Oct. 20—INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA FCS Football Selection Committee has four Missouri Valley Football Conference teams in top-eight seed positions, with South Dakota State at No. 5 and South Dakota at No. 8 in the first update of the season.
In the first in-season rankings announced on Tuesday, Oct. 20, Montana State (6-1) is the No. 1 team in the committee's top-10, while Tarleton State (7-0) is at No. 2. Youngstown State (6-2) leads the Valley contingent at No. 3, while Stephen F. Austin (7-0) is No. 4 and South Dakota State (5-2) is at No. 5.
The rest of the top-10 includes North Dakota (6-2) at No. 6, Northern Arizona (6-2) at No. 7, South Dakota (6-2) at No. 8, Austin Peay (6-2) at No. 9 and Harvard (5-0) at No. 10.
Tarleton State and Stephen F. Austin are the top-two ranked teams in this week's Stats Perform Top 25 rankings, with the Texans ranked No. 1 for the first time. Montana State has an FBS win over Nevada but lost two weeks ago to Idaho in Big Sky Conference play. Tarleton State defeated FCS foe Bowling Green in September.
The Valley is led by Youngstown State with a 4-1 conference record, with its only loss to SDSU. North Dakota and USD are 3-1 and play this weekend in Vermillion, while SDSU and Northern Iowa are both 2-1 in league play. The Jackrabbiots play last place Murray State on Saturday before hosting South Dakota on Oct. 31 in Brookings.
The second and final in-season update from the committee will be issued on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 1 p.m.
The committee used results of games played through Oct. 17, and these in-season rankings serve as a snapshot as to where the committee has teams ranked heading into the final four weeks of the regular season.