Honestly, I've got to take these numbers with a grain of salt. (USD in the top-25?? There is some weird s--t in here.) First, NDSU cracks the top-30. That gives everyone who played/s us a boost. That could be a reason the MVFC actually increased its lead over the other conferences. Also, UNI & SIU just shot up the rankings this week. SDSU fell big-time, but that was more about other teams moving up past them, than their rating going down. Iowa State plummeted. Incarnate Word is the twelfth-worst in DI according to the ratings.
Looking at conferences, the MVFC has extended the gap between the next closest FCS conference to over eight and a half points. As I mentioned before, the MVFC now only trails the P5 conferences; passing the MWC and AAC. The Southland drops two spots out of the top-five and the Southern reclaims its traditional spot as one of the five. Looks like OVC is here to stay for awhile(having said that, I've probably jinxed them to drop out next week).
By these ratings, NDSU would be:
#1 in the MVFC, MWC, C-USA, MAC, Sun Belt, and all the FCS
#3 in the AAC
#4 in the Big Ten
#5 in the Big 12
#6 in the ACC
#7 in the PAC-12
#8 in the SEC
So on to the show.
Sagarin's Week 3 Predictions
Sagarin FCS Top-25Code:Sagarin Predict Result Diff
30 North Dakota State 78.98
100 Iowa State 63.53 +11.93 +20.00 +8.07
205 Weber State 44.23 +31.23 +17.00 -14.23
241 Incarnate Word 33.51 +48.99
74 Montana 67.09 +15.41
172 Western Illinois 50.82 +24.64
62 Southern Illinois 70.41 +12.09
175 Indiana State 50.01 +32.49
121 South Dakota 59.19 +16.27
73 South Dakota State 67.34 +15.16
58 Northern Iowa 71.53 +3.93
143 Missouri State 55.61 +19.85
105 Youngstown State 62.88 +19.62
72 Illinois State 67.74
Total Diff: -6.16
Home Field 3.52
Sagarin Top-5 FCS ConferencesCode:1 30 North Dakota State
2 58 Northern Iowa
3 62 Southern Illinois
4 70 Villanova
5 72 Illinois State
6 73 South Dakota State
7 74 Montana
8 78 McNeese State
9 81 William & Mary
10 84 Eastern Washington
11 87 New Hampshire
12 89 Bethune-Cookman
13 94 SE Louisiana
14 97 Jacksonville State
15 101 Coastal Carolina
16 104 Montana State
17 105 Youngstown State
18 113 Eastern Kentucky
19 119 Tennessee State
20 121 South Dakota
21 122 Princeton
22 123 Chattanooga
23 128 Liberty
24 129 Portland State
25 130 Northern Arizona
Code:1. MVFC 63.69
2. Colonial 55.01
3. Ohio Valley 54.64
4. Big Sky 53.50
5. Southern 51.42
