Versus Sports FCS Top 25 moves the Aggies up to #6

https://www.versussportssimulator.com/FCS/rankings

Aggies jump up to 7 in the STATS poll

https://theanalyst.com/na/2021/10/fcs-top-25-rankings-sam-houston-slight-no-1-over-south-dakota-state/

Athlon moves the Aggies down 2 spots for a win with a back up quarterback against a conference opponent.... Uhhhhh okay?

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/fcs-rankings-top-25-power-poll-following-week-5-2021

Yeah, that one is odd. Eastern Washington was behind us and jumped from 10 to 5, which makes total sense. But dropping us behind Delaware, who beat a now 0-4 Albany at home doesn't make sense. Seems like we should have stayed in front of them.

Aggie remain at 8 in the coaches poll

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fcs/fcs-coaches-poll

That was my thought process. I concede that EWU should be ahead of us, but dropping us 2 seemed unwarranted. He also has Montana State at 6 and idk if they should be 4 spots ahead of us or not.

What is the methodology for Athlons rankings?
Comparative scores wasn’t kind to us this week because Tulsa underperformed.
San Diego played a nobody and won narrowly, and we were way under the spread.

I'm not sure if it has a methodology other than what Craig Haley feels like it should be. I still think it can't be understated that we won and put up 27 points with freshmen back up QBs.

Aggies come in at 6 in the AGS fan poll

https://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?282228-AGS-Poll-Results-Week-5-2021&p=2998744#post2998744

And a little help from his friend
Edit I didn’t note the plural on freshmen QBs

I think i would put the griz in higher than the s. Illonois salukis based on schedule. And Dixie keeps going from the frying pan to the fire. Up next for them - the griz. Those guys might have the toughest schedule in the fcs.

Doesn't get much easier either. They still also play Stephen F Austin (#23), Delaware (#9), Sam Houston State (#1) and Missouri State (#15). Rankings from the Stats poll since it's on the NCAA website.

So they play the current #1, #2, #6, #7, #9, #15, #19, #23.

Even if you're one of the unranked teams in the Big Sky, CAA or Missouri Valley, and got super unlucky (since there isn't a true round robin in any of them), it wouldn't be this bad. Big Sky has 5 ranked and 4 in the top 10, CAA has 5 ranked and 2 in the top 10, MVC has 6 ranked and 3 in the top 10. So you'd have to get unlucky with the schedule and then add on one or two other top-10 teams in the non-conference to top it off.

Decided to go through some schedules. These purposes I'll include FBS games as games against ranked teams.

Closest I got were Youngstown State and Western Illinois.

Youngstown gets all 6 MVFC teams plus Michigan State, so 7 total. Western Illinois only got 4 of the ranked MVFC teams (missing NDSt and No. 15 Missouri St) but they played Montana and Eastern Washington in the FCS and Ball State (ranked behind 3 FCS teams in Sagarin)

In the Big Sky, Idaho State and Idaho both have 4 FCS and 2 FBS while Northern Colorado gets all 5 ranked Big Sky teams plus Colorado.

I only went through those three conferences since it was unlikely another team could rack up that many quality opponents while still playing a conference schedule.

The CBS guy says this: "9. UC Davis (2-0): The Big Sky boasts four teams in my top 10, and if you want to say that the Aggies are the best one, you won't get an argument from me."

We’ve got to beat EWU before i entertain the idea of us being 1, or even 2. Mid range top 10 feels about right.