Late TD, Win, Keeps North Dakota State On Top Of AGS Poll

Special to College Sports Journal

 

MISSOULA, MT. — North Dakota State needed a win in the final seconds at home against Northern Iowa on Saturday for its 31-28 Missouri Valley Football Conference victory, but that enabled the Bison to remain on top of the Any Given Saturday FCS Top-25 poll for the second week in a row.

 

Carson Wentz tossed an 18-yard touchdown pass to Darrius Shepherd with 35 seconds left to vault NDSU to the win. UNI missed a field goal from 38 yards to give the Bison their chance to win in regulation and Wentz responded by pushing NDSU to its 10-play, 79-yard TD drive, which was highlighted by Shepherd’s twisting catch in the corner of the end zone, with two defenders draped on him.

 

UNI (2-3), which has played one of the toughest schedules in FCS this season, fell from sixth to ninth with the loss.

 

The Bison received 40 first votes out of 82 votes cast to edge out Jacksonville State again for the top spot. JSU (4-1) had a bye week, but earned 26 first-place votes.

 

 

James Madison (6-0) remained at No. 3 after outlasting Towson on the road, 51-30. The Dukes pulled in 11 first-place votes.

 

Illinois State and Coastal Carolina swapped places at the four and five positions. 

 

The Redbirds (4-1) survived a scare at then-No. 11 Youngstown State for a 31-29 win when the Penguins scored with 29 seconds left, but missed a game-tying two-point conversion try. ISU tallied one first-place vote.

 

Coastal Carolina (6-0) fell to No. 5 despite four first-place votes and a closer-than-expected 24-17 victory at home against 1-5 Presbyterian as Ryan Granger scored with his fake field goal and kicked three other field goals.

 

Portland State jumped from 19th to 11th in the poll after scoring the most lopsided Football Championship Subdivision victory ever over a Football Bowl Subdivision team, pounding North Texas 66-7. 

It was the second FBS win of the season for Portland State, which beat Washington State 24-17 in its season opener.

 

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 6 – 2015

Results for 10/12/2015 AGS Poll:

Previous Wk.	Rank	Team:	Total Points	First Place Votes
1	1	North Dakota State Bison	1976	40
2	2	Jacksonville State Gamecocks	1946	26
3	3	James Madison Dukes	1899	11
5	4	Illinois State Redbirds	1782	1
4	5	Coastal Carolina Chanticleers	1709	4
6	6	Chattanooga Mocs	1564
8	7	South Dakota State Jackrabbits	1496
7	8	Eastern Washington Eagles	1424
9	9	Northern Iowa Panthers	1164
17	10	McNeese State Cowboys	1162
19	11	Portland State Vikings	1121
12	12	Fordham Rams	1096
11	13	Youngstown State Penguins	988
15	14	Sam Houston State Bearkats	935
18	15	Eastern Kentucky Colonels	853
21	16	Richmond Spiders	779
24	17	William & Mary Tribe	694
23	18	Montana State Bobcats	569
22	19	Harvard Crimson	550
14	20	Southeastern Louisiana Lions	389
16	21	Indiana State Sycamores	388
10	22	Montana Grizzlies	353
28	23	Western Illinois Leathernecks	334
25	24	New Hampshire Wildcats	315
13	25	Liberty Flames	224
		Most Significant Win:
		Portland State Vikings
		Most Significant Loss:
		Montana Grizzlies
		ORV:
31	26	Dartmouth Big Green	170
32	27	Samford Bulldogs	116
29	28	Cal Poly Mustangs	87
33	29	Lamar Cardinals	81
34	30	Southern Illinois Salukis	74
39	31	Southern Utah Thunderbirds	51
20	32	Villanova Wildcats	49
27	33	North Dakota	44
NR	34T	Charleston Southern Buccaneers	39
35	34T	Jacksonville Dolphins	39
NR	36T	Bethune-Cookman Wildcats	27
40	36T	Princeton Tigers	27
26	38	Furman Paladins	22
NR	39	Campbell Fighting Camels	20
NR	40	Dayton Flyers	18
		Fell Out Of Poll:
	30	Northern Arizona Lumberjacks
	37	Stony Brook Seawolves
	36	Wofford Terriers
	38	Yale Bulldogs