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Three Teams From Great West Ranked in AGS Preseason Top 25 Poll
May 22, 2006 CHICAGO, Ill. - Reigning NCAA I-AA national champion Appalachian State landed the top preseason spot garnering 45 first place votes in the AnyGivenSaturday.com (AGS) Poll. Three teams from the Great West Football Conference are ranked in the top 25 including No. 6 Cal Poly. North Dakota State is ranked No. 12 and UC Davis No. 20 in the poll. Another league member, South Dakota State, received votes. The AGS Poll has been the first released national poll each year since it's inception in 2004. Following the Mountaineers in the top ten were (in order): New Hampshire, Northern Iowa, Montana, Furman, Cal Poly, Youngstown State, James Madison, Illinois State and Delaware. The full results are listed below. Six other teams received first place votes including New Hampshire (31), Northern Iowa (7), Montana (2), Furman (2), James Madison (2), and North Dakota State received a single first place vote. A total of 25 squads received more than the five points required to receive mention outside of the top 25. The Atlantic 10 Conference, I-AA's largest league lead the way with five teams in the Top 25; the Gateway Football Conference had four; the Big Sky Conference, the Great West Football Conference, the Southern Conference and the Southland Conference had three each; the Ohio Valley Conference had two; and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Big South Conference were each represented with one. The pollsters also named Illinois State as the biggest rising team from 2005 and Texas State as the biggest falling team. In comparison to other polls, the AGS Poll had more of it's preseason top 25 on it's final regular season poll than either of the other two polls (ESPN/USAToday.com and SportsNetwork.com) had on their's the past two years. The significant team on the 2005 preseason top 25 AGS Poll that neither of the others had on their's was Appalachian State. The AGS Poll also had as many or more of it's preseason top 25 make the playoffs than either of the other two polls the past two years. AGS is the world's largest online community devoted to all of the NCAA Division I playoff football. The AGS Poll was created in 2004 to give distinguished members of the AGS community a place to voice their opinion, vote for the top 25 I-AA programs in the nation, and provide the media and coaches of I-AA a valuable resource to gauge general sentiment. In order to ensure that the poll is accurate and fair, a committee of AGS veteran members has established guidelines for voter eligibility and accountability. The AGS Poll will be announced weekly throughout the season on Mondays and a final poll will be announced shortly after the National Championship game. AGS also sponsors the national syndicated show I-AA WAVES hosted by Ralph Wallace of I-AA.org that airs every Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. Any Given Saturday Poll Preseason Top 25 |
