
1 South Dakota State University
2 North Dakota State University
3 University of Montana
4 Montana State University
5 Villanova University
6 University of South Dakota
7 University of Idaho
8 UT Chattanooga
9 Sacramento State
10 Southern Illinois University
11 University of Central Arkansas
12 Furman
13 University of Richmond
14 Western Carolina University
15 University of the Incarnate Word
16 UC Davis
17 University of Albany
18 Lafayette College
19 William & Mary
20 Illinois State
21 Tarleton State University
22 Youngstown State University
23 Nicholls State University
24 University of North Dakota
25 Elon University
Others receiving votes: UT Martin 30, Eastern Illinois 29, Weber State 27, Mercer 24, Harvard 20, Florida A&M 15, Yale 15, Samford 6, Northern Arizona 5, Howard 4, Alabama State 3, VMI 2
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Post by The Cats on Aug 12, 2024 12:10:59 GMT -5
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