Fear The FCS 2026 Week 7 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 7 games. The Week 6 submission can be found here.

General Thoughts

It was yet another week of complete carnage in the FCS, with 11 of my top 25 teams losing, including previously top-ranked South Dakota State. I’ll refrain from making any statements about clear-cut favorites because that is obviously no longer the case for the 2026 season. Every team has question marks, which is why I suspect we’ll see lots of variance among the voters this week.

Youngstown State is my new #1 team, up from second. I’ve been higher on them than most of my fellow voters, and they’ve been the best team over the last month. Yes, YSU lost to South Dakota State 27-20, but that was a month ago, and everything has changed in the FCS landscape. The Penguins have looked like a top team since then, with wins over ranked foes at home and two impressive road wins. Tarleton State also moves up a spot to second. I imagine they’ll likely be the new #1 in the Stats poll, but my biggest issue with the Texans is the lack of a complete performance. It’s either a slow start by the offense or the defense plays terribly, as it did against Central Arkansas. South Dakota is 3rd this week after defeating Murray State. I’m not sure what the best win of the season is for USD because all their wins have been against mid-to-bad tier teams. We’ll find out if the Coyotes are legit over the last month, with four (currently) ranked opponents lined up.

Montana State moves up from 5th to 4th after crushing Eastern Washington on the road. The Bobcats let the Eagles close the gap a bit in the third quarter before dropping a 21-point fourth stanza. Stephen F. Austin moved to 7-0 after decimating an outmatched Nicholls squad 56-0. I know the poll is higher on SFA than me, but I just haven’t been as impressed with them as the other teams. Part of it is the schedule hasn’t panned out, but every time I start buying into them, they have an average performance (see Incarnate Word, who made the SFA defense look overrated). Northern Arizona remains in 6th after a somewhat underwhelming game against Portland State. NAU was tied with the Vikings at 17 entering the fourth, but a strong final quarter put the game away.

In 7th, I jumped North Dakota up 10 spots. UND won 21-10 at home against South Dakota State, with Jerry Kaminski playing after last week’s injury. Lance Rucker returned to help the defense play its best game of the season. Can UND put together another impressive win next week against South Dakota? I want to make sure this isn’t another mirage from North Dakota. As for SDSU, they fell from 1st to 8th. This was an absolutely dreadful performance coming off a bye and getting Chase Mason back. The Jackrabbits played worse this week with Mason than they did without him. SDSU is still a very good team, but I can’t simply ignore a no-show against a North Dakota team that also had some question marks.

While the first 8 spots were somewhat easy to rank, the last 17 were a nightmare because so many teams lost. Not only that, but many teams simply had to be placed somewhere in the top 25, despite some horrendous performances, so here’s my attempt to solve this nightmarish puzzle. Be warned, there will be a lot of big moves. I moved Austin Peay up two spots to 9th, despite a lackluster 24-10 over West Georgia. Austin Peay trailed by 10 after the first quarter, but scored the final 24 points. I don’t like rewarding these performances, but there was no choice thanks to a bunch of other top 10 teams playing infinitely worse. Harvard moved up 6 spots to 10th after defeating Holy Cross 30-7. The defense played well against a Holy Cross offense that is deceptively better than the 2-5 record would indicate.

East Tennessee State moved up four spots from 15th to 11th despite not playing. Yes, that’s how bad the rankings were to make this week. They slide in ahead of Tennessee Tech, who went from 18th to 12th after defeating Eastern Kentucky 49-20. Campbell stayed in 13th this week. The Camels struggled to defeat winless Towson 24-20. Even in a week with this much movement, I’m not rewarding this kind of performance at home. In a normal week, they would have likely moved down. I know Campbell has the H2H win over ETSU from Week 0, but I’ve seen two different teams over the last two months. ETSU has looked better, while Campbell has struggled to beat 0-8 Towson and 2-5 North Carolina Central in the last two weeks. Illinois State moves from 19th to 14th after defeating Southern Illinois 35-14. The Redbirds scored 28 second-quarter points to take control of the game and cruised from there.

As painful as those six spots were, the final 11 were worse. Weber State vaults into the poll at 15th. The Wildcats have defeated Cal Poly, Idaho, and Idaho State in three straight games. They don’t have the greatest resume, but the win over Idaho State boosts them. Their next three games will determine how good they really are (Montana State, UC Davis, and Northern Arizona). Mercer jumped 8 spots to 16th after defeating Samford 31-21. Northern Iowa fell three spots to 17th after losing 35-22 to Youngstown State. It was a respectable performance against my new #1, but they’ll need to prove the UNI Dome victories aren’t a fluke soon.

At #18, Southeastern Louisiana jumps back into the poll. The Lions upset Lamar 34-31 at home and now own the head-to-head victory, but also a better resume. I don’t know how to feel about SELA because last week’s 13-3 loss at UTRGV was absolutely atrocious. After what I’ve seen in the FCS this year, I don’t know if that was actually an aberration or if that’s just how teams will be playing this year. Lamar dropped from 10th to 19th to fall behind SELA. They have two solid wins over Abilene Christian and Incarnate Word, but they don’t have an FBS win or the win over SELA, so they get relegated to the spot behind them.

Cornell pops into the rankings at #20, following the 38-28 win over Lehigh. Cornell is an enigma because they have wins over Yale, Georgetown, and Lehigh, but have losses to Colgate and Harvard. Those aren’t bad losses, but the wins are a mixed bag. Yale was ranked, but lost to Rhode Island this week. Georgetown is 2-4, but upset Colgate, a team Cornell lost to. There’s a lot going on with Cornell’s resume, but they are in the top 25 after beating Lehigh at home.

Lehigh plummets from 8th to 21st after losing 48-38 to Cornell. I haven’t been as high on Lehigh as most other voters, largely because Hayden Johnson continues to be out. Lehigh’s strength was its defense, but it got absolutely torched by Cornell, giving up 600 yards and allowing 8 of 12 on third down. A 13-spot drop may seem harsh, but what does Lehigh have left to lean on? The offense was already noticeably weaker without Johnson, and now the defense has been exposed. I’m not even sure what their best win is: Holy Cross is 2-5, Georgetown is 2-4, William & Mary is 3-4, Dartmouth is 2-3, Penn is 2-3, and Fordham is 2-6. That’s a very average 6-win resume.

Montana falls from 9th to 22nd after another pitiful defensive performance in the 42-35 loss at home to Idaho. There’s really no reason for this Montana team to be giving up 42+ points in back-to-back games. Right now, Montana feels like a fringe top-20 team with this defense. Fellow Big Sky member UC Davis also drops heavily (12th to 23rd) this week after losing 38-17 to Southern Utah. The wheels came off in the second half, and I think it happened on the fake punt from inside their 30. The Aggies came up short, SUU scored on the ensuing drive, and the Aggies never scored again. They had a missed field goal and a red zone interception in the fourth quarter, but SUU had already seized momentum.

Princeton also moves into the poll for the first time at 24th. The Tigers are 4-1 with wins over Albany, Columbia, Wagner, and Brown and a loss to Bryant. Monmouth breaks into the poll at 25th. The Hawks are 5-2 overall and have wins over Sacred Heart, Albany, Dartmouth, Towson, and New Hampshire. The two losses came against Tennessee Tech and Western Michigan. In a week full of chaos, it’s a strong enough resume to crack the top 25, but that can change quickly as we’ve all witnessed in 2026.

Teams That Dropped Out and Other Notables

Five teams fell out of the top 25 this week after losing this week: #20 Stony Brook, #21 Colgate, #22 Idaho State, #23 Yale, and #25 Morgan State. Stony Brook lost 48-31 at home to Albany. The Wolves do have a win over Rhode Island (4-3 and just defeated Yale), but the Rams aren’t a top 25 right now. Colgate inexplicably lost 27-17 at home to Georgetown even after leading 17-0. That kind of performance is unforgivable, especially for a team that has played at a top-25 level.

Idaho State lost 27-20 on the road to Weber State. This wasn’t a bad loss, especially with Weber State jumping into the top 25, but that’s three losses in a row. The Bengals will need to reverse that trend to be reconsidered for a spot. Yale lost 41-23 at home to Rhode Island in yet another head-scratching defensive performance. URI isn’t a top 25 team right now, and Yale’s loss means they aren’t either. Their wins against Holy Cross, Merrimack, and Dartmouth just aren’t enough, never mind the defensive issues they have. Morgan State lost 25-16 at Tennessee State in an awful performance.

Only three teams made the considered list: Abilene Christian, Albany, and Bryant. ACU is a holdover from Week 6, but still hasn’t made the cut because I don’t think they have the resume or passed the eye test, certainly not over the last two weeks. Monmouth, Princeton, and Weber State moved into the poll from the Week 6 consideration list. Cal Poly lost this week to Northern Colorado 28-18 on the road, reaffirming my belief they aren’t top 25 material. Cal Poly has a terrible habit of playing up or down to their opponent, which is why they have losses to San Diego (3-4) and Northern Colorado (3-5), not to mention barely beating Idaho (2-5), D-II Central Washington (24-17), and Eastern Washington (2-6)

Let’s talk about Albany (4-3) and Bryant (5-2). Albany has wins over New Hampshire (2-6), Long Island (3-5), Delaware State (4-3), and Stony Brook (4-3), with the latter being ranked at the time. The three losses have been to Buffalo (FBS), Monmouth (5-2), and Princeton (4-1). For Bryant, they’ve defeated Stonehill (2-5), Hampton (1-6), Princeton (4-1), North Carolina A&T (3-5), and Maine (1-6). Their two losses are to Army (FBS) and Brown (2-3). I think Albany has the better overall resume, while Bryant’s last three games have been poor, which includes the loss to Brown. Bryant needed a last-second field goal to beat then 1-5 NCAT, lost 28-13 to Brown despite outgaining them, and then held on to beat Maine 17-14 in a terrible offensive game.

That’s part of why I have Princeton in the top 25 ahead of Albany and Bryant. The Tigers lost their first game 21-14 to Bryant, but have won four in a row, including a 22-0 win over Albany. If I’m already ranking Albany ahead of Bryant, then Princeton’s head-to-head will bolster its resume. I don’t love that Princeton also struggled to defeat Brown (16-10), especially after holding a 16-0 lead. The 35-7 win over Columbia (4-1) also holds up well for Princeton. I think Princeton has looked the best among the three teams, but we’re talking slim margins. I can’t fault voters for ranking Abilene Christian, Albany, or Bryant ahead of Princeton, especially after the weekend we just saw. There’s no shortage of arguments to be made for this week’s poll!

Photo Credit to Weber State University Athletics