I think the parity in that 6-12 position right now on the National stage is very exciting. A lot of good football yet to be played this season. The Aggies have passed the early tests, exceeding expectations by shocking Tulsa, wrangling a road win vs. a stout Weber defense... now they have to keep taking care of business if they want to get into that elite, "contender" echelon.

Considering that Villanova and Jacksonville State lost their games this week, and they're both ahead of UC Davis in the STATS poll, UC Davis should likely move up two spaces in the next STATS poll.

Edit: I guess you can say the same for the Coaches poll as well.

For those bracketology junkies out there, this guy projects us as the #7 seed playing against the winner of the North Dakota/Davidson game.

We're #7 in this bracket too. Weber State disappeared.
https://www.collegesportsmadness.com/fcs-football/bracketology

Davis stays at 8 in the versus poll

https://www.versussportssimulator.com/FCS/rankings

This is the first ranking where I've seen UC Davis ranked #1 in any FCS ranking:

http://gmbassett.nfshost.com/football/col_21earnedrank.html

By a significant margin too.

Looks like that ranking attempts to determine the likeliness of an average FCS team getting the same results as each team. So in other words, that algorithm doesn't expect any other teams to go 4-0 on our schedule. My specific guess would be it's overweighting the Tulsa game (which it assumes most FCS teams would lose, or be unlikely to win while also beating Weber) because it can't account for the players getting suspending or a wild goal-line fumble saving the game.

Aggies remain at 7 in the college sports madness poll

https://www.collegesportsmadness.com/fcs-football/top-25-rankings

Few FCS teams would beat Weber and Tulsa, so that much about it is correct.
They probably still have some weight given to how strong these teams were at the end of last season, and those two were great and San Diego was respectable.
Its an interesting strength if schedule algorithm, as most would not overlook that we haven’t beat anyone with more than 1 win.

they have Abilene Christian at 15 and Weber at 45. Not to be taken seriously

MIchigan State at No. 2 FBS. Again, let's site some credible sources here.

I'm not sure about Abilene but the Weber ranking makes sense within the framework of that methodology. Most teams would be 1-3 against Weber's schedule as of this point.

This is a ranking of how well teams can "steal" wins, the way I see it. It doesn't value the games you're supposed to win and certainly not the margin of victory, but it does care a lot about upsets.I guess you could argue this is ranking luck to some degree as well.

Sure, not all of the polls have the most realistic outlook on what the actual top 10 or top 25 will be, but I personally find it fun looking at where the different models have the Aggies. I never said that I took that particular poll seriously, although I think we will find most of the polls (this one included) are zeroing in on us in the 8-10 range

Craig Haley at Athlon moves us up from 10 to 8 in his poll

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/fcs-rankings-top-25-power-poll-following-week-4-2021

Sam Herder at HERO Sports FCS has the Aggies at 7

https://herosports.com/fcs-football-top-25-herder-ballot-2021-4-bzbz/

Aggies move up to 8 in the coaches poll!

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fcs/fcs-coaches-poll

We rarely play these northeastern or southern schools... JMU, Sam Houston. I do recall we played the Kingsville Javalinas several times in the DII days, once at The Tome.

How did South Dakota State become a power?

We rarely play these northeastern or southern schools... JMU, Sam Houston. I do recall we played the Kingsville Javalinas several times in the DII days, once at The Tome.

Edit - have to credit South Dakota State HC and alum John Stiegelmeier for building their powerhouse program.

Aggies move from 12 to 8 in the STATS Top 25 poll

https://theanalyst.com/na/2021/09/its-a-september-to-remember-in-fcs-top-25-rankings/

A lot of these teams used to be in the college division polls before the stated with the div 2 division 3 nomenclature. Delaware was always a team I wanted to see play because they ran the wing t.

Being in the Big Sky there just isn't a ton of space to fit in those types of games. We usually play 1-2 FBS schools which only leaves 1-2 non-conference FCS games. I couldn't tell you specifically what led to South Dakota State becoming a power, but my guess is money, coaching, and good recruiting. SDSU and NDSU are the big fish in the Dakotas and both do an excellent job of recruiting the middle of the country and bringing in transfer studs. A history of success helps bring continued success though. Guys go to NDSU, JMU, SHSU, Montana, EWU, etc. because they win consistently season to season.

Sagarin ratings, getting close to being top 100
101 Florida State A = 64.49 0 4
102 Central Michigan A = 64.02
103 East Carolina A = 63.52
104 Washington State A = 63.48
105 Colorado A = 62.89
106 UC Davis AA = 62.42
107 Troy A = 62.07
108 Miami-Ohio A = 61.86

http://sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm

Aggies at 7 in the AGS top 25 fan poll

https://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?281382-AGS-Poll-Results-Week-4-2021

We have an outside chance to catch Berkeley (#75). The Bears are 1-3 and had to fight to beat Sac (42-30).

Yeah, too bad we didnt catch them this year.

FWIW on South Dakota State support / facilities - Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, seating 19,300, cost $65M to build... Lead gifts and long term financing.

They drew 15,000+ in their home opener against DII Lindenwood.

The South Dakota State facility is actually very good. If you look at the state of their field, fieldhouse and cumulative football facilities in the mid-2000's compared to now... it's night and day.