Idaho ranked No. 7 in FCS Top 25 preseason poll; six Big Sky teams ranked

Six Big Sky teams will open the football championship subdivision season in the Stats Perform Top 25 poll, which was released Monday.

Montana, last year’s national runner-up, is third, followed by rival Montana State in fourth.

Idaho is seventh, Sacramento State eighth and UC Davis 18th. All five of those Big Sky teams finished in the final Stats Perform poll of the 2023 season.

Joining them in the preseason poll is Weber State at No. 22. Eastern Washington was listed among the “others receiving votes.”

The poll is dominated by the subdivisions two dominant conferences, the Big Sky and the Missouri Valley Football Conference, which has seven teams among the top 25. That includes No. 1 South Dakota State, the defending champion, and No. 2 North Dakota State, winner of nine national titles since 2011.

SDSU received 52 first-place votes, NDSU got three, and Montana State received one.

Nineteen of the 25 teams were ranked in the final poll of last season.

After opening the season against Monmouth, EWU will host Drake, which sits right behind them in the “others receiving votes” section. That makes Drake the highest-ranked team in the Pioneer League. Drake finished 8-4 last season and went 8-0 in league play, losing to North Dakota State in the first round of the playoffs, 66-3.

The Eagles’ other two nonconference opponents are Southeastern Louisiana (FCS) and Nevada (FBS). Eastern opens conference play against the five highest-ranked teams in the Big Sky, starting at home against Montana on Sept. 28.

Idaho opens with matchups at FBS schools Oregon (Aug. 31) and Wyoming (Sept. 7) before hosting 16th-ranked Albany on Sept. 14.

The Vandals host the Eagles at the Kibbie Dome on Oct. 26.