Fear The FCS 2026 Week 6 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 6 games. The week 5 submission can be found here.

General Thoughts

Despite nearly a third of the top 25 having a bye, there were still plenty of upsets this week, including three top 10 teams losing. South Dakota State and Youngstown State remained the top two this week. Tarleton State moved up one spot to 3rd after an excellent 40-32 road victory at Austin Peay. Both teams will need to fix the defensive lapses, with Tarleton nearly giving up a Hail Mary touchdown at the end of the game. South Dakota earned an impressive home win over Southern Illinois to move up to 4th. Montana State, which had a bye, benefited from three teams losing to move up from 8th to 5th.

Northern Arizona is right behind the Bobcats in 6th, moving up six spots from 12th. NAU won a great back-and-forth game at home versus Montana 49-44, but also has the head-to-head loss against Montana State. Stephen F. Austin and Lehigh both move up two spots to 7th and 8th, respectively, after the bye week. Montana slides from 3rd to 9th after the 49-44 loss at NAU, with the defense having no answers during the game. Maybe it was the altitude, but it was a season-high point total for NAU. Archrivals Montana State held them to 14 points, so it’s not an unbeatable offense. Lamar moved up one spot to 10th after defeating Incarnate Word. They led UIW 38-21 early in the fourth quarter before hanging on for a 38-35 victory. I noted it last week, and I’ll note it again: we still don’t know how good UIW is or will be, and we’re halfway into the season.

Austin Peay drops five spots from 6th to 11th following the 40-32 loss at home to Tarleton State. The defense was pushed around by Tarleton, and it’s something they’ll need to improve on if they want to compete with the best teams. UC Davis and Campbell move up one spot to 12th and 13th, respectively, after being on a bye. Northern Iowa vaults into the poll at 14th, after defeating North Dakota 24-17 at home. It was the second consecutive week that UNI defeated a top 5 team in the Stats poll. It was not a pretty game for UNI, but I can’t fault them for forcing 5 turnovers and the touchdown on special teams. One big unknown with UNI is how good they are away from the UNI Dome. They lost 34-24 at Eastern Washington (2-5) in the season opener, and hold a 55-0 loss at Iowa, but all three of their wins have come at home. We’ll find an answer to that question over the next two weeks with games at Youngstown State and Southern Illinois.

East Tennessee State rounds out the top 15, moving up one spot. ETSU won 34-16 on the road at The Citadel. Harvard moves up three spots from 19th to 16th after defeating Cornell 41-29. The offense looked its best so far this season… but I need to mention the defense because it had a 41-10 lead early in the fourth quarter. Yes, the game was well in hand, but they allowed 19 points in the final 10 minutes. Given that Harvard did the same thing against Columbia last year in a 31-14 win and then imploded in the final three games, it’s worth mentioning.

North Dakota drops 10 spots from 7th to 17th in my poll. It was a dreadful performance against UNI, with five turnovers, and outgaining the Panthers 367-144. The potential long-term loss of Jerry Kaminski doesn’t help UND’s chances either, as we saw in the second half. Just when it looked like the defense may have improved, the offense falls apart. There are lots of questions about this team on both sides (I think the UNI game was a mirage for the defense) and UND will be tested next week with top-ranked South Dakota State coming to town. Tennessee Tech moves up from 21st to 18th after a hard-fought 20-15 win against Furman. Illinois State drops a spot from 18th to 19th during the bye week. Stony Brook dropped from 17th to 20th after an unimpressive 31-24 win over 0-7 Towson.

Colgate moved up one spot from 22nd to 21st despite being on a bye. Idaho State drops from 15th to 22nd after the loss to Cal Poly, a team I don’t rate as highly as other voters. It was a second straight loss for the Bengals, following the loss to Northern Arizona. The final three spots are new entrants this week: Yale in 23rd, Mercer in 24th, and Morgan State in 25th. Yale defeated Dartmouth 28-7, with its best defensive performance this season. Mercer posted a 17-14 win over Western Carolina, a team I had ranked coming into last week. Morgan State cracks the top 25 after a one-point victory at home against Robert Morris.

Teams That Dropped Out and Other Notables

Four teams dropped out of my top 25 this week: #20 Western Carolina, #23 Houston Christian, #24 Southeastern Louisiana, and #25 Jackson State. Western Carolina is an annual enigma, and this year is no different. After posting a big win at home against Tennessee Tech, the Catamounts struggled on offense and lost 17-14 to Mercer. Houston Christian didn’t even play this week, but the team behind them (Southeastern Louisiana) did… and lost. That head-to-head win lifted them, especially with SE Louisiana having an FBS win. However, that only gets a team so far, and as we get deeper into the season, HCU’s other wins aren’t stacking up well either (NAIA’s Arkansas Baptist and 2-4 Nicholls).

Southeastern Louisiana has wins over North Alabama (4-2), UL Monroe (FBS), and Northwestern State (0-6). There was an argument that SE Louisiana’s resume was better than HCU coming into the week, even with the head-to-head loss. However, the 13-3 loss to UTRGV was ugly and ended up costing both teams a spot in the top 25 this week. The Lions had three interceptions, two missed field goals, and a turnover on downs in the loss, in a game that made it apparent they’re not top-25 worthy for me. Jackson State nearly had a second straight fourth-quarter comeback victory against Grambling, but lapses in all three phases in the final 10 minutes opened the door for a 45-38 Grambling win.

It was a condensed list of teams that missed out on the top 25: Abilene Christian, Cal Poly, Monmouth, Princeton, and Weber State. I had to stretch to find additional teams, with ACU and Monmouth being the lone holdovers from last week. ACU posted a very unconvincing 20-14 win over Central Arkansas at home, while Monmouth had a bye. Mercer and Morgan State were considered last week and are now in this week’s poll. Cornell (41-29 loss versus Harvard) and Richmond (20-14 loss to Fordham) were dropped from consideration for this week’s submission.

Richmond’s loss to Fordham is a bit of vindication. Last week, I noted that Richmond’s excessively weak schedule (their FCS opponents were 6-19 entering week 6) and inability to look like a top 25 team were why I didn’t have them in the poll. This went against the majority of voters, who collectively placed Richmond at 19th this week. I understand why the voters put Richmond in: 5 FCS wins are 5 FCS wins, and few teams have that many wins so far. Although I vehemently disagreed with the group, I won’t criticize my fellow voters because I’ve been woefully wrong with some of my picks (see Rhode Island in the top six for the opening three weeks). Richmond is now 5-2, with their FCS opponents having a combined overall record of 9-27, with one of those wins coming against the Spiders.

Let’s get into the Cal Poly-Weber State debate. Both teams are 4-3 and have similar resumes. Cal Poly has wins against Idaho (38-34 at home), D-II Central Washington (24-17 at home), Eastern Washington (31-27 on the road), and Idaho State (25-24 on the road). They lost to FBS San Jose State (30-20), San Diego (38-35 at home), and Weber State (42-34 at home). For Weber State, they’ve defeated Northern Colorado (30-29 on the road), Northwestern State (49-20 at home), Cal Poly (42-34 on the road), and Idaho (38-27 at home). The three losses were to Southern Utah (47-42 on the road), FBS Colorado (52-21), and Portland State (44-41 at home).

I think Cal Poly’s 38-35 loss at home to San Diego (currently 2-4) outweighs either Weber State’s loss versus Southern Utah or Portland State. SUU and PSU both have played solid schedules to this point despite the 2-4 overall record. Of course, Cal Poly has the road win over a ranked opponent (Idaho State) that Weber State does not, but Weber State owns the head-to-head over Cal Poly. In my opinion, both resumes wash out. Cal Poly has the better win and the worse loss, while Weber State has the head-to-head win. Neither team has looked like a top 25 team either. Every single one of Cal Poly’s FCS games has been decided by one possession. Weber State is good on offense, but the defense is hurting the team. I’ll reconsider my argument after next week when Weber State hosts Idaho State, while Cal Poly and Northern Colorado square off. Then, I’ll have three common opponents to compare both teams against: Idaho, Idaho State, and Northern Colorado.

Photo Credit to Northern Arizona University Athletics