Nothing moves at the top
Two FCS teams beat FBS opposition in Week 2. Neither of them climbed a place in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll released on Monday. That says more about the logjam at the top of the division than about the wins themselves.
Montana State had nowhere to climb. The reigning national champion has held all 57 first-place votes since the preseason ballot and stayed there after handling Nevada 20-7 in Reno. The Bobcats are 3-0 and carry 1,425 points, a hundred clear of South Dakota State.
Illinois State did the harder thing and got nothing for it. The Redbirds scored inside the final two minutes to see off Northern Illinois 28-24 and remain fifth on 1,244 points, eleven adrift of Tarleton State in fourth. Last season’s two national finalists both went to FBS country in the same week and both came home winners, which is a quirk the poll had no room to reward.
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The losses that count
Voters are drawing a clear distinction this autumn, and the numbers make it visible. Every defeat carried by a team ranked in the top 20 came against an FBS opponent. The first ranked side with an FCS loss on its record sits at No. 21: William & Mary, beaten 44-20 at Lehigh in a Patriot League game.
That result did the most damage and the most good. William & Mary slid from 16th to 21st. Lehigh climbed from ninth to seventh and is already 3-0 in conference play. UC Davis took the other heavy fall, dropping from seventh to 11th after a 56-10 defeat at SMU.
Tarleton State, meanwhile, has become the reference point for the division’s raids upwards. The Texans recorded the first of five FCS-over-FBS wins in this young season and backed it up with a 27-24 win at McNeese, keeping them 3-0 and fourth.
Week 3 sorts some of it out
Southern Illinois entered the rankings at 24th after beating Southeast Missouri 34-20, replacing Abilene Christian, who lost their place with an 0-3 start.
The stalemate at the top should break on Sept. 19, when South Dakota State host ninth-ranked Youngstown State in Brookings. Montana State, by contrast, get Central Connecticut State at home. The Bobcats will still be first on Monday whatever happens.
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