Jacksonville State Closes Regular Season As No. 1 Ranked Team In FCS
Special to College Sports Journal
MISSOULA, MT. — It didn’t come as a surprise when Jacksonville State finished the regular season as the top-seeded team in the NCAA Division Football Championship playoffs and it was less of a surprise to see the Gamecocks voted as the No. 1 team in the final Any Given Saturday FCS Top-25 poll this week.
After a heartbreaking loss at Auburn in its season opener — a game where the Gamecocks outplayed the SEC Tigers for most of the contest — JSU cruised through its schedule with 10 consecutive wins to finish 10-1 and captured the Ohio Valley Conference championship.
Jacksonville State earned 71 of 75 first-place votes to earn the top spot after beating Murray State, 42-20, in its final OVC game at home.
North Dakota State remained second in the poll and picked up the four remaining first-place ballots. The Bison (9-2) closed in impressive fashion with their 55-0 Missouri Valley Conference home victory over Missouri State.
NDSU won the automatic bid from the MVFC with the win, even though it tied Illinois State for the league championship. Those two teams did not face each other in unbalanced conference scheduling for the second straight season.
This is the first time in four years that NDSU has not been ranked No. 1 in the final regular season poll for AGS. The Bison have won four consecutive national titles in the Football Championship Subdivision, but haven’t had more than two regular-season losses since 2010.
McNeese State, the only undefeated team in FCS this season placed third after its 20-14 triumph at home against Lamar to wrap up the Southland Conference title.
The Cowboys finished 10-0 after a scheduled game with LSU was cancelled because of bad weather at the start of the season.
Illinois State moved up one slot to No.4 following a 46-0 blanking of South Dakota at home during a blizzard to earn the Redbirds their share of the MVFC crown.
There was some shuffling in the rest of the top 10, with Portland State (9-2) coming in at No. 5 with the Vikings’ 34-31 road win over then-No. 24 Eastern Washington (6-5). The Eagles fell out of the top 25 with the Big Sky Conference loss.
James Madison, Charleston Southern, South Dakota State, Richmond and Northern Iowa completed the top 10.
South Dakota State (8-3) dropped from fourth to eighth after a 30-24 double-overtime loss in the snow at No. 25 Western Illinois (6-5).
Charleston Southern (9-2) actually gained one spot, from eighth to seventh, following its 56-6 loss to Alabama.
Richmond (8-3) moved back into the top-10 at No. 9 by beating William & Mary at home, 20-9, to win the Colonial Athletic Association title.
The Spiders had lost their previous two games, but earned a CAA co-championship with William & Mary and James Madison to vault up seven places in the poll.
JMU (9-2) moved from No. 11 to No. 6 by holding off No. 26 Villanova (6-5), 38-29, while William & Mary (8-3) fell from sixth to 12th.
Northern Iowa (7-4) beat rival Southern Illinois at home in MVFC play, to jump from 12th to 10th.
The Citadel took a significant leap from 19th to 14th with its 23-22 win at FBS South Carolina.
Dayton (10-1) saw its chances of an undefeated regular season crushed by a Pioneer Football League defeat at Drake, 27-17, and fell from 25th to 37th in balloting. The Flyers had already wrapped up the PFL automatic bid to the playoffs.
The fan-based and moderated AGS poll has been widely recognized as the most accurate in FCS since its debut as a fan-based voting service over a decade ago.
Readers can read more about the poll and other FCS topics at www.anygivensaturday.com.
AGS Poll Results – WEEK 12 – 2015
Results for 11/22/2015 AGS Poll:
| 1 | Jacksonville State Gamecocks (71) | 1,870 |
| 2 | North Dakota State Bison (4) | 1,773 |
| 3 | McNeese State Cowboys | 1,711 |
| 4 | Illinois State Redbirds | 1,676 |
| 5 | Portland State Vikings | 1,533 |
| 6 | James Madison Dukes | 1,307 |
| 7 | Charleston Southern Buccaneers | 1,277 |
| 8 | South Dakota State Jackrabbits | 1,255 |
| 9 | Richmond Spiders | 1,203 |
| 10 | Northern Iowa Panthers | 1,180 |
| 11 | Chattanooga Mocs | 1,124 |
| 12 | William & Mary Tribe | 1,074 |
| 13 | Southern Utah Thunderbirds | 1,035 |
| 14 | The Citadel Bulldogs | 985 |
| 15 | Sam Houston State Bearkats | 927 |
| 16 | Montana Grizzlies | 686 |
| 17 | Coastal Carolina Chanticleers | 679 |
| 18 | Fordham Rams | 594 |
| 19 | Harvard Crimson | 335 |
| 20 | New Hampshire Wildcats | 319 |
| 21 | Eastern Illinois Panthers | 285 |
| 22 | North Dakota | 275 |
| 23 | Dartmouth Big Green | 257 |
| 24 | Northern Arizona Lumberjacks | 251 |
| 25 | Western Illinois Leathernecks | 162 |
| Most Significant Win: |
| The Citadel Bulldogs |
| Most Significant Loss: |
| South Dakota State Jackrabbits |
| 26 | Towson Tigers | 160 |
| 27 | North Carolina A&T Aggies | 82 |
| 28 | Bethune-Cookman Wildcats | 66 |
| 29 | Central Arkansas Bears | 52 |
| 30 | Colgate Raiders | 38 |
| 31 | Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks | 36 |
| 32 | Western Carolina Catamounts | 33 |
| 33 | Pennsylvania Quakers | 29 |
| 34 | Grambling State Tigers | 21 |
| 35 | Villanova Wildcats | 20 |
| 36 | Eastern Washington Eagles | 18 |
| 37 | Dayton Flyers | 17 |
| 38 | Youngstown State Penguins | 15 |
| 39 | North Carolina Central Eagles | 7 |
| 40 | Indiana State Sycamores | 6 |
| 41 | Eastern Kentucky Colonels | 2 |
