The Montana State football team held onto its fifth-place ranking in both FCS polls while Montana’s loss to Eastern Washington caused the Grizzlies to slide out of the Top 10.
MSU remains ranked fifth in polls of coaches and media. Montana dropped two spots to 12th in The Sports Network poll and three spots to 13th in the FCS Coaches poll after falling 42-37 to Eastern Washington. The Eagles are ranked third by the Sports Network and fourth by the coaches.
Northern Arizona is ranked 14th in both polls. Two-time defending national champion North Dakota State (8-0) stayed first in both polls, receiving 159 first-place votes and 3,975 points in the Sports Network poll, and the Bison got all 26 votes and 650 points in the FCS coaches poll.
Montana is at Sacramento State (3-1/4-4), Saturday, Nov. 2, in a Big Sky game that starts at 2 p.m. Montana State faces a talented quarterback with some impressive offensive weapons when the Bobcats visit Northern Colorado this weekend. The Bobcats look to extend their school-record string of consecutive seasons with a winning record to 12 on Saturday at 1:35 p.m., but run into talented Bears signal-caller Seth Lobato, who is third in the Big Sky and 11th in the FCS with 287.5 passing yards per game. Lobato’s primary target is Dmitri Stimphil, whose 95.1 receiving yards a game is fourth in the Big Sky. UNC’s passing attack squares off with MSU’s pass defense which is 19th in the FCS.
In the NAIA poll, Carroll College moved up two spots to fifth after a 42-14 win at Montana State-Northern and losses by two teams ranked ahead of them. Rocky Mountain moved up to eighth and Southern Oregon moved up to 20th.