Jacksonville State didn’t leave Jordan-Hare Stadium with a victory on Saturday, but they didn’t come home empty handed, either. The Gamecocks a lifetime of fear and ire from Auburn fans, the respect and gratitude of the rest of the SEC, and their first-ever No. 1 ranking.
Following their 27-20 overtime loss, Jacksonville State (1-1) garnered 39 of a possible 154 first-place votes and 3,491 total votes, good enough to jump from fifth to first in the STATS FCS media poll. The Gamecocks edged Coastal Carolina, Sam Houston State and North Dakota State for the top spot.
“FCS football is no joke,” Jacksonville State head coach Bobby Grass said Monday. “I think the parity in FCS football is really, really good. There’s a lot of good teams out there, there’s a lot of good teams in our conference. We’ve got to take care of ourselves and what we can control and just be better every day.”
The top ten:
- Jacksonville State (39)
- Coastal Carolina (36)
- Sam Houston State (38)
- North Dakota State (23)
- Illinois State (6)
- Villanova (4)
- South Dakota State (8)
- Montana
- Northern Iowa
- Chattanooga