Colonial Athletic Association

Unbeatens James Madison, NDSU lead FCS committee rankings

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 1:48 p.m. ET

(STATS) - There wasn't a great deal of surprise with the first set of Top 10 rankings released by the NCAA Division I FCS selection committee Thursday night.

Well, maybe there was to the hopeful teams not included in them.

But, as expected, 2016 FCS champ James Madison (8-0) led the way at No. 1 followed by No. 2 North Dakota State (8-0) and No. 3 Jacksonville State (7-1).

Then it was: 4. Central Arkansas (7-1); 5. South Dakota (7-1); 6. Sam Houston State (7-1); 7. Elon (7-1); 8. Wofford (7-1); 9. Northern Arizona (6-2); and 10. South Dakota State (6-2).

Likely among the next-best teams not to appear in the Top 10 were Illinois State (6-2) and Southern Utah (6-2).

"There's a lot of metrics on how we decide these rankings," said committee chair Richard Johnson, the athletic director at Wofford, "but I will tell you that I've been very impressed over my tenure on the committee with the integrity of the process and the amount of work and lack of bias by committee members. It's routine to hear in the committee room a member from one conference pushing a team from another conference instead of being a homer if you will and promoting his team."

A second set of rankings will be announced next Thursday night as a way to build excitement toward the announcement of the 24-team playoff field Nov. 19 (11 a.m. ET, ESPNU).

The playoffs consist of 10 conference champions which receive automatic bids and 14 at-large selections. Eight teams are seeded and receive first-round byes, and 16 play in the first round on Nov. 25.

All games through the semifinals are played at campus sites. The 40th annual championship game will be held Jan. 6 in Frisco, Texas.

Get more from Colonial Athletic Association Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Colonial Athletic Association

College Basketball

James Madison Dukes

North Dakota State Bison

Summit League