Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Football ranked No. 17 in Preseason FCS Coaches Poll
08/22/2011 | 12:00:00 | Football
Aug. 22, 2011
By John Lock
SIUSalukis.com
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Southern Illinois football team has been ranked No. 17 in the preseason Football Championship Subdivision Coaches Poll released on Monday. Last week, the Salukis received the No. 19 preseason ranking in the Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS poll.
The ranking marks the seventh time in eight seasons the program has been ranked in the preseason FCS Coaches poll. The ranking returns the Salukis to the top 25 after dropping out of the poll last October, ending a streak of 99 consecutive weeks in the top 25, a Missouri Valley Football Conference record.
SIU is the third MVFC team in the polls, trailing Northern Iowa (#7) and North Dakota State (#11).
The Eastern Washington Eagles finished the 2010 football season as the No. 1 team in the FCS Coaches Poll and will begin their 2011 campaign in the same spot. The Eagles received 23 of the 28 first-place votes to earn 687 points overall.
Eastern Washington returns 15 starters from the team that finished last season with a school-record 13 wins and just two losses. Twelve Eagles have garnered preseason honors, including six who received All-America honors at the NCAA FCS level.
Appalachian State, which finished the 2010 season at No. 4, earned one first-place vote and a total of 617 points, placing the Mountaineers in the No. 2 spot. Georgia Southern received three first-place votes and begins the 2011 season at No. 3. William & Mary took fourth for the second consecutive year in the preseason poll, while last year's national runner-up, Delaware, rounded out the top five.
Montana State makes its first appearance in the preseason top 10 in past two years at No. 6. Northern Iowa, Wofford, Jacksonville State, and New Hampshire complete the top 10, respectively.
Fourteen conferences are represented in the poll. The Colonial Athletic Association has the most ranked teams with six, followed by the Southern Conference with four teams. The Big Sky, Missouri Valley and Southland all have three ranked teams.
The FCS Coaches Poll is based exclusively on a voting panel of head coaches in the FCS under the cooperation of the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA) and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and is administered by the Southern Conference.
2011 FCS Coaches Preseason Poll (August 22, 2011)
Team (No. 1 Votes)
1. Eastern Washington (23)
2. Appalachian State (1)
3. Georgia Southern (3)
4. William & Mary (1)
5. Delaware
6. Montana State
7. Northern Iowa
8. Wofford
9. Jacksonville State
10. New Hampshire
11. North Dakota State
12. Montana
13. Villanova
14. Stephen F. Austin
15. Lehigh
16. James Madison
17. Southern Illinois
18. Liberty
19. Richmond
20. McNeese State
21. South Carolina State
22. Central Arkansas
23. Chattanooga
T24. Bethune-Cookman
T24. Penn
Others receiving votes (points in parentheses): Western Illinois (72); Cal Poly (71); Southeast Missouri State (68); Southern Utah (67); Sacramento State (66); Murray State (50); Jacksonville (46); Eastern Kentucky (41); UC Davis (22); Colgate (21); Central Connecticut State (19); Stony Brook (18); Indiana State (15); Harvard (14); Dayton (13); Jackson State (13); Illinois State (11); South Dakota State (10); Florida A&M (9); Coastal Carolina (9); Sam Houston State (9); Elon (8); Grambling State (8); Northern Arizona (3); Weber State (3); Northwestern State (2).
The poll website can be found here.
