Week 9 FCS Football Power Rankings

October 29, 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 Won Lost Prev RANK CONFERENCE RATING
1 North Dakota State 54.96 8 0 1 1 COLONIAL 30.53
2 James Madison 44.80 6 2 2 2 MISSOURI VALLEY 30.00
3 Princeton 43.92 7 0 4 3 IVY LEAGUE 28.50
4 Dartmouth 43.74 7 0 3 4 SOUTHERN 26.75
5 UC Davis 43.04 7 1 8 5 BIG SKY 25.56
6 Delaware 41.89 6 2 9 6 SOUTHLAND 24.51
7 South Dakota State 41.41 5 2 5 7 BIG SOUTH 24.30
8 Elon 39.88 5 2 7 8 OHIO VALLEY 23.22
9 Colgate 39.00 7 0 14 9 PATRIOT 21.38
10 Nicholls 38.21 5 3 19 10 NORTHEAST 15.85
11 Jacksonville State 37.01 6 2 12 11 PIONEER 15.60
12 Northern Iowa 36.47 4 4 6 12 MID-EASTERN 15.57
13 Weber State 35.38 6 2 15 13 SOUTHWESTERN 12.86
14 Wofford 35.10 6 2 23
15 Stony Brook 34.36 6 3 11
16 Eastern Washington 33.95 6 2 17
17 Illinois State 33.55 5 3 13
18 Towson 33.33 6 2 10
19 North Dakota 32.65 5 3 16
20 Monmouth 31.86 6 2 20
21 Idaho State 30.93 5 3 24
22 Western Illinois 30.53 4 4 22
23 Furman 30.49 3 4 30
24 Kennesaw State 30.24 7 1 34
25 Montana State 30.06 4 4 26
26 Montana 29.99 4 4 25
27 Southeast Missouri State 29.44 6 2 35
28 Columbia 29.31 4 3 38
29 Sam Houston State 28.98 5 3 29
30 Chattanooga 28.69 6 2 21
31 Rhode Island 28.59 5 3 31
32 Samford 28.32 4 4 33
33 McNeese 27.88 6 2 39
34 Central Arkansas 27.86 5 3 37
35 Yale 27.69 4 3 28
36 Incarnate Word 27.45 4 4 27
37 Villanova 27.20 3 5 18
38 Austin Peay 26.89 4 4 36
39 North Carolina A&T 26.68 6 2 45
40 New Hampshire 26.55 2 6 48
41 Harvard 25.81 3 4 50
42 The Citadel 25.68 2 5 32
43 Sacred Heart 25.62 5 3 61
44 East Tennessee State 25.28 7 2 52
45 Murray State 24.73 4 4 42
46 Florida A&M 24.61 6 2 59
47 Penn 24.56 5 2 44
48 Richmond 24.34 3 5 46
49 Charleston Southern 24.28 3 4 49
50 Maine 24.19 5 3 53
51 William & Mary 24.14 3 5 43
52 Georgetown 23.93 4 5 57
53 Southeastern Louisiana 23.64 3 6 51
54 Southern Illinois 23.17 2 6 63
55 South Dakota 23.10 3 5 55
56 Cal Poly 23.09 3 5 67
57 Campbell 23.02 5 3 40
58 Lafayette 23.00 3 5 68
59 Eastern Kentucky 22.67 4 4 56
60 Holy Cross 22.61 2 6 77
61 Abilene Christian 22.54 4 4 54
62 Dayton 22.18 4 5 74
63 Idaho 22.16 3 5 65
64 Alcorn State 22.07 7 2 76
65 Youngstown State 21.73 3 5 60
66 Lamar 21.65 4 4 73
67 Northwestern State 21.52 3 5 70
68 Missouri State 21.48 4 4 47
69 Mercer 21.33 4 4 58
70 Northern Colorado 21.30 2 7 62
71 Tennessee State 21.27 3 3 69
72 San Diego 21.12 6 2 72
73 Cornell 21.09 3 4 41
74 Stephen F. Austin 21.09 2 6 66
75 Drake 20.84 5 2 64
76 Northern Arizona 20.83 3 5 71
77 Stetson 20.31 6 1 82
78 Tennessee-Martin 20.31 1 7 75
79 Indiana State 20.22 4 4 81
80 Marist 20.20 4 4 78
81 Portland State 19.56 4 4 80
82 Albany 18.98 2 6 79
83 Bucknell 18.77 1 7 85
84 Southern 18.74 5 3 90
85 Central Connecticut State 18.63 5 4 86
86 Alabama A&M 18.32 4 4 88
87 Duquesne 17.73 5 3 84
88 Gardner-Webb 17.49 2 6 101
89 South Carolina State 17.29 3 5 91
90 Western Carolina 17.13 3 5 95
91 Fordham 16.78 1 7 83
92 Bryant 16.07 5 3 87
93 Sacramento State 15.10 2 6 89
94 Eastern Illinois 14.85 2 7 92
95 Prairie View A&M 14.84 3 5 98
96 Presbyterian 14.60 2 5 112
97 Norfolk State 13.93 3 4 96
98 St. Francis 13.85 3 5 115
99 Grambling State 13.70 4 4 104
100 Virginia Military 13.51 0 8 110
101 Howard 13.36 3 4 103
102 Southern Utah 13.34 1 7 97
103 Morgan State 13.26 2 6 99
104 Jackson State 13.14 3 4 94
105 North Carolina Central 13.07 3 4 93
106 Brown 12.99 1 6 111
107 Savannah State 12.99 2 5 118
108 Bethune-Cookman 12.63 4 5 100
109 Jacksonville 12.34 1 6 105
110 Tennessee Tech 12.15 0 8 109
111 Houston Baptist 11.82 1 7 107
112 Butler 11.73 3 5 108
113 Morehead State 11.53 3 5 106
114 Davidson 11.42 5 4 116
115 Texas Southern 10.98 2 6 119
116 Hampton 10.71 4 3 113
117 Lehigh 10.32 1 7 102
118 Wagner 10.23 2 6 114
119 North Alabama 9.54 5 3 117
120 Robert Morris 8.36 2 6 120
121 Alabama State 7.51 2 5 121
122 Valparaiso 6.86 1 7 122
123 Delaware State 6.27 1 7 124
124 Mississippi Valley State 5.55 1 6 123
125 Arkansas-Pine Bluff 3.57 1 7 125