Week 12 FCS Football Power Rankings

November 18, 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 51.11 11 0 1 1 COLONIAL 30.25
2 Princeton 46.30 10 0 2 2 MISSOURI VALLEY 30.22
3 South Dakota State 42.62 8 2 4 3 IVY LEAGUE 27.46
4 James Madison 41.31 8 3 6 4 SOUTHERN 26.70
5 UC Davis 41.15 9 2 5 5 BIG SKY 26.49
6 Dartmouth 40.92 9 1 3 6 BIG SOUTH 26.45
7 Eastern Washington 40.92 9 2 8 7 SOUTHLAND 25.71
8 Kennesaw State 40.64 10 1 7 8 OHIO VALLEY 24.21
9 Colgate 39.03 9 1 9 9 PATRIOT 21.85
10 Nicholls 38.13 8 3 11 10 NORTHEAST 17.39
11 Jacksonville State 38.10 8 3 10 11 PIONEER 16.98
12 Northern Iowa 36.66 6 5 16 12 MID-EASTERN 16.34
13 Elon 35.58 6 4 14 13 SOUTHWESTERN 13.73
14 Weber State 35.12 9 2 19
15 Towson 34.71 7 4 12
16 Wofford 33.10 8 3 17
17 Stony Brook 33.01 7 4 15
18 Delaware 33.00 7 4 13
19 Montana State 32.31 7 4 22
20 Furman 31.93 6 4 20
21 Illinois State 31.70 6 5 21
22 Harvard 31.31 6 4 27
23 Monmouth 31.30 8 3 18
24 Samford 31.30 6 5 29
25 Southeast Missouri State 30.75 8 3 23
26 Maine 30.65 8 3 33
27 Villanova 30.54 5 6 36
28 Incarnate Word 30.48 6 4 24
29 North Carolina A&T 29.81 9 2 37
30 Montana 29.51 6 5 28
31 New Hampshire 28.80 4 7 26
32 Rhode Island 28.34 6 5 31
33 Idaho State 28.21 6 5 39
34 North Dakota 28.10 6 5 25
35 The Citadel 28.02 4 6 32
36 Western Illinois 27.91 5 6 34
37 Sam Houston State 27.83 6 5 38
38 Central Arkansas 27.00 6 5 48
39 Charleston Southern 26.89 5 5 49
40 Chattanooga 26.54 6 5 30
41 East Tennessee State 26.37 8 3 35
42 Youngstown State 26.33 4 7 40
43 Lamar 26.29 7 4 53
44 McNeese 26.29 6 5 45
45 San Diego 26.23 9 2 52
46 Cal Poly 25.96 5 6 44
47 Mercer 25.40 5 6 43
48 Holy Cross 25.38 5 6 50
49 Yale 25.38 5 5 41
50 Southeastern Louisiana 25.34 4 7 42
51 Austin Peay 25.12 5 6 61
52 Abilene Christian 25.11 6 5 46
53 Columbia 24.62 6 4 47
54 Northern Arizona 24.56 4 6 75
55 Eastern Kentucky 24.53 7 4 54
56 South Dakota 24.45 4 7 55
57 Drake 24.44 7 3 59
58 Indiana State 24.42 7 4 62
59 Sacred Heart 24.40 7 4 56
60 Northwestern State 24.38 5 6 58
61 Campbell 24.16 6 5 51
62 Dayton 23.72 6 5 64
63 Penn 23.32 6 4 67
64 William & Mary 23.20 4 6 57
65 Tennessee State 23.13 4 5 66
66 Georgetown 22.70 5 6 63
67 Richmond 22.66 4 7 70
68 Alcorn State 22.53 8 3 73
69 Murray State 22.52 5 6 60
70 Tennessee-Martin 21.89 2 9 68
71 Albany 21.83 3 8 80
72 Duquesne 21.69 8 3 78
73 Idaho 21.55 4 7 65
74 Southern Illinois 21.28 2 9 71
75 Central Connecticut State 20.40 6 5 87
76 South Carolina State 20.25 5 5 83
77 Marist 20.25 5 6 82
78 Cornell 20.20 3 7 74
79 Portland State 20.06 4 7 72
80 Stetson 19.99 8 2 79
81 Southern 19.77 6 3 88
82 Lafayette 19.71 3 8 69
83 Stephen F. Austin 19.62 2 8 81
84 Florida A&M 19.57 6 5 76
85 Missouri State 19.54 4 6 77
86 Gardner-Webb 19.45 3 8 85
87 Eastern Illinois 19.40 3 8 89
88 Northern Colorado 19.34 2 9 84
89 Alabama A&M 19.04 6 5 86
90 St. Francis 18.12 4 7 92
91 Fordham 17.04 2 9 93
92 Bucknell 16.64 1 10 91
93 Prairie View A&M 16.54 4 6 101
94 Sacramento State 16.39 2 8 94
95 Western Carolina 16.26 3 8 90
96 Grambling State 16.09 6 4 97
97 Presbyterian 16.03 2 8 100
98 Bethune-Cookman 15.99 7 5 102
99 Lehigh 15.89 3 8 103
100 Jackson State 15.88 5 5 95
101 Howard 15.31 4 6 96
102 Wagner 14.85 4 7 110
103 Morgan State 14.79 4 7 106
104 Southern Utah 14.56 1 10 99
105 Bryant 13.98 6 5 105
106 Norfolk State 13.98 4 6 98
107 Butler 13.86 4 7 104
108 Davidson 13.67 6 5 112
109 Houston Baptist 13.47 1 10 109
110 Tennessee Tech 13.41 1 10 107
111 North Carolina Central 13.16 4 6 108
112 Hampton 12.20 7 3 115
113 Savannah State 11.99 2 8 116
114 Jacksonville 11.59 2 8 113
115 Brown 11.53 1 9 114
116 Virginia Military 11.15 1 10 111
117 Morehead State 10.61 3 8 117
118 Texas Southern 9.98 2 8 118
119 North Alabama 9.98 7 3 119
120 Delaware State 9.55 3 8 122
121 Robert Morris 9.07 2 9 120
122 Valparaiso 8.72 2 9 123
123 Alabama State 7.87 3 7 121
124 Mississippi Valley State 7.10 1 9 124
125 Arkansas-Pine Bluff 4.80 2 9 125