Not surprising. The surprising thing to me is NDSU moving up to #4 in the STATS poll ahead of SHSU despite SHSU winning. It's basically impossible in both the Coach's and STATS polls for a team to move up without someone in front of them losing. However, keep in mind that last year NDSU was #4 in both the Coach's and STATS polls from the SDSU loss onwards last year and the committee seeded them at #1.
FWIW, NDSU moved up to #2 in the AGS poll released today and it has been more in line with the selection committee than either the STATS or Coach's polls over the last few years (and through the first two rankings the committee has released this year).
This site gets it; pretty legit bracket:
https://herosports.com/fcs/football-...gn=FCSFootball
Win against the Redbirds, we are 10-1 with wins over playoff teams UNI, USD, WIU, playoff contenders/ranked at the time Youngstown, Illinois State, and EWU, and our only loss was on the road at another seeded team. That resume trumps anything the next 5 teams can present for the 2 seed. It even compares pretty damn well with JMU, even with one loss....
"Sometimes a concept is baffling not because it is profound but because it is wrong" E. O. Wilson
"I'm not crazy my mother had me tested". Sheldon Cooper
My boss hates it when I shorten his name to Dick, mainly because his name is Steven.
Biggest "threats" to the #2 seed seem to be Central Arkansas and Jacksonville State, at least in the media. Did some looking into their schedules and Sagarin rankings, and compared their FCS games to MVFC teams: for reference, Missouri State is #46 and Indiana State is #91.
UCA: Illinois State, Southern Illinois, 3 games against Missouri State, 5 games against Indiana St (plus they lost 55-19 to Kansas State who is essentially even with NDSU in the sagarin)
JSU: 8 games against Missouri St, 2 games against Indiana St (plus 37-10 loss to Georgia Tech, #23 in sagarin)
That's how bad their conferences are...