Week 1 FCS Football Top 25 Rankings
September 6, 2015 · CSM Staff
| Rank | Team | Comments | Prior | |
| 1 |  |
Sam Houston State | Lost to Texas Tech, 59-45, but with 671 yards actually had more yardage than the Red Raiders. | 3 |
| 2 |  |
Illinois State | Lost to Iowa, 31-14. Wasn’t the best effort against an FBS team, but we’ll give last year’s runners-up a pass on this one. | 2 |
| 3 |  |
Jacksonville State | Its 23-20 victory over No. 9 Chattanooga spoke volumes. Jax should be a team to be reckoned with in 2015. | 6 |
| 4 |  |
North Dakota State | Was off this weekend. It seems strange not to see the Bison in the top spot, but we can’t give them top billing right now. | 1 |
| 5 |  |
Eastern Washington | Lost a track meet to Oregon, 61-42. Still should be one of the FCS elite. | 4 |
| 6 |  |
Coastal Carolina | Had to hang on against Furman. Maybe the Chanticleers were thinking too much about the move to the Sun Belt. | 5 |
| 7 |  |
James Madison | Didn’t break a sweat against Morehead State, 56-7. Well, maybe the Dukes did in the high 80s temps. | 7 |
| 8 |  |
Montana State | Montana State stays penciled in at No. 8 after a 45-14 win over Fort Lewis. | 8 |
| 9 |  |
Chattanooga | No disgrace losing to Jax State…still one of the best teams in the FCS. | 9 |
| 10 |  |
Villanova | No disgrace losing to FBS Uconn, but a lot of people figured the Wildcats would win the game, but lost 20-15. | 10 |
| 11 |  |
South Dakota State | The Jackrabbits toppled FBS Kansas, 41-38. The Jayhawks aren’t Notre Dame, but still…a win is a win against the FBS. | NR |
| 12 |  |
Youngstown State | One of the more impressive losses of the first week. The Penguins gave Pitt all it could handle before losing, 45-37. | 13 |
| 13 |  |
Fordham | One of the more impressive victories of the first week. The Rams don’t rebuild, they reload toppling Army, 37-35. | 23 |
| 14 |  |
Cal Poly | Alex Vega’s 48-yard field goal with four seconds left gave Cal Poly a 20-19 win over Montana, which had beaten NDSU. | NR |
| 15 |  |
Montana | A 2-0 start would have been nice for the Grizzlies, but they figure to be a big factor this season. | 17 |
| 16 |  |
North Dakota | Kudos to North Dakota for a 24-13 winner over Wyoming for its first win over a FBS school in eight tries. | NR |
| 17 |  |
Northern Iowa | The Panthers took a 7-0 advantage over Iowa State, but lost 31-7. What happened? | 11 |
| 18 |  |
Portland State | Shades of Neil Lomax! Portland State beats Washington State, 24-17 for its first win over a Pac-12 school in 15 tries. | NR |
| 19 |  |
Samford | A nice start for the new coaching regime in Birmingham, Alabama. Samford tops Central Arkansas, 45-16. | 19 |
| 20 |  |
William & Mary | The Tribe register a workmanlike 34-7 triumph over the Patriot League’s Lafayette. | 15 |
| 21 |  |
Eastern Kentucky | The Colonels, which had hoped to get an invite to the Sun Belt Conference, tops Valpariso, 52-10 in the opener. | 22 |
| 22 |  |
Indiana State | If you’re counting, Indiana State makes seven MVFC schools in the top 22. It’s just that good of a conference. | 20 |
| 23 |  |
Liberty | Liberty handles Delaware State in week one. Next week, the opponent gets a little tougher when it heads to Morgantown. | NR |
| 24 |  |
Southeastern Louisiana | Good start for Southeastern Louisiana with a 34-20 victory Thursday night over Northwestern State. | 25 |
| 25 |  |
New Hampshire | An ugly loss to San Jose State, 43-13, but the Wildcats should bounce back. | 12 |
