Poll Position

The first Sports Network Football Championship Subdivision poll is out, and four UC Davis opponents are in the Top 20. There are three Great West Football Conference teams (No. 4 North Dakota State, No. 15 Cal Poly and No. 20 South Dakota State). Portland State, who the Aggies play on Sept. 8, is ranked 13th in the nation. Counting further down in the Others Receiving Votes category, UCD would be 35th. I'll be clear here in saying that I believe preseason polls to be near meaningless, especially given the imperfect information that abounds in FCS-level football. But that's also why I chose to vote, because the poll is designed to aide coverage and has no bearing at all on the postseason.

So here's how I voted in this poll:
1. Appalachian State
2. North Dakota State
3. Montana
4. UMass
5. Youngstown
6. Northern Iowa
7. Illinois State
8. New Hampshire
9. Portland State
10. Cal Poly
11. McNeese State
12. James Madison
13. Southern Illinois
14. Furman
15. Delaware
16. Wofford
17. Eastern Illinois
18. Tenn.-Martin
19. Hampton
20. Lafayette
21. Sam Houston St.
22. Montana St.
23. Lehigh
24. Central Arkansas
25. UC Davis

You can see another man's opinion here. He, apparently, is an even bigger Great West homer than I am. For what it's worth, I had South Dakota State about 26th in my head. Perhaps I'm underrating the Jacks at my own peril, especially after what I've seen them do to the Aggies the last two seasons. But SDSU should be used to that by now.