WACO, Texas - North Dakota State was ranked No. 2 in the preseason AFCA FCS Coaches Poll announced Monday, Aug. 12, by the American Football Coaches Association.

The Missouri Valley Football Conference took the top two spots in the poll with defending national champion South Dakota State getting 25 of 26 first-place votes for the No. 1 spot.

The MVFC had seven teams in the preseason poll including No. 5 South Dakota, No. 11 Southern Illinois, No. 20 Illinois State, No. 22 North Dakota and No. 23 Youngstown State.

North Dakota State is scheduled to open the regular season at Colorado on Thursday, Aug. 29. The game will be televised on ESPN starting at 7 p.m. CT / 6 p.m. MT.

2024 AFCA FCS Coaches Preseason Poll

	Team (First-Place Votes)	W-L	Pts	Prv
1.	South Dakota St. (25)	15-0	649	1
2.	North Dakota St.	11-4	614	3
3.	Montana	13-2	576	2
4.	Montana St.	8-4	518	8
5.	South Dakota	10-3	512	T4
6.	Villanova	10-3	502	9
7.	Idaho	9-4	473	T4
8.	Chattanooga	8-5	403	17
9.	Furman	10-3	392	6
10.	Sacramento St.	8-5	382	15
11.	Southern Illinois	8-5	370	13
12.	Richmond	9-4	353	22
13.	Central Arkansas	7-4	339	NR
14.	Albany	11-4	275	7
15.	Incarnate Word	9-2	259	14
16.	William & Mary	6-5	196	NR
17.	UC Davis	7-4	164	NR
18.	Lafayette	9-3	157	19
19.	Western Carolina	7-4	144	NR
20.	Illinois St.	6-5	143	NR
21.	Tarleton St.	8-3	137	NR
22.	North Dakota	7-5	131	16
23.	Youngstown St.	8-5	97	21
24.	Nicholls St.	6-5	91	NR
25.	Florida A&M (1)	12-1	71	10

Others receiving votes: Weber St. 66, North Carolina Central 53, Eastern Illinois 50, Tennessee-Martin 38, Austin Peay 35, Northern Iowa 33, Harvard 32, Yale 31, Mercer 27, Holy Cross 20, Howard 20, Alabama St. 17, Northern Arizona 17, Elon 16, Alcorn St. 9, Duquesne 7, North Carolina A&T 6, Fordham 5, Gardner-Webb 4, Indiana St. 3, Missouri St. 3, Butler 2, Eastern Kentucky 2, Southeast Missouri St. 2, Eastern Washington 1, Murray St. 1, Samford 1, Utah Tech 1.