SPARTANBURG, S.C. ? After winning on the road at Maine, 24-10, and seeing former No. 2 Richmond fall at No. 16 Villanova, 26-20, James Madison has strengthened its hold on the FCS Coaches Poll No. 1 spot.
The Dukes received 23 out of a possible 27 first-place votes and 671 total points overall to secure the No. 1 spot for the second week in a row.
Montana grabbed the other four first-place votes after the Grizzlies kicked a last-second field goal to beat Division II power Central Washington, 38-35, and improve to 4-0.
Moving up a spot to No. 3 was Appalachian State after it defeated Presbyterian, 48-14, Saturday.
McNeese State jumped two spots to No. 4 after defeating NAIA Southern Virginia 63-7.
Rounding out the top five was New Hampshire, which defeated Dartmouth 42-6.
Making the jump into the top 10 for the first time this season was Wofford. The Terriers defeated then-No. 22 Georgia Southern 38-37 on the road in Statesboro, Ga., Saturday night.
Three teams moved into the polls this week as No. 21 Liberty, No. 23 Jacksonville State and No. 24 Northern Arizona all won games on Saturday. The Flames defeated then-No. 23 Youngstown State, 31-28. The Gamecocks beat then-No. 20 Eastern Illinois, 23-10. The Lumberjacks defeated Northern Colorado 25-22.
The Colonial Athletic Association leads the way with six teams currently ranked in the top 16, with three being in the top 10. The Southern Conference and the Missouri Valley Football Conference each have five in the top 25.
The FCS Coaches Poll is based exclusively on a voting panel of head coaches in the FCS under the cooperation of the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA) and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and is administered by the Southern Conference. Two head coaches from each of the 14 FCS conferences participate in the voting.
The FCS Coaches Poll website can be viewed here and is updated every week after the release of the poll.
Team (1st Votes) Record Points Previous Ranking
1. James Madison (23) 4-1 671 1
2. Montana (4) 4-0 638 3
3. Appalachian State 2-2 621 4
4. McNeese State 2-1 572 6
5. New Hampshire 4-0 517 8
6. North Dakota State 2-2 493 7
7. Richmond 3-2 477 2
8. Cal Poly 2-1 470 9
9. Wofford 3-1 421 11
10. Northern Iowa 2-2 397 5
11. Southern Illinois 2-1 390 13
12. Massachusetts 2-2 376 10
13. Eastern Washington 2-2 347 16
14. Delaware 2-2 344 12
15. Elon 4-1 305 14
16. Villanova 3-1 303 19
17. Furman 4-1 268 17
18. South Dakota State 3-2 218 18
19. Central Arkansas 4-1 197 15
20. The Citadel 3-1 152 24
21. Liberty 4-0 131 NR
22. Western Illinois 2-2 129 21
23. Jacksonville State 3-1 78 NR
24. Northern Arizona 3-1 44 NR
25. Eastern Illinois 2-3 40 20
Other receiving votes (pts. in parentheses): Georgia Southern (33), Montana State (25), Youngstown State (20), Tennessee State (19), Hampton (16), Sam Houston State (14), William & Mary (12), South Carolina State (6), Florida A&M (6), Holy Cross (5), Lafayette (5), Jackson State (3), Prairie View A&M (3), Colgate (2), Hofstra (2), San Diego (2), UT Martin (1), SE Louisiana (1), Harvard (1).