Why North Dakota State deserves votes in the AP Top 25 poll
North Dakota State finished No. 36 in last season's final Sagarin ratings, ahead of teams like Boise State, Virginia Tech and Nebraska — all of whom ended their seasons with bowl victories.
On one hand, it's understandable the Bison would rate better than any of those teams. After all, they went undefeated and won a national championship. But on the other, the rating is an eyebrow-raiser. After all, North Dakota State plays in the Football Championship Subdivision a level below each of those teams.
Since winning its fifth consecutive FCS title, North Dakota State is 3-0, with its most recent win coming Saturday against No. 11 Iowa. It was the first game this season that the Bison didn't need overtime to win, and by ranking it was one of six best wins of any team this season. On Sunday afternoon it could lead to a college football rarity: An FCS team getting votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. (UPDATE: North Dakota State didn’t make the AP Top 25 but received 74 points — the most points ever for a Football Championship Subdivision team. The 74 points tied the Bison with UCLA with the 27th-most votes of any team. Oklahoma, the No. 25 team, received 139 points.)
Not long after North Dakota State beat Iowa, the AP poll's No. 18 (Notre Dame), 19 (Ole Miss) and 22 (Oregon) teams lost. Any or all of those results could create a vacancy for a previously unranked team to move in, though based on last week's voting the more likely candidates might be 3-0 teams Nebraska, Utah or San Diego State.
But North Dakota State is a serious enough option that the AP emailed its voters Saturday afternoon to say that the Bison are eligible for votes. That is not the case with the Amway Coaches Poll; coaches who vote in that poll must select from the pool of 128 FBS teams.
"They're a good football team," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said Saturday. "They get after the quarterback. They can do it with four guys and then they'll bring extra pressure. But they're a very aggressive, tough football team, and we didn't measure up, run or pass, quite frankly.
"I think anybody that was in the stadium today realized that's a good football team," Ferentz continued. "They play hard. They're tough. They're physical. They believe in themselves. They've been doing it for quite a while."
Jeff Sagarin's ratings, which assign a value to every team in the FBS and FCS, listed North Dakota State at No. 67 entering the Iowa game, right behind South Carolina and Marshall and just ahead of Army and Arizona. It's doubtful any of those teams would want to play the Bison, though, as North Dakota is 6-0 vs. FBS competition since losing to Iowa State on Sept. 3, 2009.
After beating Iowa, the Bison have risen to No. 54 on Sagarin's list, one spot behind Cal and four behind Georgia.
Not surprisingly, North Dakota State has been in this position before. In 2013, when North Dakota State was 10-0, the Bison reached No. 24 in the Sagarin ratings. That placed them ahead of five teams that were ranked in the Coaches Poll that week. They finished that season No. 17, their all-time high.
Though North Dakota State's achievements in 2016 already merit celebration, there still is more to strive for, primarily their second unbeaten season in four years and a sixth consecutive FCS title. And there could be another mark to reach for too: the No. 14 Sagarin finish that Division I-AA Marshall earned in 1996.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S WEEK 3 HIGHLIGHTS