MISSOULA — After four teams in the top 10 of the previous Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll lost Saturday, Montana and Montana State moved up to Nos. 2 and 3 in the latest rankings, which were announced Monday.
On a day filled with upsets, Tarleton State, South Dakota State, UC Davis and North Dakota — the teams previously ranked second, fourth, sixth and eighth, respectively — all lost. Top-ranked North Dakota State held off Youngstown State to hold on to the No. 1 position in the poll. The Bison received all 56 first-place votes.
The Grizzlies, who improved to 9-0 with last week's 38-17 win at Weber State, moved up one spot in the poll from last week's No. 3 ranking. The Bobcats were tied for fourth last week and moved up to third this week after their 55-7 win at Northern Colorado.
Following NDSU, UM and MSU in the poll are Lehigh at No. 4 and Tennessee Tech at No. 5. Both teams are 9-0 this season. View the complete poll.
Tarleton State, the team that was potentially standing between the Brawl of the Wild winner and the No. 2 seed in the FCS playoffs, suffered a 31-28 loss at then-No. 24 Abilene Christian. The loss dropped the Texans to sixth in the rankings
South Dakota State, which was tied with Montana State last week, lost its second consecutive game. A week after losing to rival North Dakota State, the Jackrabbits lost 24-12 to Indiana State. SDSU slipped to eighth in the rankings.
UC Davis lost a 38-36 shootout to Idaho State last week. It was the first Big Sky Conference loss of the season for the Aggies, who slid from sixth to 11th in the top 25 poll. Montana, Montana State and UC Davis are the only Big Sky teams in the rankings after Northern Arizona fell out of the top 25 following its overtime loss to Idaho.
North Dakota of the Missouri Valley Football Conference also suffered its first league loss of the season. The Fighting Hawks fell 26-21 at South Dakota. UND is now ranked 13th.
No. 13 North Dakota hosts No. 1 North Dakota State at noon Saturday.
After playing their past two games on the road, both Montana and Montana State return home this week. The third-ranked Griz host Eastern Washington, and the No. 4 Cats host Weber State. Both games kick off at 1 p.m. Saturday and will air on Scripps Sports stations across Montana.
No. 11 UC Davis plays at Idaho in the Big Sky's Saturday night cap with kickoff scheduled for 5 p.m.
The other Big Sky games on Saturday's schedule: Sacramento State at Portland State (3 p.m.), Cal Poly at Idaho State (4 p.m.) and Northern Colorado at Northern Arizona (4 p.m.).
