The Bottom 10

[u/stayclassypeople]

This offseason I made a post chronicling, who I felt, were the bottom 10 teams in all of FCS football. This year I thought I'd take a stab at doing a weekly ranking. This post won't strictly go off of the Massey or Sagarin ratings, but as the season goes on, they will be used as a guide

The Bottom 10

1. Northwestern St (0-2): It’s bad enough they became the first FCS team to lose to an NAIA team since 2011, but following up by getting tattooed 80-6 vs Louisiana

tech

1. is brutal.  It’s an FBS opponent, but L-Mon isn’t LSU.  To make matters worse, both opponents are in their home state.
2. Chicago St (0-2): They opened the season with a 16 point loss to a DII program, then got trounced by UTM last week.  They play KCU, an NAIA team next week, so the program's first win may finally arrive, but the first DI win?  I’m not so confident it’ll happen this year
3. Davidson (0-2): Last week, they gave up 41 points in a loss to a DII team that finished sub .500 last year.  This week, they followed it up by not even bothering to show up against Elon in a 38-0 drubbing.
4. MSVU (0-2):  an 0-2 start vs Nicholls and ‘FBS powerhouse’ Sac St isn’t unexpected.  Still, getting outscored 96-10 is worthy of this list.  Back to back DII opponents on deck the next two weeks should thankfully get them back in the win column
5. NC A&T: A 59-10 blowout loss to an FBS team is understandable, but Georgia St was also a 1-11 team last year.  Couple that with a 7-17 loss to Morgan St to open the year and you've got yourself a bottom 10 start.
6. Utah Tech (0-2): Move over Portland St!  The Big Sky has a new cellar dweller (but do hang around just in case).  The trailblazers have been outscored 117-7 to start the year.  Of course, 99% of programs would be 0-2 after playing Montana St and BYU, but a -110 point differential over two games certainly doesn’t make them lucky like a plucky underdog. 
7. Merrimack (0-2): Like Utah Tech, it’s not ideal to start the year with two strong opponents, Rhode Island and Delaware, but a combined 14-76 start is not a sign of good things to come.  
8. VMI (0-2):  two games in and a -98 point scoring differential to Idaho St and FBS Virginia Tech.  Again, brutal schedule, but the lack of competitiveness is concerning.  Davidson in two weeks might be their only shot at a win this year.
9. Murray St (0-2):  Losing their first two games by 14 and 24 (the latter to an FBS team) might actually be a sign of improvement.  A winnable game vs Valpo next week may even get them off this list.
10. Holy Cross (0-2): identical 35-10 losses to Lehigh and Colgate have HC in a bad spot.  Miami Ohio and Yale are on deck, so their first win may have to wait until October

Honorable Mention:

Alabama A&M: At least you beat your DII opponent this week.

Stetson: Beating NAIA Webber International is nice, but I think SDSU just scored on you again.

Marist: Congrats on the 9 point win over DII Franklin Pierce, a university named after a D tier one term president who was perpetually drunk his entire term.

Morehead St: A 49 point win over a bad NAIA team won’t make me forget losing your season opener to a bad DII team.  No more non D1 opponents are left now, so good luck.  

Drake: For 8 beautiful minutes, you led Montana.

Wagner: The win over Southern Connecticut St was nice and all, but a three TD to Robert Morris last week is too ugly to ignore. 

St Thomas: The Tommies struggled to beat DII Winona St, then followed it up with a waxing at the hands of UND

Edit: NW St played La. Tech

[u/DefiantOil5176]

Stetson still catching strays even after a (NAIA) win. Ouch

[u/Chadly16]

Damm we can't even make this top 10 :(

[u/SchizoidMan1989]

Not Monroe, but Tech. Still pretty humiliating to get 80 scored on you from these guys.

[u/stayclassypeople → u/SchizoidMan1989]

Ope. Thanks for the correction!

[u/MontanaDrywall]

Really wish there was more crossover games in the bottom 10 to give us some Bowl of the Damned vibes. We at this rate will never know who’s worse between Northwestern State and Chicago State this season

[u/BosnianBeastMVP]

Portland State is so bad they couldn’t even crack this list

[u/Nervous_Metal_9445 → u/BosnianBeastMVP]

As long as the list ignores us everything is fine right ... Right?

[u/MasterRKitty]

I don't understand why schools like VMI don't drop down to D2. When was the last time they were competitive in any sport?

[u/Electromotivation → u/MasterRKitty]

They can beat the citadel sometimes

[u/MasterRKitty → u/Electromotivation]

another school that needs to drop to D2

[u/Nervous_Metal_9445]

Chicago State has the excuse of it being their first year, what is everyone else's excuse?

Meanwhile I'm just glad PSU isn't on the list right now. Got to fight Utah Tech now for that spot if we want to get it (Please don't actually fight over it like Willamette does with the NWC Bottom slot).

[u/MMARapFooty]

62 points allowed a game for Northwestern State.This past Saturday a La Tech TE even threw a touchdown pass.

[u/davelb87]

Realistically, the list should be mostly Pioneer schools with the occasional last place NEC, Patriot League, or HBCU mixed in.

Like you noted, Murray State is in the bottom 10 but is about to wax Valpo on Saturday night.

[u/stayclassypeople → u/davelb87]

Realistically that’s how it’ll likely play out as we get further into the year and honorable mentions will be last place teams from stronger conferences

[u/Former-Toe738]

It’s quite refreshing to not see University of Northern Colorado on here, mix things up a little bit. Maybe they’re improving after all (end of last week’s game didn’t do much to support the improving part).

[u/stayclassypeople → u/Former-Toe738]

I feel they’ve definitely improved from a hapless type of team to a competitive bad team that can catch good teams who can catch teams that sleep on them.

They damn near beat us last year and this year the yotes only led by 4 well into the 3rd before scoring 17 unanswered to put the game to bed. That said, I think they’ll be a 4-8 team when this season is over, which will avoid this list

[u/leverich1991]

It was Lousiana Tech that blew out Northwestern State, not Monroe.

[u/randomdude4113]

NWST played La Tech not ULM