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The top three teams in the Coaches' Poll all survived road trips on Saturday to teams ranked among the Top 14. And in addition to the losers of those ranked-vs-ranked matchups, six other Top 25 programs went down to defeat.
The weekend had 17 teams on a bye week and 1 playing a team from outside the FCS as Tennessee State hosted and defeated D-2 member Lincoln (C), 54-0.
Four teams in the Coaches' Poll were among those taking the week off - (6) Montana, (8) Idaho, (21) Central Arkansas, and (23) UC Davis.
(1) South Dakota State 17 at (12) Southern Illinois 10
The Jackrabbits have now taken 7 of the last 8 and avenged a 42-41 loss in Brookings in the previous meeting in 2021.
(2) Montana State 42 at (4) Sacramento State 30
The Bobcats capture the Big Sky showdown and improved to 25-3 in conference play since 2019 while Sac State fell to that same record during that period. The lone loss for the Bobcats this year was a 29-16 setback at current No. 1 South Dakota State on September 9 in a non-conference game. These combatants both went 8-0 in conference play in 2022 and hadn't met since 2019, when Sac State became the most recent visiting team to win in Bobcat Stadium. The Hornets also won the prior meeting at home in 2016 to end an 8-game series losing streak that dated back to 2005.
(3) Furman 29 at (14) Western Carolina 17
Furman improved to 6-1 (4-0 SoCon) while the homestanding Catamounts drop to 5-2 (3-1 SoCon. At the start of the season, Furman was ranked 4th by the computer while Western Carolina was ranked 39th by the computer and was nowhere among the 50 teams receiving votes in the Coaches' Poll. The Catamounts were looking to make just their second-ever FCS playoff appearance, and their first since 1983 when they lost 43-7 to Southern Illinois in the championship game in Charleston, South Carolina on The Citadel campus. An undefeated finish will ne necessary to have any hope of keeping that dream alive.
Furman has made the FCS playoffs 19 times and is 20-18 in those games. The Paladins won the 1988 championship with a 17-12 victory over the legendary Erk Russell who went 16-2 in the playoffs with Georgia Southern. That title game was played in Pocatello, Idaho on the campus of Idaho State. Furman had lost in the '85 game to Georgia Southern, and later fell to Montana in the 2001 title match. Just last season, Furman was eliminated in a second round game, 41-38, at a 7-seed Incarnate Word team that made it to the semifinals.
In addition to (4) Sacramento State, (12) Southern Illinois, and (14) Western Carolina, these are the Top 25 teams that fell on Saturday.
(9) North Dakota - The Fighting Hawks, favored by 4.5, lost 27-0 at Northern Iowa.
(11) Holy Cross - The Crusaders, favored by 16 points, lost 38-35 at home to Lafayette, ending a 19-game conference (Patriot) winning streak.
(13) William & Mary - In a CAA game, the 13-point favored Tribe lost 34-24 at home to Towson.
(17) Harvard - The 8.5-point favored Crimson fell 21-14 at Princeton.
(25) Illinois State - The 8.5-point underdogs at Youngstown State fell to the Penguins, 41-38.
This season has 117 of the 133 FBS schools facing one FCS opponent, and Army playing two such games for a total of 118 FBS-FCS matchups.
Of the 16 FBS schools that do NOT play a FCS program, 7 are in the B1G (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin). 6 more are evenly split between the Big 12 (Houston, Oklahoma, Texas) and Pac-12 (Colorado, USC, Washington). The other three are Liberty (CUSA) , UTSA (American), and Virginia Tech (ACC).
There were no such matchups this past weekend, and none are scheduled for this coming week.
The FBS programs are 106-4 this year against the FCS schools. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,792-152 (.922) since we began tracking this in 2003.
Here are the FCS wins in 2023, so far:
September 9: Idaho 33, Nevada 6
September 9: Southern Illinois 14, Northern Illinois 12
September 9: Fordham 40, Buffalo 37
September 16: Sacramento State 30, Stanford 23
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE - Won 21 straight over-all, 14 straight conference games, 6 straight road games (tied with Penn).
Last: 17-10 win at Southern Illinois on Saturday, October 21.
Next: at South Dakota on Saturday, October 28.
MONTANA STATE - Won 24 straight home games.
Last: 42-30 win at Sacramento State on Saturday, October 21.
Next: at Idaho on Saturday, October 28.
HOLY CROSS - Had won 19 straight conference games, but lost 38-35 to Lafayette.
Last: 38-35 home loss to Lafayette on Saturday, October 21.
NEXT: at Fordham on Saturday, October 28.
HARVARD - Had won 8 straight road games, but lost 21-14 at Princeton.
Last: 21-14 loss at Princeton on Saturday, October 21.
Next: Hosts Dartmouth on Saturday, October 28.
WESTERN ILLINOIS - Lost 20 straight over-all, 14 straight conference games, and 9 straight home games.
Last: 52-7 loss at North Dakota State on Saturday, October 21.
Next: Hosts Southern Illinois on Saturday, October 28.
ROBERT MORRIS - Lost 19 straight road games.
Last: 43-24 loss at Bryant on Saturday, October 14.
Next: After idle week, hosts Tennessee Tech on Saturday, October 28.