Week 5 FCS Football Power Rankings

October 1, 2018 · Jason Groomes
 
The Madness FCS Power Rankings
 
The Madness FCS Power Rankings is a relatively basic power rating system when compared to the highly complex systems involving comparative scoring formulas. This system uses no comparative scoring, so any parallel between this and other ranking systems is purely coincidental. There is also no momentum involved in these rankings, so “What have you done for me lately?” does not apply. Everything is valued as a whole. The objective remains the same though; to create an unbiased mechanism to sort the general strength of the 125 teams within the Football Championship Subdivision.
 
Teams are awarded for Wins and Points Scored, then penalized for Losses and Points Allowed. Teams also receive a ‘Stature Constant.’ The strongest FCS conferences get a higher value than the weaker conferences. This is done to lessen the effects of a superior team in a weak conference from building huge point margins and manipulating the system. This constant has been tweaked since last season also, to include each individual conference’s overall success in FCS vs. FCS games.
 
Teams will also gain bonuses for beating FBS teams. This has also been tweaked, giving a little more weight to those who beat Power Five teams as opposed to Group of Five teams. Also, a team will be penalized for losing to a school from a class below FCS (Division II, Division III, NAIA, NCCAA). The final piece of the puzzle is an RPI-style Strength of Schedule multiplier, where teams get bonuses and demerits just for playing teams listed previously in this paragraph.
 
The first rankings will appear after Week 5, September 29th. These will be available on the Madness no later than Monday every week from then on. There will also be a final edition released after the FCS Championship game in January. Like most ranking systems, a very strong or weak schedule or huge upsets, one way or the other, can have a drastic impact early on. As the season progresses the numbers, and teams, will sort themselves out and be much truer towards the end.
 

RANK TEAM RATING W L Prev
1 Princeton 63.84 3 0 N/A
2 James Madison 53.15 4 1 N/A
3 South Dakota State 49.46 2 1 N/A
4 North Dakota State 47.00 4 0 N/A
5 UC Davis 40.78 3 1 N/A
6 Northern Iowa 39.21 2 2 N/A
7 Montana 36.53 4 1 N/A
8 Nicholls 36.05 3 2 N/A
9 Elon 35.84 3 1 N/A
10 Delaware 34.67 2 2 N/A
11 Dartmouth 34.13 3 0 N/A
12 Stony Brook 34.06 4 1 N/A
13 Villanova 33.75 3 2 N/A
14 Rhode Island 32.62 3 1 N/A
15 Western Illinois 32.46 2 2 N/A
16 Eastern Washington 31.90 4 1 N/A
17 Towson 31.62 3 1 N/A
18 Furman 31.09 1 3 N/A
19 Harvard 30.99 2 1 N/A
20 Missouri State 29.91 3 1 N/A
21 Jacksonville State 29.79 3 1 N/A
22 The Citadel 29.59 1 3 N/A
23 Tennessee State 28.90 2 1 N/A
24 McNeese 28.67 4 1 N/A
25 Southeastern Louisiana 28.06 2 3 N/A
26 Austin Peay 28.05 2 3 N/A
27 Idaho State 27.84 3 1 N/A
28 Sam Houston State 27.79 2 2 N/A
29 North Dakota 27.08 3 2 N/A
30 Colgate 27.05 4 0 N/A
31 Montana State 27.03 3 2 N/A
32 Chattanooga 26.14 4 1 N/A
33 New Hampshire 26.09 0 4 N/A
34 Illinois State 25.47 3 1 N/A
35 Eastern Kentucky 25.44 2 2 N/A
36 Holy Cross 25.20 1 4 N/A
37 Incarnate Word 25.15 2 2 N/A
38 Youngstown State 25.10 1 3 N/A
39 Richmond 24.26 2 3 N/A
40 Samford 24.04 1 4 N/A
41 Northern Arizona 23.92 2 3 N/A
42 Weber State 23.78 3 1 N/A
43 Southeast Missouri State 23.65 2 2 N/A
44 Penn 23.63 2 1 N/A
45 Cal Poly 23.53 1 4 N/A
46 North Carolina A&T 23.37 4 1 N/A
47 Wofford 23.24 3 1 N/A
48 Charleston Southern 22.80 1 2 N/A
49 Cornell 22.73 1 2 N/A
50 Tennessee-Martin 22.29 1 4 N/A
51 Central Arkansas 21.48 2 2 N/A
52 Southern Illinois 21.45 1 3 N/A
53 Columbia 21.22 2 1 N/A
54 Campbell 21.07 4 1 N/A
55 South Dakota 20.85 2 2 N/A
56 Kennesaw State 20.73 4 1 N/A
57 Georgetown 20.71 1 4 N/A
58 Albany 20.58 2 2 N/A
59 Stephen F. Austin 20.51 1 3 N/A
60 William & Mary 20.48 1 3 N/A
61 Yale 20.32 2 1 N/A
62 Sacramento State 20.25 2 2 N/A
63 Northern Colorado 20.03 0 5 N/A
64 East Tennessee State 19.56 4 1 N/A
65 Drake 19.15 2 1 N/A
66 Lafayette 18.89 1 4 N/A
67 Dayton 18.16 2 3 N/A
68 Alcorn State 18.06 4 1 N/A
69 Monmouth 17.99 3 2 N/A
70 Northwestern State 17.96 2 2 N/A
71 Sacred Heart 17.61 3 1 N/A
72 Lehigh 17.51 1 3 N/A
73 Mercer 17.34 3 2 N/A
74 Murray State 16.67 1 3 N/A
75 Idaho 16.48 2 2 N/A
76 Morgan State 16.28 1 3 N/A
77 Virginia Military 15.63 0 5 N/A
78 Bucknell 15.28 1 4 N/A
79 Bryant 15.06 3 1 N/A
80 Maine 15.00 2 2 N/A
81 Duquesne 14.67 3 2 N/A
82 Abilene Christian 14.37 2 3 N/A
83 Norfolk State 14.36 3 1 N/A
84 Indiana State 14.20 2 2 N/A
85 Alabama A&M 14.14 2 3 N/A
86 Portland State 14.04 1 4 N/A
87 Marist 13.68 1 3 N/A
88 Gardner-Webb 13.32 1 4 N/A
89 Florida A&M 13.17 3 2 N/A
90 San Diego 13.14 2 2 N/A
91 Butler 13.02 3 1 N/A
92 Prairie View A&M 12.98 3 3 N/A
93 Lamar 12.96 1 4 N/A
94 Houston Baptist 12.85 1 3 N/A
95 South Carolina State 12.22 0 4 N/A
96 Eastern Illinois 11.72 1 4 N/A
97 Presbyterian 11.58 2 1 N/A
98 Fordham 11.42 0 4 N/A
99 Tennessee Tech 11.41 0 5 N/A
100 North Alabama 11.37 3 2 N/A
101 Western Carolina 11.24 3 1 N/A
102 Stetson 11.07 3 1 N/A
103 Jackson State 10.69 1 2 N/A
104 Brown 10.23 1 2 N/A
105 St. Francis 10.21 2 3 N/A
106 Wagner 9.85 1 4 N/A
107 Southern Utah 9.21 0 4 N/A
108 Jacksonville 8.95 1 2 N/A
109 Davidson 8.93 4 1 N/A
110 Central Connecticut State 8.53 2 3 N/A
111 Bethune-Cookman 8.21 2 3 N/A
112 Grambling State 8.07 1 3 N/A
113 Morehead State 7.81 1 3 N/A
114 North Carolina Central 7.50 1 3 N/A
115 Texas Southern 7.41 1 3 N/A
116 Robert Morris 7.29 1 3 N/A
117 Southern 7.01 2 1 N/A
118 Howard 6.79 1 2 N/A
119 Hampton 5.42 1 3 N/A
120 Valparaiso 4.37 0 4 N/A
121 Alabama State 3.98 1 3 N/A
122 Arkansas-Pine Bluff 1.86 1 4 N/A
123 Savannah State 1.41 0 4 N/A
124 Delaware State 0.89 0 4 N/A
125 Mississippi Valley State -0.61 0 3 N/A

RANK CONFERENCE RATING
1 COLONIAL 31.03
2 MISSOURI VALLEY 29.82
3 IVY LEAGUE 26.94
4 SOUTHERN 24.99
5 BIG SKY 23.90
6 SOUTHLAND 22.44
7 OHIO VALLEY 21.63
8 PATRIOT 19.74
9 BIG SOUTH 19.30
10 NORTHEAST 12.47
11 MID-EASTERN 12.28
12 PIONEER 11.77
13 SOUTHWESTERN 9.78