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The College Sports Journal Staff have put their collective heads together to release our 2019 preseason Top 25 for the upcoming FCS season. CSJ’s voter rolls are comprised of our five FCS football writers that have been following and covering FCS football for years. North Dakota State Bison The defending champs were a unanimous selection.
It was an epic battle of unbeatens when Dartmouth headed to play longtime rival Princeton in late October. The Big Green’s 14-9 loss in that game would be Dartmouth’s only blemish on the year – a terrific 9-1 season that unfortunately didn’t result in an Ivy League title.
Austin Peay had an uneven 2018 after entering the season with high expectations following a 2017 season that saw them go 8-4. The Governors struggled in conference play, where they went 3-5.
Samford came into the 2018 with high expectations, and was the talk of the FCS after nearly beating Florida State. However, the wheels came off and the Bulldogs lost four straight games before finally getting back on track at the end of the season. The losing streak was too much to overcome for Samford to make the FCS Playoff field.
It may be hard to believe, but there are only 32 days left before the Lehigh Mountain Hawks take the field in their home opener versus St. Francis (PA).
UND moved from the Big Sky Conference to the Independent ranks starting last season and while still playing a predominant Big Sky schedule, the Fighting Hawks slipped to 6-5 after making the FCS playoffs in 2017.
McNeese State came out of the gates fast, starting the season 5-1 before losing 4 of their last 5 games to miss out on the playoffs.
Two years ago, the Penguins made it to the FCS Championship, where they would be runners-up losing to the James Madison Dukes 28-14. Since then, the Penguins have finished 6-5 and 4-7 the last two seasons, including last year just 3-5 in MVFC play.
Rhode Island was one of the early surprises of the FCS season 2018, starting 5-1 and taking FBS UConn to the limit before losing 56-49. The Rams offense fired on all cylinders, and even kept pace when quarterback JaJuan Lawson went down to injury.
Outside of an upset win over a struggling Samford team, Mercer won the games they were favored in and lost the games where they were an underdog. That added up to a 5-6 record with a 4-4 Southern Conference mark.
The Wildcats left a good taste in the mouths of their fan base winning 4 of their last 5 games including victories over top Southland teams Nicholls and Sam Houston State.
After a 2-3 start, the Jaguars would cut like a hot knife through SWAC butter, winning five straight and beating Rivals Grambling 38-28 in the 45th annual Bayou Classic.
Stony Brook had a solid season in 2018, although they took a step back from their excellent 2017 season. The Seawolves made the FCS playoff field, losing in the first round to Southeast Missouri State 28-14.
Southeastern Louisiana went 4-7 in 2018 and were competitive in a number of games, but had a hard time getting the defense off the field to hold leads or complete comebacks.
Western Carolina started the 2018 season with three straight wins, but it was all downhill from there as the Catamounts lost their last 8 games of the season.
Alcorn State’s consistency allowed Fred McNair’s squad to capture their third SWAC Championship in the last five years, capping off the SWAC season with a 37-28 win over Southern in the championship game.
After a 1-6 start with an absolutely brutal out-of-conference schedule and an unfortunate loss to Colgate to start the season, Holy Cross under new head coach Bob Chesney ended the season on a 4 game winning streak to close promisingly at 5-6.
2018 brought a 5-6 overall record, but a respectable 3-2 in conference play.
Missouri State started the season by beating Northern Arizona and Illinois State and also defeated Indiana State, but things went downhill fast from there with the season ending on a five-game losing streak to finish 4-7 overall (2-6 MVFC).
The good news was that head coach Al Bagnoli guided the Lions to their second consecutive winning season. The bad news is that they weren’t able to take that next step towards to becoming Ivy League title contenders, going 3-4 in league play and losing to Harvard and Yale by a combined score of 97-28.
ichmond came into the 2018 season hoping to make a run at a playoff spot. But a porous defense caused the Spiders to struggle the entire season allowing 27 or more points 8 times.
The Salukis are a program that hasn’t had a winning record in five years and last year’s 2-9 (1-7 MVFC) mark was the worst since 2001.
Eastern Illinois struggled to a 3-8 season in 2018, but their games were not without excitement. The lowest combined point total in any of the Panthers’ games in 2018 was 45 points, and that game went to overtime.
Murray State lost all three of their non-conference games, which sealed their fate in 2018. In the Ohio Valley, the Racers were 5-3 including one of the most improbable comeback victories and crazy plays of the football season.
FAMU was oh-so-close to being “back” last year after years of losing records. After a 6-2 start, the Rattlers lost their last three games to finish 6-5, including a 33-19 loss to archrival Bethune-Cookman in the Florida Classic.
This team was an offensive juggernaut but, it fell short in important games like overtime against UC-Davis and a touchdown short of beating now FBS Liberty University.
Tennessee State had two winnable games cancelled by weather leading to a 4-5 overall record. The Tigers really struggled on the road, going 1-4 in 2018.
Few schools had a more confounding season last year than NCCU under interim coach Grant Eastman. After a 1-3 start, the Eagles stunned Howard 40-35, dominated Norfolk State 36-6, then inexplicably lost to one of the worst teams in the MEAC, Delaware State 18-13.
The Vikings have been on a losing season skid since 2015 and have not shown promise outside of impressive recruiting classes.
A promising 2018 season ended up a disappointing 6-5, lowlighted by losses to Prairie View in the State Fair Classic (22-16) and a loss to Southern in the Bayou Classic (38-28). Those two losses kept Grambling from an appearance in the SWAC Championship Game.
Two close conference losses, both by a single score to Sacred Heart and Duquesne, were all that separated the Blue Devils from a conference title.
Few teams have seen as many setbacks as the Bears. Northern Colorado showed a glimpse of success with two 6-5 seasons two years ago, but have returned to the bottom of the Big Sky.
Prairie View A&M Panthers Location: Prairie View, TX Coach: Eric Dooley (5-6) 2nd Season at PVAMU Stadium: Panther Stadium at Blackshear Field (Capacity: 15,000) CSJ Projections: 4th: SWAC (3rd in West Division) 9th: HBCU 15th: Texas 75th: FCS 204th: Division I 2018 In A Sentence: A tremendous 3-3 record to start the year, with a.
The Cardinals finished with its first ever FCS playoff appearance (first round loss to Northern Iowa) with a 7-5 overall (6-2 SLC) record–this after finishing just 2-9 in 2017.
Tennessee-Martin struggled to a lowly 2-9 record in 2018. The culprit for the Skyhawks was generally their defense, which had a hard time getting off the field.
The word “disappointing” does not adequately cover how poorly 2018 went for the Thunderbirds.
The Bison had very high expectations going into the season, but stumbled multiple times in MEAC play to fall to a 4-6 record.
In August 2018, long time head coach Jimmye Laycock announced that his 39th season would be his last. William and Mary sent him out with a 4-6 record, which is not what they were looking for.
Five wins in 2018 would be considered notable progress if not the fact it was loaded with patsies, including poor Big Sky opponents (Sacramento and Southern Utah) and Brown, who went 1-9 on the season.
Northwestern State was a 5-6 team overall but did win three of its last four and was just three points shy of NSU’s first winning season since 2008 in Coach Brad Laird’s first season in Natchitoches. They played in a number of very competitive games, including a double OT win over a ranked McNeese State.
The Bulldogs finished 2018 with a 7-4 overall record and a 6-2 mark in the Pioneer Football League to tie for second in the league standings in what would be Coach Rich Fox’s last season with the team as he resigned after the season.
The FCS Playoff autobid came down to the wire in Pittsburgh, PA, but Sacred Heart’s 28-24 loss to Duquesne meant 7-4 Sacred Heart would end up tied for 1st for the NEC championship , but without the autobid.
The Pirates played as an independent last year and after starting off the season at 1-3, finished it off with a 6 game winning streak.
Dayton Flyers Location: Dayton, OH Coach: Rick Chamberlin (83-38), 12th season at Dayton Stadium: Welcome Stadium (Capacity: 11,000) CSJ Projections: 3rd: Pioneer 10th: Ohio 86th: FCS 216th: Division I 2018 In A Sentence: Dayton was 6-5 in 2018, and finished fourth in the Pioneer Football League with a 5-3 record. Three of the Flyers’ losses.
2018 was a complete let down from a 7-4 record during the 2017 season with too many close losses. After the Hornets’ 2-1 start, they dropped their next seven games to end at 2-8.
The Lions finished 7-3 in a schedule split between Division I and Division II.
After a 1-4 start in out-of-conference, the Hoyas went a surprising 4-2 in conference to finish in 2nd place in the Patriot League en route to a 5-6 record.
Alabama State’s shock 28-25 win over Alcorn State seemed to put Alabama State in a good position going into the second half of the year, even after a brutal schedule put the Hornets at 2-4.
A tough 1-4 start for “Buddy” Pough’s Bulldogs gave way to a great 4-1 stretch with a home win over Howard and a big road win vs. Florida A&M.
A disappointing 3-8 was salvaged somewhat with a 34-3 win against their long-time Rivals Lafayette. With the win, head coach Andy Coen retired as the winningest head coach in program history.
