Who lost? Oh, #1, #3, #4, and #12 for good measure, shaking up the entire top half of the poll.
Only one game this week matches teams in the top 25, but several other ranked teams face major tests against dangerous foes:
#7 Northwest Missouri State at #19 Central Missouri
4-1 Colorado Mines at #11 Colorado State-Pueblo
#13 Valdosta State at 3-1 Ouachita Baptist
#14 Shepherd at 5-0 West Virginia Wesleyan
4-1 Minnesota State-Mankato at #17 Saint Cloud State
#21 New Haven at 4-1 Southern Connecticut State
4-1 Slippery Rock at #25 Edinboro
CENTRAL:
Undefeated Winston Salem State now has a two-and-a-half game lead against everyone in the Southern Division after easily dispatching Johnson C. Smith as Nic Cooper broke the 200-yard barrier for the second week in a row, rushing for 203 yards and two touchdowns. Virginia State knocked Bowie State back down to earth, and themselves into a tie for the North lead, with an upset at home in overtime. Shaw, ranked in the pre-season, finally won a game destroying Livingston.
WSSU will win, and will probably move within a game of mathematically eliminating every divisional rival save the winner of the JCSU/Shaw game, which is a toss-up. That’s because Fayetteville is going to lose to Virginia State. Virginia Union and ECSU is too sketchy to call, as is Lincoln/Chowan. Bowie is probably going to drop their non-conference game, while Livingstone is a decent bet to win theirs.
GREAT AMERICAN:
Arkansas-Monticello pulled a huge upset, ripping off 20 fourth-quarter points and knocking off #4 Valdosta State. Henderson also picked up a nice non-conference win, and the battle of Southern Oklahoma ended with Southwestern ahead. The Bulldogs intercepted four passes, including one which set up the game-winning field goal with a second left, and moved a half-game back of league-leading Ouachita Baptist, who gave up 562 yards of offense and were outscored 35-0 in the final 38 minutes. North Alabama also reeled off 35 straight points in the second half to take care of Southern Arkansas, as did Central Missouri (in the second and third quarters) in dispatching Arkansas Tech. Harding turned the ball over five times in their loss to West Alabama. Only East Central’s thumping by Central Oklahoma was a surprise.
Again, only one conference game marks the schedule, and Southwestern Oklahoma is a slight favorite. A win would put them in a virtual tie with Ouachita, although Ouachita will have two games in hand. Arkansas Tech, Monticello, Ouachita, Southern Arkansas, and Harding face the Gulf Coast gauntlet; all five should be expected to lose just on principle, but Monticello and Ouachita are apparently capable of upsets here.
GREAT LAKES IAC:
Hillsdale barely escaped previously unbeaten Saginaw Valley, and Wayne State remained unbeaten with a narrow win over Northern Michigan. Saginaw’s loss allowed Ferris and Michigan Tech to move into a tie for the North lead, and Ashland remained a game back of Wayne and Hillsdale with an ugly win over Northwood. Grand Valley finally broke their three-game skid, crushing Tiffin without remorse.
The top three in the South should remain unchanged, as Wayne, Hillsdale, and Ashland all have easy sailing this week against the bottom three in the division. Findlay will likely lose their cross-divisional game with Ferris, allowing Ferris to remain tied for the North lead with the winner of the Saginaw Valley/Michigan Tech game; I’m leaning MTU on that one. I’ll call Northern Michigan a slight favorite at home over Grand Valley, and UIndy should handle Northwood.
GREAT LAKES FOOTBALL:
Saint Joseph’s was the only team with solid expectations of a win, and they obliged, while everyone else lost.
The first conference tilt is this week, as Urbana should have little trouble with Kentucky Wesleyan. Missouri S&T ought to get by SD Tech, but Saint Joseph’s will have to score an upset.
GREAT NORTHWEST:
No surprises here this week, and Humboldt moved into a tie for the league lead with a resounding win over Dixie State in which Mike Proulx threw for 315 yards and four TDs in the first half, after which Humboldt went to the ground. Proulx finished with 361 yards in the air. Western Oregon can again take sole possession this week with a win over Central Washington, however. Dixie/Fraser is a crapshoot, and while a Humboldt win over FCS Cal-Davis wouldn’t shock me, it would be an upset.
GULF SOUTH:
See the Great American recap for details, as all five teams played GAC opponents last week and will do so again this week.
LONE STAR:
The week’s only surprise was Eastern New Mexico’s win over Angelo State, which may not look all that surprising in retrospect a couple of weeks from now. In the win, Wes Wood accounted for 426 yards of offense, 370 in the air, and the Greyhounds blocked a 47-yard FG attempt in the final two minutes which would have given Angelo the lead. The three teams unbeaten in conference remained that way.
Midwestern State will remain unbeaten overall, while Abilene and West Texas figure to keep pace. Not sure what to think of Incarnate Word/TAMUC, nor am I certain about Lindenwood/TAMUK.
MID-AMERICA:
Finally, someone knocked Northwest Missouri off their perch, and it was old nemesis Pittsburg State that did the deed at Arrowhead as Chase McCoy kicked the game winner on the final play of the game. Pittsburg’s offense was led by 182 receiving yards from WR John Brown. That leaves Pittsburg and Washburn atop the conference, a game up on Northwest and Central Missouri. The remaining action went according to form. Missouri Western’s Greg Zuerlein kicked six field goals, including a 57-yarder, in the Griffon’s win over Missouri Southern.
PSU and Washburn will remain atop the board with wins, and one of their two chasers will fall by the wayside as Northwest faces CMU. Northwest will probably win this one. Missouri Southern and Missouri Western should pick up wins as well.
NORTHEAST TEN:
Four teams remain undefeated in conference play, as the three teams expected to win did, and Bentley won the battle of 3-1 teams. Rashaad Slowley belied his name, rambling for 288 yards on the ground and four touchdowns in Southern Connecticut’s won over Assumption. On the opposite side of the ball, Assumption’s Nick DiAntonio recored 21 tackles in the loss.
The shakeout begins in earnest this week, as New Haven visits Southern Connecticut and Bentley travels to Merrimack. American International should easily handle Saint Anselm. New Haven and Merrimack have games in hand, so if they win, there could still be five games within a half a game of one another atop the ladder. If either SCSU or Bentley (or both) win, the conference race clears up a lot faster.
NORTHERN SUN:
Only Augustana’s win over Concordia went against expectations, and at this point I think Augustana has recovered from their early-season woes enough to no longer be considered the underdog in games that look borderline. Dajon Newell ran for 203 yards in the win. Five teams remain unbeaten in divisional play, two in conference play.
There are no divisional games this week, as everyone’s crossing over. That means the interesting thing this week is the conference race. Mankato visits Saint Cloud, and the only apparent advantage either way is location. A Mankato win would effectively knock SCSU out of the conference race. The other leader, Wayne State, hosts Mary. Mary’s having a good year, but I don’t think they’ve got enough to get past Wayne. Duluth should win at Winona, ensuring they’ll stay firmly in the discussion, as should Bemidji when they host Concordia. Moorhead, Upper Iowa, and Augustana should prevail in the remaining contests.
PENNSYLVANIA:
Several upsets shook up the PSAC on Saturday, chief among them previously unbeaten Kutztown’s absolute embarrassment at Shippensburg. Also falling from the ranks of the undefeated was Edinboro, shut out at Indiana. Mercyhurst tumbled to Gannon, and West Chester suffered a mild upset at C.W. Post. Slippery Rock and California won, taking advantage of Edinboro’s miscue to share sole possession of the Western Division lead. Bloomsburg shares the Eastern Division lead with C.W. Post, and is the new #2 team in the land following the rash of upsets in the top 5. Bloomsburg’s win was the 199th of head coach Danny Hale’s career.
In the east, Bloomsburg and C.W. Post should remain atop the standings after this week’s games, and Kutztown will almost certainly keep pace along with the winner of the West Chester/Shippensburg game, which is a bit of a toss-up. Out west, California will remain on top. Slippery Rock and Edinboro play a key game which could go either way; The Rock will continue to share the lead if they win, while a loss will create a logjam with Edinboro and the Indiana/Mercyhurst winner, another game up in the air after Mercyhurst’s loss last week. Either Lock Haven or Clarion will finally win a game, but there’s no telling which one it will be.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN:
Previously winless Western State only scored on five field goals, but that combined with timely defense served to stun previously unbeaten New Mexico Highlands. That leaves Kearney and Pueblo alone in the lead after their expected wins. Colorado Mines also won as expected.
Kearney will almost certainly remain unbeaten, hosting Chadron. Pueblo has a much tougher task, hosting Colorado Mines (game will be aired on CBS Sports at 8pm EST on Thursday). The two teams are awfully even on paper. The two New Mexico teams should pick up wins, as should Mesa.
SOUTH ATLANTIC:
Traditional SAC power Carson-Newman is now dead in the water, with a stranglehold on the conference basement after losing to co-leader Wingate. Mars Hill removed Newberry from their share of the lead behind 220 rushing yards from Jonas Randolph, while Lenoir-Rhyne was removed by the schedule; they lost a non-conference game to North Greenville. Catawba scored a nice non-conference upset over UNC-Pembroke, while Brevard won the battle for sixth place with Tusculum.
Either Wingate or Mars Hill will end Saturday in sole possession of the conference lead as the two teams meet at Mars Hill. Lenoir-Rhyne should take sole ownership of second place by knocking off Brevard. Tusculum is probably going down at Pembroke, while it’s hard to say what Catawba and Carson-Newman are going to do with each other.
SOUTHERN IAC:
Nothing weird, other than Tuskegee getting off the deck with a win over reeling Fort Valley.
In the east, Albany and Morehouse should remain on top with wins. Out west, Stillman has a stranglehold on things, and they’re going to win again this week. Since Miles has a game against Clark Atlanta which they could easily lose, Stillman could very likely be a full two and half games clear of the field come Sunday morning.
WEST VIRGINIA:
Fairmont, WV Wesleyan, and Glenville all won games they should have, and West Virginia State won a toss-up. #3 Shepherd, on the other hand, got bushwacked by Concord, who are now suddenly all alone in first place. WV Wesleyan rewarded interim head coach Jonas Jackson for the team’s start by removing the interim tag.
Big action this week, as Shepherd visits still-unbeaten WV Wesleyan while Concord travels to Glenville State. Concord and Shepherd have to be the favorites. West Virginia State is a slight favorite over winless West Liberty, while the other two winless teams, Charleston and Seton Hill, face off.
INDEPENDENTS:
Nothing out of the ordinary save UNC-Pembroke’s lost to Catawba. This week, Notre Dame, Pembroke, North Greenville, and McMurry should pick up wins.