Leatherneck Nation

And the first of the 2016 preseason rankings has shown up. Pretty meaningless at this point, but for those interested, there's 9 of the 10 conference teams in the Hero Sports FCS Top 25: http://herosports.com/colleges/sports/fcs-mens-football

1. NDSU
2. Illinois State
3. UNI
5. SDSU
12. WIU
13. YSU
17. Indiana State
19. SIU
24. USD

Other WIU opponents this season are:
32. Eastern Illinois
34. Northern Arizona

MVFC member Missouri State is WAY down at #105.

Wow. Pretty impressive e for the team and conference, even if it is early

not sure why ISU is ranked so high.

ibleedpurpleandgold wrote:not sure why ISU is ranked so high.

Mostly because they just went off of where they were last year and only did minor adjustments based on who they lost. At this point it's really less of a "preseason" ranking and more of an "adjusted end-of-2015 season ranking".

I wonder what is happening over at MSU?

RedNeck wrote:I wonder what is happening over at MSU?

I think it's just that they're much more of a basketball and baseball/softball school than a football school. That's where their focus is for putting forth money for coaches, facility improvements, recruiting, etc.
They've had 2 seasons over 500 in the last ten years (and both of those were 6-5 seasons). The last time they won more than 6 games in a season was 1996.

ST_Lawson wrote:

RedNeck wrote:I wonder what is happening over at MSU?

I think it's just that they're much more of a basketball and baseball/softball school than a football school. That's where their focus is for putting forth money for coaches, facility improvements, recruiting, etc.
They've had 2 seasons over 500 in the last ten years (and both of those were 6-5 seasons). The last time they won more than 6 games in a season was 1996.

They also had a coaching change a couple of seasons ago.

I wish Western would have had a wealthy benefactor like Mr. John Q. Hammonds. MSU basketball and baseball facilities are as good as it gets.

I was under the impression a few years ago Missouri State had designs on wanting to go "Sunbelt" for football. I can understand why they would be seeking out easier conference competition

RedNeck wrote:I wish Western would have had a wealthy benefactor like Mr. John Q. Hammonds. MSU basketball and baseball facilities are as good as it gets.

The old guys tentacles reached far beyond Springfield, MO. He (or his company now that he has died) owns hotels in Peoria and Bloomington (the big Marriot next to ISU campus).