Bison make 100th straight appearance in FCS Top 25

STATS FCS Senior Editor

(STATS) - It can be easy to take North Dakota State's excellence for granted, but the consistency is something most teams don't match.

The Bison play well no matter the opponent, most recently posting a 24-12 win over another Top 10 team, Western Illinois.

On Monday, the nation's No. 2-ranked team made its 100th straight appearance in the STATS FCS Top 25 - the active high in the national media poll. The Bison trailed only top-ranked James Madison, the defending FCS champion, which also improved to 7-0 this past Saturday.

North Dakota State has appeared in every Top 25 poll since Nov. 1, 2010 - the year before they began their run of five straight FCS championship seasons. The Bison's next win will be their 100th of the decade.

Saturday's victory was the perfect example of North Dakota State's excellence. Western Illinois entered the game with only one loss and ranked fourth in the FCS in scoring, yet the Bison kept them without an offensive touchdown and took sole possession of first place in the extremely competitive Missouri Valley Football Conference.

The program, coach Chris Klieman said Monday "has been good for a long time. It's been good long before I came here and it will be good long after I leave here. It's just a great tradition and a great program for me to be a part of."

North Dakota State next hosts MVFC rival Northern Iowa, which is coming off two straight wins over Top 10 teams.

James Madison raised the longest active winning streak in Division I to 19 games with a 46-14 rout of William & Mary in CAA Football. The Dukes collected 157 of the 166 first-place votes and 4,141 points in the Top 25. North Dakota State had the other nine No. 1 votes.

Jacksonville State (6-1) also held steady at No. 3 after it beat Eastern Illinois 30-14 for its record 28th straight Ohio Valley Conference victory.

But then there was great change in the Top 25 because six of last week's 11 highest-ranked teams lost on Saturday. Southland Conference teams Central Arkansas (6-1) and Sam Houston State (6-1) moved up to Nos. 4 and 5, respectively, followed in the Top 10 by South Dakota (6-1), North Carolina A&T (8-0), Wofford (6-1), Samford (5-2) and Elon (5-2).

South Dakota State's No. 11 ranking marked its 72nd straight appearance in the Top 25 - second to North Dakota State. After the Jackrabbits (5-2), it was Western Illinois (5-2), Villanova (4-3), Eastern Washington (5-3), Grambling State (6-1), Illinois State (5-2), New Hampshire (5-2), Western Carolina (6-2), Richmond (4-3) and McNeese (6-1).

Rounding out the Top 25 were Youngstown State (3-4), Stony Brook (5-2), Delaware (5-2), Montana (5-2) and Southern Utah (5-2). Delaware and Southern Utah joined the rankings for the first time this season, with Weber State, which won its game Saturday, and North Carolina Central, which lost, falling out of the rankings.

A national panel of sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries select the STATS FCS Top 25. A first-place vote is worth 25 points, a second-place vote 24 points, all the way down to one point for a 25th-place vote.

The Top 25 is released every Monday afternoon during the regular season, except for Sunday morning, Nov. 19, prior to the selection of the 24-team FCS playoff field. A final Top 25 will follow the FCS championship game, which will be held Jan. 6 in Frisco, Texas.