Fear The FCS 2026 Week 3 Media Ballot

In 2025, I was invited to vote in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 for the first time. I was beyond thrilled to accept the invitation, and like many others, I take the opportunity seriously. I am a returning voter in 2026 and, as part of the weekly process, I will provide some thoughts, reasoning, and transparency for my top 25 ballot. Below is the Stats Perform Top 25 poll submitted after the week 3 games. The week 2 submission can be found here.

General Thoughts

This week brought more questions than answers throughout the FCS, but at least provided some answers. I decided to take a more thorough look through the top 25 teams and shook up the rankings a bit more than the last two weeks. Of course, the bottom of the poll produced the most challenging part because there are many possible ways to go. Let’s start at the top of the ballot.

The top four remain unchanged this week, but the gap between Montana State and everyone else closed significantly this week. I don’t know if it was an FBS win hangover, much like we saw with Tarleton State the week before, but the Bobcats looked sluggish against Central Connecticut State. I seriously contemplated South Dakota State as my #1 team after an excellent home win against Youngstown State. There were two big reasons I stuck with MSU. First, their overall resume is slightly better than SDSU’s, particularly with the dominant win over Nevada. Second, I also have concerns about SDSU long-term following Chase Mason‘s injury before halftime.

Tarleton State and Illinois State remain 3rd and 4th, respectively. Behind them are South Dakota in 5th, North Dakota in 6th, Youngstown State in 7th, and Montana in 8th. Perhaps I am stubborn in my high ranking for Youngstown State, but they played a solid game against a team I’ve had at #2 since the preseason. The good thing about the upcoming week is that both YSU and Montana have challenging games against fellow top 25 teams, which should tell us a lot more about all four teams.

Between 9th and 15th, I reevaluated the teams. That led to Austin Peay jumping from 14th to 9th following an impressive 38-16 win over West Florida on the road. Stephen F. Austin moved from 12th to 10th after a 4-0 start, with three strong defensive performances. Lehigh falls one spot from 10th to 11th after being tested by Dartmouth at home in a 24-20 win. That victory was without Hayden Johnson, but that is also a concern.

Rounding out the top 15 were Tennessee Tech in 12th (up one spot), Idaho State in 13th (up two spots), UC Davis in 14th (up two spots), and South Carolina State in 15th (up two spots). Tennessee Tech and Idaho State were idle this week, becoming beneficiaries of some losses and changes. UC Davis and South Carolina State were both victorious this week. Northern Arizona moved up four spots to 16th this week, after defeating Utah Tech 35-23 on the road. Defeating Utah Tech, which is 0-4, is not impressive in itself, but it was a conference road win, and NAU also benefited from other top 25 drops.

Lamar is one of the losers in this week’s top 25 movement, dropping six spots from 11th to 17th. The Cardinals didn’t play, but their resume no longer looks as strong. Lamar defeated Abilene Christian 21-14 in Week 0, but ACU sits at 1-3 overall and barely struggled to beat Idaho this past week to post that first victory. That’s the same Idaho team Lamar defeated 23-17 and now sits at 0-4 overall. The good thing for Lamar is they have plenty of opportunities to bolster the resume in the Southland this season.

Alabama State is up to 18th after a bye this week. Campbell moves from 24th to 19th after a big win at home against North Carolina A&T. The Camels sit at 3-1 overall and are just ahead of Stony Brook, which moved into the poll at #20. Stony Brook demolished Rhode Island 56-24, which led to Rhody dropping from 6th to 25th. This may seem like an overreaction, but Rhode Island’s strength was supposed to be defense. I also need to mention the lack of Devin Farrell this year, and there’s been no update on him. I have to assume this is how URI will look until there’s news, which means they’re a fringe top-25 team. I did seriously consider dropping Rhode Island from the poll altogether; that’s how bad of a loss this was, in my opinion. I’m getting Monmouth 2025 vibes with Rhode Island this year.

West Florida drops three spots from 18th to 21st after the loss to Austin Peay. Harvard jumps into the poll at #22 after a good 31-7 victory on the road versus New Hampshire. It’s fair to question how good UNH is, but the defense looked very solid. Colgate is also a new team in the poll at #23. The Raiders have wins against Fordham, Holy Cross, and Cornell. The one loss came against Central Michigan, which Colgate let slip away at the end. The defense has been excellent and will take Colgate as far as it can.

Yale slips three spots from 21st to 24th after defeating Holy Cross 38-28. I understand that this was the first game for Yale, but the Bulldogs shouldn’t be getting into a shootout with a team that hasn’t scored more than 10 points in any game this season. It’s also hard to know how good Yale is on offense because Holy Cross isn’t good on that side of the ball, but I have fewer concerns about Yale’s offense at this point. Rhode Island is the final team in the top 25, which I discussed above. In short, a 32-point loss to an unranked opponent is inexcusable and the long-term concerns about Devin Farrell‘s status are too much to ignore. The defense had played well before this game, but it fell apart in this game, which only adds to the issues Rhody faces.

Teams That Dropped Out and Other Notables

Three teams dropped from last week’s poll: #22 Cal Poly, #23 Furman, and #25 William & Mary. Cal Poly lost to San Diego 38-35 at home, and that echoes a concern I brought up earlier this year: the defense isn’t good. Furman lost to South Carolina State at home, 20-17. I’ve had SCSU in the top 20 all year, but Furman’s offense looked mundane once again. It should also be noted that Wofford, a team I considered last week alongside Furman, was completely obliterated by Chattanooga 41-7. I’m starting to wonder whether the SoCon will do its annual self-destruction and knock themselves out of an at-large spot.

William & Mary didn’t show up against Fordham at home and were destroyed 52-27. I am also starting to wonder about the Patriot League’s depth. Villanova, a team W&M defeated in Week 0, barely got past Long Island this week. Villanova’s two wins are against Bucknell (17-16) and Long Island (20-16), with both requiring late scores and defensive stands. Richmond is 3-1, but struggled against Georgetown and needed a walk-off field goal for the 24-21 win. The Spiders weren’t much better against Howard, winning unconvincingly 28-21. I have Lehigh ranked highly this week and I think they stand out in the Patriot League. I also have Colgate ranked, but their margin for error is slim.

The Big Sky also had a rough week by their standards. In addition to Montana State’s struggles against Central Connecticut State, Northern Colorado needed overtime to defeat D-II Northeastern State. Idaho lost at home to Abilene Christian 41-39 in another year of Idaho not playing defense. The Big Sky also lost to 2 Pioneer Football League teams: San Diego defeated Cal Poly 38-35 on the road, while St. Thomas held on to defeat Southern Utah 28-26 at home.

I bring up all these confounding issues because the PFL was harshly criticized for losing three games on opening night to D-II schools. This week, the PFL posted two wins over Big Sky teams that have been receiving votes each week. For what it’s worth, the PFL also posted wins this week against the SoCon (Davidson beat VMI 27-24 in OT) and UAC (Dayton defeated Eastern Kentucky 17-14 on the road). Of course, the voices praising the PFL this week aren’t as loud as the ones criticizing them at the start of the season. The whole point is that the FCS isn’t immune to the week-to-week variance showcased throughout all levels of football.

There were plenty of losses that bubble teams list a bit easier this week. I considered Houston Christian, Incarnate Word, Richmond, Southeastern Louisiana, and Southern Illinois. For the three Southland teams, I had a bit of a conundrum on whether to rank one, two, or all three. I personally would put SE Louisiana atop the list between those three, but Houston Christian owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over them. However, Incarnate Word defeated Houston Christian 30-23 this weekend. There’s a fair argument for any of the three to be ranked, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see one or two get in this week.

Photo Credit to Austin Peay State University Athletics