2016 Polls - Week 3

[ST_Lawson]

MVFC teams (and other opponents) in Week 2 Polls (following 9/10 Weekend games)
Previous ranking in parentheses following team name.

Just looking at the STATS Poll (regardless of how accurate it is, it is the one that seems to get quoted the most), we had a pretty good week in terms of ranking, jumping 3 spots after UNI, South Dakota State, and McNeese State all lost. I thought there was a chance that we'd pass up ISUr, since it was Eastern beating them, and we had beaten Eastern pretty solidly, but they only dropped from 5->9.

STATS FCS Poll (http://www.fcs.football/cfb/polls.asp?div=fcs)
#1 North Dakota State (1)
#9 Illinois State (5)
#13 Western Illinois (16)
#14 Northern Iowa (10)
#15 South Dakota State (9)
#16 Youngstown State (20)
#18 Eastern Illinois (NR)
ORV
Northern Arizona
Southern Illinois
Missouri State (wait....what?)
Indiana State

Any Given Saturday Poll (http://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthr ... 9-12-20169)
#1 North Dakota State
#8 Western Illinois
#12 Illinois State
#13 Northern Iowa
#15 South Dakota State
#16 Youngstown State
#19 Eastern Illinois
ORV
#26 Northern Arizona
#33 Southern Illinois

And, let's throw Sagarin up there as well (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaaf/sagarin/)...for reference, this system ranks all DI schools, so FCS schools can be above FBS schools.
#54 North Dakota State
#86 Northern Iowa
#93 Youngstown State
#96 Western Illinois
#105 South Dakota State
#106 Northern Illinois
#108 Illinois State
#129 Eastern Illinois
#132 Northern Arizona
#139 Southern Illinois
#167 South Dakota
#172 Indiana State
#191 Missouri State

[wiu712]

North Dakota State is tied with UCLA for #27 on the AP Top 25 Poll.

[Western_101]

North Dakota State is tied with UCLA for #27 on the AP Top 25 Poll.

cool. Got a link?

[wiu712]

cool. Got a link?

Here it is: http://collegefootball.ap.org/poll

TCU is #26. Then North Dakota State and UCLA are tied at #27 with each having 74 points.

[NIU#1FBinIL]

MVFC teams (and other opponents) in Week 2 Polls (following 9/10 Weekend games)
Previous ranking in parentheses following team name.

Just looking at the STATS Poll (regardless of how accurate it is, it is the one that seems to get quoted the most), we had a pretty good week in terms of ranking, jumping 3 spots after UNI, South Dakota State, and McNeese State all lost. I thought there was a chance that we'd pass up ISUr, since it was Eastern beating them, and we had beaten Eastern pretty solidly, but they only dropped from 5->9.

STATS FCS Poll (http://www.fcs.football/cfb/polls.asp?div=fcs)
#1 North Dakota State (1)
#9 Illinois State (5)
#13 Western Illinois (16)
#14 Northern Iowa (10)
#15 South Dakota State (9)
#16 Youngstown State (20)
#18 Eastern Illinois (NR)
ORV
Northern Arizona
Southern Illinois
Missouri State (wait....what?)
Indiana State

Interesting. I see FCS polls make as much sense as FBS polls.

How is it that #18 is ranked 9 spots below the team they just beat?

Also, how is WIU 4 spots below the team that just got beaten by a team that WIU beat pretty soundly?

[ST_Lawson]

Interesting. I see FCS polls make as much sense as FBS polls.

How is it that #18 is ranked 9 spots below the team they just beat?

Also, how is WIU 4 spots below the team that just got beaten by a team that WIU beat pretty soundly?

Well, it's a combination of a few things, I think.

1. It's early season still, most teams have played 3 games, a few have played 2 (like Western) and almost no games against conference opponents. So, there's not really a lot to compare yet.
2. Slot voting - teams that have had success in the past few years get "preferential treatment" and even if a team beats them, the winning team can still be ranked behind the losing team. Happened in a few instances this week actually: Richmond is now ranked #7 even though they got demolished by Stony Brook by 28 points, who is now ranked #20; Illinois State at #9 despite losing to #18 Eastern Illinois; and #15 South Dakota State lost to #27 (in the others receiving votes area) Cal Poly. Richmond, Illinois State, and South Dakota State have been frequently ranked in the top 10, have made the playoffs the last few years, etc. The winning teams in those matchups have not had the level of success that the other teams have had, and some of the voters will tend to put them lower until they've won a couple of impressive games.
3. Polls have various degrees of suck to them, inherently. In my experience, comparing rankings with getting playoff at-large spots, as well as playoff success, and the worst one, by far, is the Coaches Poll. The STATS poll isn't great (it was better when it was the SportsNetwork poll a few years ago), but not horrible usually. The AnyGivenSaturday.com poll is actually one of the best ones generally (that's the second one I listed). It's put together by a decent-sized group of VERY knowledgeable FCS fans. I know that a large % of the voters actually sit down and watch large portions of all of the top 25 teams games over the course of Saturday before voting.

The thing is, nobody really knows how good Western is. New head coach, new starting QB (last year's starting QB, Norvell, is still on the team, he's really good, just doesn't fit the offense as well as the current one, McGuire). We were still getting our offense rolling in the first game against Eastern, trying to work to establish the running game before really getting moving on the passing game, so our Sophomore RB Steve McShane ran for 207 yards and 2 TDs. The second game against Northern Arizona, we were getting our passing game going a bit more, so our Senior WR Lance Lenoir caught 231 yards and 1 TD, while McShane only ran for 155 yards and 2 TDs.

It still remains to be seen where this team will top out, since they were still growing and getting used to the new system in the first two games. Will things continue to get better...I'd say probably. Will we have grown enough to beat NIU on Saturday...hard to say, but I think we have the best chance at beating the Huskies that we've had in quite a while.