NCAA: UC Davis moves up in Stan Becton's Week 12 Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll ballot

4. UC Davis (9-1) | Previous Ranking: 4 (Where I ranked them: 5)

UC Davis moves in front of South Dakota in my rankings after a strong second half to pull away from Montana, 30-14, in a top-10 clash.

What was the highest Sac was ranked in their 12-0 season?

Sac was #2 at regular season's end, beating Davis 27-21 in 2022. They beat No. 13 Richmond at home after a 1st Round bye, then lost a showstopper in Sacramento to Incarnate Word 63-66. Only 13,722 people showed for the 3rd round matchup with UIW...compared to 23,073 at the Causeway Classic.

And the funny part about that causeway was they were bragging that they had the thousands of fans in the stands when half of them were Aggies.

But don't let the facts get in the way that ThE HoRnETs aRe SaCRAMento's tEAm!!!! lol.

Does Montana State move to #1 @ 11-0 with this W over #4?

1. Montana State 11-0
2. North Dakota State 10-1
3. South Dakota State 9-2
4. UC Davis 9-2
5. South Dakota 8-2

Doubt it. NDSt's only loss is by 5 on the road vs. an 8-2 Colorado team. If our game had ended 30-8, then maybe. But that's still the clear top 5. Maybe you swap 1 and 2, maybe you swap 4 and 5. SDST is locked at No. 3 for now.

We're all Bison fans this week though. If we beat Sac and NDST beats SD, I bet we jump back to 4. SD is at home so it's a bit different than when they lost to SDST by 3 on the road. Now, if we beat Sac by, say, less than 10 and SD loses a nailbiter, maybe they stay in front of us (and probably rightfully so in that case).

But this week...

No. 6 Incarnate Word beat a 6-4 team by 7 on the road. Not moving up.
No. 7 Mercer got crushed by Bama. Not moving up.
No. 8 Idaho beat 3-8 Weber by 7 at home. Not moving up.
No. 9 Villanova lost to a 5-6 Monmouth. Moving way down.
No. 10 Montana beat 2-8 Portland St by 11 at home. Moving up 1 maybe by default.

I'd say outside of winning today, the results went about as well as possible for us. Beat Sac by literally any margin and I bet we're the 5 at worst. Put it on Sac and we're probably the 4 unless South Dakota beats NDSt. Man it would be really cool to get 2 home games at a minimum (assuming we win the first one).