My FCS Top 25, 9/12/2011

Below the flip, see my Top 25 for this week. (more)

1: Georgia Southern Eagles
2: Northern Iowa Panthers
3: William & Mary Tribe
4: Richmond Spiders
5: North Dakota State Bison
6: Wofford Terriers
7: Appalachian State Mountaineers
8: New Hampshire Wildcats
9: Montana State Bobcats
10: Eastern Washington Eagles
11: Montana Grizzlies
12: South Carolina State Bulldogs
13: Lehigh Mountain Hawks
14: Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens
15: Chattanooga Mocs
16: Pennsylvania Quakers
17: Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks
18: Southern Illinois Salukis
19: Liberty Flames
20: South Dakota Coyotes
21: James Madison Dukes
22: Jacksonville State Gamecocks
23: Yale Bulldogs
24: Central Arkansas Bears
25: McNeese State Cowboys

Three quick hits about my Top 25:

1. Could there have been a more disappointing, inexplicable loss than Eastern Washington's this weekend? The loss in Week One to the Huskies of the Pac Ten was one thing: the loss to the transitional Sough Dakota Coyotes, in a game that wasn't even that close, was quite another. Another loss this weekend at Montana, and you can make a great case of dropping them out of the Top 25 altogether.

2. Don't look now, but South Carolina State's win over Bethune-Cookman was a real show-me victory, on the road, at a place which is very tough to play, against a team that is unquestionably one of the class of the MEAC. These Bulldogs are for real, and they well deserve a ranking up there at 12. Their defensive-minded win really impressed me.

3. With Colgate's blowout loss to Holy Cross this weekend, I could have picked Holy Cross to make my Top 25 - but I'm still reserving judgement on the Crusaders. Are they that good - or is Colgate that deficient in key areas? We'll know better about Holy Cross when they face Harvard this weekend. Instead of the Crusaders, I picked another Ivy team - Yale - that looks and feels like a team that's going to pull it all together this year and finally get over that Ivy League title hump.

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