The reigning national champion James Madison Dukes were picked Aug. 7 as an overwhelming preseason No. 1 in the STATS NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Top 25. Eastern Washington is ranked fifth.
James Madison, which won the Colonial Athletic Association football title and only lost to North Carolina in a 14-1 season, collected 134 of the 163 first-place votes and 4,034 points in the national media poll. On the way to winning their second national title, the Dukes ended North Dakota State’s five-year championship run in the semifinals. Last year’s FCS runner-up, Youngstown State, is ninth.
NDSU was picked second in the preseason poll, followed in the Top 5 by Sam Houston State, South Dakota State and Eastern Washington. The Missouri Valley Football Conference had a poll-high six teams and the CAA was second with five.
Eastern received 3,270 points, with fellow Big Sky Conference members North Dakota ranking eighth (2,871) and Cal Poly coming in at No. 23 (427). Eastern doesn’t play Cal Poly, but takes on North Dakota on Nov. 11 in Grand Forks in a showdown of undefeated Big Sky co-champions in 2016. Both were 8-0 and didn’t play each other.
Highlighted by an 11-game winning streak, the Eagles finished the 2016 season 12-2 overall. Eastern was the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs, and ranked third in the final STATS FCS Top 25 regular season poll.
After rolling through its first two opponents in the playoffs, Eastern suffered a heartbreaking loss to Youngstown State in the semifinals. Eastern ended the year ranked fourth in the final poll after coming so agonizingly close to returning to its first NCAA division I Championship game since 2010 when the Eagles won the national title.
The Eagles had their 11-game winning streak ended by the Penguins, who needed an improbable catch with one second left to pull out the 40-38 victory. EWU hadn’t lost since falling to five-time defending FCS champion North Dakota State 50-44 in overtime on Sept. 10, and one week before that had knocked off Washington State of the Pac-12 Conference 45-42 in Pullman.
STATS FCS Top-10 Preseason Rankings
Rank/School Votes
1.. Jms. Madison (0-0) 4,034 (134)
2. No. Dak. State (0-0) 3,874 (19)
3. Sam Houston (0-0) 3,610 (7)
4. So. Dak. State (0-0) 3,385 (2)
5. E. Wash. (0-0) 3,270
6. Jacks. State (0-0) 3,081 (1)
7. Richmond (0-0) 3,041
8. No. Dakota (0-0) 2,871
9. Youngstown State (0-0) 2,658
10. Villanova (0-0) 2,628
(First place votes in parentheses)
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