FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 27, 2008
James Madison Remains No. 1 in Coaches Poll
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Top-ranked
James Madison received 27 of the 28 first-place votes this week to remain on
top of the FCS Coaches Poll. Nine teams remained in
the top 10 from last week’s poll with one team moving into the top 10.
James Madison
remained the No. 1 team after a 23-19 decision over Villanova, scoring a
touchdown on the last play of the game to pick up the win. The Dukes received
27 first-place votes for the second-straight week.
Picking up the final
first-place vote this week was No. 5 Wofford, which
received 588 total points. The Terriers defeated No. 12 Elon,
55-20, on Saturday. Wofford’s only loss this season
came at the hands of SEC member South Carolina on Sept. 20, 23-13.
Appalachian State
used two fourth-quarter scores to sneak past Furman 26-14 on Saturday,
retaining the No. 2 ranking this week.
Cal Poly and Northern
Iowa remain at the third and fourth spots respectively in the poll with Wofford and Montana at fifth and sixth, switching spots
from last week. Richmond, New Hampshire and Villanova remain in the top 10 with
Central Arkansas moving up to No. 9 in the poll.
Harvard enters this
week’s poll tied for 24th after a 24-20 win over Princeton on
Saturday. The Crimson have received votes in the poll
since first appearing at No. 25 in Week 1. Hampton drops out of the top 25
after a 35-13 loss to No. 20 South Carolina State.
The Colonial Athletic
Conference continues to lead the way with six teams ranked in the top 25, with
four of those being top 10. The Southern Conference and Missouri Valley Football
Conference both have four teams in the top 25.
The
FCS Coaches Poll is based exclusively on a voting panel of head coaches in the
FCS under the cooperation of the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA) and
the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and is administered
by the Southern Conference. Two head coaches from each of the 14 FCS
conferences participate in the voting.
The FCS Coaches Poll
website can be viewed here and is updated every
week after the release of the poll.
Team (1st Votes) Record Points Previous Ranking
1.
James Madison (27) 7-1 699 1
2.
Appalachian State 6-2 665 2
3.
Cal Poly 5-1 622 3
4.
Northern Iowa 6-2 596 4
5.
Wofford (1) 6-1 588 6
6.
Montana 7-1 574 5
7.
Richmond 6-3 531 8
8.
New Hampshire 6-1 479 10
9.
Central Arkansas 7-1 453 12
10.
Villanova 5-2 412 9
11.
Southern Illinois 5-2 405 13
12.
Elon 7-2 389 7
13.
Weber State 7-2 363 17
14.
Western Illinois 5-2 342 14
15.
Massachusetts 5-3 320 16
16.
McNeese State 4-3 221 11
17.
Liberty 7-1 204 21
18.
Northern Arizona 6-2 197 15
19.
William & Mary 5-2 178 23
20.
South Carolina State 6-2 147 24
21.
Furman 6-3 143 18
22.
Lafayette 6-1 131 RV
23.
Tennessee-Martin 7-2 77 RV
T24.
North Dakota State 4-4 50 24
T24.
Harvard 5-1 50 RV
Other receiving votes (pts. in parentheses): Tennessee State (40), Jacksonville State (33), Florida A&M (28), Georgia Southern (25), Eastern Washington (19), Prairie View (18), Hampton (17), Texas State (17), Colgate (17), Maine (15), Grambling State (14), Dayton (6), UC Davis (4), Brown (4), South Dakota State (3), Holy Cross (2), Delaware (1), San Diego (1)