MISSOULA — Montana State and Montana held steady in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll as seven Big Sky Conference teams received votes in the rankings for the second consecutive week.
The Bobcats, after Saturday's 51-24 win over Butler, remain the unanimous No. 1-ranked team. South Dakota State, which lost to FBS Northwestern 34-18, is still second, and Montana is third. The Grizzlies dropped Drake 45-10 last week.
Tarleton State moved up one spot to No. 4 after last week's 20-13 win at FBS Bowling Green, and Illinois State dropped to fifth. The Redbirds, coming off last year's national runner-up finish to Montana State, beat Western Illinois 41-10 last week.
The rest of the top 10: North Dakota, UC Davis, Rhode Island, Lehigh and Youngstown State.
The Big Sky got a big jump in the poll from Idaho State. The Bengals cracked the rankings last week for the first time since 2018 when they were 23rd. This week, they're 17th following a 29-17 win at Utah State.
Northern Arizona slipped from No. 22 to No. 24. Southern Utah and Cal Poly also received votes out of the Big Sky.
This week's Big Sky schedule is below.
Saturday, Sept. 12
(All times Mountain)
No. 1 Montana State at Nevada, 8:30 p.m.
Utah Tech at No. 3 Montana, 1 p.m. (non-conference)
No. 7 UC Davis at Southern Methodist, 2 p.m.
San Diego at No. 17 Idaho State, 4 p.m.
Incarnate Word at No. 24 Northern Arizona, 3 p.m.
(RV) Cal Poly at San Jose State, 7 p.m.
(RV) Southern Utah at Colorado State, 5 p.m.
Eastern Washington at South Dakota, 12 p.m.
Lamar at Idaho, 2 p.m.
Northern Colorado at Wyoming, 2 p.m.
North Dakota at Portland State, 8 p.m.
Weber State at Colorado, 1:30 p.m.