Bison Move Up to No. 4 in The Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS Top 25

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.--CAA Football teams lose more games in a weekend of conference action than they do in a season's worth of non-conference games against Football Championship Subdivision opponents.

That the CAA has been the nation's top conference in recent years was on display again Monday when for the first time in nearly 16 years it placed eight of its 11 schools in The Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS Top 25.

The top two spots in the poll were Georgia Southern and Northern Iowa for the fourth straight week. No. 1 Georgia Southern, from the Southern Conference, gained 128 of the 157 first-place votes and 3,878 points, and No. 2 Northern Iowa, from the Missouri Valley Football Conference, collected 19 first-place votes and 3,722 points.

The CAA has had a team reach the FCS national final in seven of the past eight seasons, with four winning championships during that span.

In this week's national panel of sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries, the CAA representatives were No. 6 New Hampshire, No. 7 James Madison, No. 9 William & Mary, No. 13 Delaware, No. 14 Richmond, No. 19 Maine, No. 21 Old Dominion and No. 25 Towson.

This past Saturday, Maine beat Delaware, 31-17, to earn its way into the poll for the first time since the final 2008 poll. ODU, a third-year program that joined the CAA this season, earned its first national ranking by defeating Massachusetts, 48-33, to knock the Minutemen out of the poll. UMass, a CAA school transitioning from the FCS to the Bowl Subdivision, was ranked 20th last week.

CAA teams are 18-2 against non-conference FCS opponents this season and all but one remaining game is among their conference opponents. William & Mary had been the CAA's preseason favorite, but it lost two weeks ago to the early conference leader, James Madison.

"I don't think (the CAA's strength is) any different than it always is. The comments I've always made were, 'When you're 9-2, you're about three plays away from being 6-5.'" James Madison head coach Mickey Matthews said Monday.

"The games are really tight, they are all so close, the teams are really even and the competition is really good. ... Sometimes I don't know if our top teams are better than the other teams in the country. I think the strength of our league is usually the teams at the end that finish five through nine."

Georgia Southern (4-0) won an important SoCon game at Elon, 41-14, to have its percentage of first-place votes rise in the poll again (up four percent from last week). Meanwhile, Northern Iowa (3-1) handled Missouri Valley, 42-7, to give head coach Mark Farley an MVFC-record 55th win in conference games.

Montana State (4-1) moved up one spot to No. 3 and North Dakota State (4-0) did the same to No. 4. Wofford (3-1) advanced three spots to No. 5 after it beat Appalachian State, last week's third-ranked team, 28-14.

After New Hampshire (3-1) and James Madison (4-1), Appalachian State (3-2) fell to No. 8, followed by William & Mary (3-2) and No. 10 Lehigh (4-1).

The second 10 were No. 11 Sam Houston State (4-0), No. 12 Jacksonville State (4-1), Delaware (3-2), Richmond (3-2), No. 15 McNeese State (3-1), No. 16 Montana (3-2), No. 17 Indiana State (4-1), No. 18 South Dakota (3-2), Maine (3-1) and No. 20 Southern Illinois (2-2).

Following ODU (4-1) were No. 22 Southern Utah (3-2) and No. 23 Tennessee Tech (4-1), the Ohio Valley Conference co-leader which moved into the rankings for the first time since the final 2001 poll. No. 24 Chattanooga (2-3) and Towson (3-1) rounded out the poll.

Massachusetts, South Carolina State and Sacramento State fell out of the rankings following losses.

During the regular season the Top 25 will be released every Monday afternoon, except for the final weekend of games, when it will be released Sunday morning, Nov. 20, due to its use as an official tool by the NCAA Division I Football Committee in selecting the 20-team playoff field later that day.

The Sports Network and Fathead.com will release a final Top 25 following the FCS championship game, which will be held Jan. 7 at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas.

The Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS Top-25 College Football Poll

Team (First-place votes)	Record	Points	Previous Rank
1. Georgia Southern Eagles (128)	4-0	3,878	1
2. Northern Iowa Panthers (19)	3-1	3,722	2
3. Montana State Bobcats (3)	4-1	3,521	4
4. North Dakota State Bison (7)	4-0	3,418	5
5. Wofford Terriers	3-1	3,293	8
6. New Hampshire Wildcats	3-1	3,060	7
7. James Madison Dukes	4-1	3,014	9
8. Appalachian State Mountaineers	3-2	2,648	3
9. William & Mary Tribe	3-2	2,372	11
10. Lehigh Mountain Hawks	4-1	2,322	13
11. Sam Houston State Bearkats	4-0	2,136	16
12. Jacksonville State Gamecocks	4-1	2,135	14
13. Delaware Blue Hens	3-2	2,033	6
14. Richmond Spiders	3-2	1,667	10
15. McNeese State Cowboys	3-1	1,632	18
16. Montana Grizzlies	3-2	1,446	19
17. Indiana State Sycamores	4-1	1,127	24
18. South Dakota Coyotes	3-2	1,096	21
19. Maine Black Bears	3-1	1,041	NR
20. Southern Illinois Salukis	2-2	985	12
21. Old Dominion Monarchs	4-1	658	NR
22. Southern Utah Thunderbirds	3-2	540	17
23. Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles	4-1	524	NR
24. Chattanooga Mocs	2-3	469	15
25. Towson Tigers	3-1	464	23

Others receiving votes: North Dakota 334, Alabama State 262, Massachusetts 203, Jackson State 181, Norfolk State 153, Sacramento State 112, Portland State 89, Holy Cross 47, South Carolina State 39, Central Arkansas 34, Coastal Carolina 33, Youngstown State 30, Liberty 30, South Dakota State 24, Bethune-Cookman 21, Furman 21, Weber State 20, Elon 19, Duquesne 17, Harvard 15, The Citadel 13, San Diego 12, Hampton 10, Eastern Washington 10, Yale 9, Northwestern State 9, Western Illinois 8, Albany 8, Illinois State 8, Eastern Kentucky 7, Bucknell 7, Jacksonville 7, Cal Poly 6, UC Davis 6, Cornell 4, Stony Brook 4, Lamar 3, Rhode Island 2, Robert Morris 2, Penn 1, Stephen F. Austin 1, Murray State 1, Austin Peay 1, UT Martin 1. The Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS Top 25 Voters: The Sports Network: Aaron Corrill; Craig Haley; Sean Shapiro; Phil Sokol; Kevin Spiegel. Big Sky: Brian Berger; Brad Bugger; Dave Cook; Matt Gerrish; Paul Grua; Dave Guffey; Mick Holien; Jon Kasper; Heather Kennedy; Bill Lamberty; Jeff Lasky; Mike Lund; Scott Marsh; Fritz Neighbor; Steve Schaack; Steve Shaff; Mitch Strohman. Big South: John Avery; Wade Branner; Mike Cawood; Adam Gutes; Matt Hogue; Chris Lang; Marc Rabb; Mark Simpson; Todd Wetmore; Simon Whitaker; Alan York. CAA Football: Ted Alexander; Mike Barber; Pete Clawson; Mike DeGeorge; Glenn Frazer; Dean Kenefick; Allen Lessels; Andrew Mahoney; John Martin; Scott Meyer; Mike Murphy; Dan O'Connell; Rich Radford; Scott Selheimer; Kevin Tresolini; Matt Vautour; Kimberly Zivkovich. Great West: Eric Burdick; Ryan Burns; Jacque Cottrell; Neil Gardner; Ed Grom; Jeremy Hoeck; Doug Kelly; Ryan Powell; Randy Scovil; Kit Strief. Independents: Dave Cohen; Brian Fremund; Rick Poulter; Kyle Stephens; Tyler Mayforth. Ivy League: Rick Bender; Eric Dolan; Chris Humm; Craig Larson; Dan Loney; Craig Sachson; Kurt Svoboda; Ron Vaccaro. MEAC: Thomas Grant; Leonard Hayes IV; Bill Hamilton; Ed Hill Jr.; Chris Hooks; Ronnie Johnson; Dennis Jones; Matt Michalec; Eric Moore; Patricia Porter; Dan Ryan; Michael Stambaugh; Maurice Williams; Brent Woronoff. Missouri Valley Football Conference: John Bohnenkamp; Jason Hove; Todd Hefferman; Ace Hunt; Mike Kern; Rick Kindhart; Colin McDonough; Tyler Merriam; Patrick Osterman;Trevor Parks; Randy Reinhardt; Jeff Schwartz; Tom Weber; Mike Williams; Terry Vandrovec. Northeast Conference: Brian DePasquale; Jim Duzyk; Matt Harmon; John McCarthy; Bill Peterson; Andrew Santillo; Chris Shovlin; Jason Sullivan; Ralph Ventre; Greg Viscomi. Ohio Valley Conference: Neal Bradley; John Brush; Wallace Dooley; Michael Clark; Jeff Honza; Brad Kirtley; Joe Lofaro; Rich Moser: Brian Nielsen: Karl Park: Mike Parris: Rob Schabert: Kyle Schwartz: Greg Seitz: James Horne. Patriot League: Charles Bare; Bill Bowman; Joe DiBari; Matt Dougherty; Keith Groller; Jeremiah Hergott; Phil LaBella; Steve Lomangino; Eric Malanowski; Matt Markus. Pioneer Football League: Cody Bush; Jack Cronin; Mike Ferraro; Marc Gignac; Ted Gosen; Doug Hauschild; Paul Kirk; James Nasella; Terry Norvelle; Joe Prisco; Matt Schabert; Ryan Wronkowicz. Southern Conference: Jay Blackman; Tommy Bowman; Mike Flynn; Barrett Gilham; Don Heath; David Jackson; Joey Mullins; Tyler Norris Goode; Noelle Orr-Blaney; Chris Rash; Adam Smith; Brent Williamson. Southland Conference: Jason Barfield; Louis Bonnette; Jamie Bustos; Christopher Dabe; James Dixon; Steve East; Kevin Gore; Alex Hickey; Doug Ireland; Todd Lamb; Brent St. Germain; Matt Sullivan. Southwestern Athletic Conference: Santoria Black; Rodney Bush; Tom Galbraith; Natalie Hicks; Duane Lewis; Ryan McGinty; Leonard Moon; Wesley Peterson; Brandon Willis. Other Representatives: Rolf Bertulies; Brian Brennan; Josh Buchanan; LeCounte Conaway; Jim Seman.

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