Resumes For The Top 10 Teams In The FCS Playoff Committee's Rankings (Nov. 5)

During the College Football Live show on ESPN2, the FCS playoff committee released its second Top 10 ranking on Wednesday. Rankings were based on the current resumes of each team and did not project any future results.

This is the final look at the committee's rankings until the official FCS Selection Show on ESPNU on Nov. 23.

We wanted to review the current resumes of every team in the committee's Top 10 rankings. This will provide some insight into what the committee values at this time.

One note, "Top 50 Wins" is not something the committee may use, but it's something I feel offers more context than ranked wins. If we use ranked wins, why isn't a team getting rewarded for a quality win over a team that may be ranked No. 26 or No. 30? The Top 50 isn't perfect, but it offers significantly more context on quality wins than a subjective Top 25. We utilized the established Sagarin rating system to determine the Top 50 wins for each team.

The advanced metric ranking below is an average of two different power ratings (Sagarin & Massey). These two metrics were used because they are two of the most accurate, and recognized power ratings available for FCS football.

Below are the resumes of the Top 10 teams in the second edition of the FCS playoff committee's rankings.

1. North Dakota State

Overall Record: 9-0

FCS Record: 9-0

SOS (Massey): No. 24

Top 50 Wins: 5 (Illinois State, South Dakota, SDSU, YSU, Southern Illinois)

Advanced Metric Ranking: 1st

Past Opponents' Record (vs Other Teams): 42-31

2. Montana State

Overall Record: 7-2

FCS Record: 7-1

SOS (Massey): No. 7

Top 50 Wins: 3 (Northern Arizona, Eastern Washington, Idaho State)

Advanced Metric Ranking: 2nd

Past Opponents' Record (vs Other Teams): 38-33

3. Montana

Overall Record: 9-0

FCS Record: 8-0

SOS (Massey): No. 35

Top 50 Wins (Massey): 5 (North Dakota, Idaho, Sac State, Idaho State, Weber State)

Advanced Metric Ranking: 3rd

Past Opponents' Record (vs Other Teams): 41-31

4. Lehigh

Overall Record: 9-0

FCS Record: 9-0

SOS (Massey): No. 95

Top 50 Wins: 3 (Yale, Penn, Richmond)

Advanced Metric Ranking: 12th

Past Opponents' Record (vs Other Teams): 37-29

5. Tarleton State

Overall Record: 9-1

FCS Record: 8-1

FBS Win: 1 (Army)

SOS (Massey): No. 30

Top 50 Wins: 4 (Chattanooga, Eastern Kentucky, Southern Utah, West Georgia, Army)
*Note: Sagarin would have Army ranked as the No. 6 team in the FCS*

Advanced Metric Ranking: 4th

Past Opponents' Record (vs Other Teams): 33-45

6. South Dakota State

Overall Record: 7-2

FCS Record: 7-2

SOS (Massey): No. 19

Top 50 Wins: 4 (Sacramento State, Montana State, Drake, YSU)

Advanced Metric Ranking: 5th

Past Opponents' Record (vs Other Teams): 38-33

7. Tennessee Tech

Overall Record: 9-0

FCS Record: 8-0

SOS (Massey): No. 96

Top 50 Wins: 2 (Gardner-Webb, Chattanooga)

Advanced Metric Ranking: 9th

Past Opponents' Record (vs Other Teams): 25-40

8. Monmouth

Overall Record: 8-1

FCS Record: 8-0

SOS (Massey): No. 67

Top 50 Wins: 1 (Villanova)

Advanced Metric Ranking: 16th

Past Opponents' Record (vs Other Teams): 29-41

9. Harvard

Overall Record: 7-0

FCS Record: 7-0

SOS (Massey): No. 92

Top 50 Wins: 1 (Dartmouth)

Advanced Metric Ranking: 6th

Past Opponents' Record (vs Other Teams): 21-27

10. UC Davis

Overall Record: 6-2

FCS Record: 6-1

SOS (Massey): No. 20

Top 50 Wins: 3 (Weber State, Northern Arizona, Southern Utah)

Advanced Metric Ranking: 11th

Past Opponents' Record (vs Other Teams): 27-37

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