Five league teams are ranked the Coaches poll and four are ranked in the Stats Perform poll this week. The league has three of the Top 5 in both the Stats Perform and AFCA Coaches poll. All FCS ranked teams are in action on Saturday, which features three games that have two top-25 teams facing one another.  There were three new ranked teams in the Stats Perform poll and four in the AFCA rankings.
 

FCS Top-25 vs. Top 25 Matchups This Week (N16)
--/#14 MoState at #1/1 NDSU (ABC ND/ESPN+)	2:30 pm CT
#2/#2 Montana State at #4/4 UC Davis (ESPN+)	7:00 pm CT
#14/#15 Abilene Christian at #13/12 Tarleton St. (E+)	6:00 pm CT

Ranked vs. Ranked
This week, Missouri State and NDSU face one another in a matchup of two top-25 MVFC programs.  In Conference history, there have been 240 games in which two league teams ranked in the top 25 played one another. Of those 240 games, 69 times the meeting involved teams that were both ranked in the Top 10 at the same time. Nineteen meetings have occurred in the playoffs. The home team is 134-104 in those games; the higher-ranked team is 152-87. Those figures include two neutral-site games, and one game in which the teams were both No. 25.

North Dakota State (6-0) hosts Missouri State (6-0) on Nov. 16 with sole possession of first place in the league race on the line.  There has only been one previous meeting in MVFC history between two teams with 6-0 league records.  On Nov. 7, 2009, Southern Illinois beat South Dakota State to claim the league’s AQ.   On Nov. 16, Missouri State will be looking to post the league’s 21st all-time win vs. a No. 1-ranked team when it faces top-ranked NDSU.  Eleven of the previous 20 MVFC wins against a No. 1 team have been league games.  MoState is 0-9 all-time against No. 1 ranked FCS teams.



MVFC in the Metrics
Six of the Missouri Valley Football Conference’s 11 programs rank in the top 18 of the Massey FCS Ratings.  In Massey, UNI’s strength of schedule leads the MVFC and is No. 2 nationally (behind Portland State).  South Dakota State (3), Southern Illinois (4), North Dakota State (8), Youngstown State (10), North Dakota (9), South Dakota (14), and Illinois State (15) also have SOS in the FCS Top 15.

Sagarin Ranks MVFC No. 1
Six MVFC football programs rank among the Top 14 in Jeff Sagarin’s football ratings, which includes four of the top six FCS teams.  The MVFC is the highest-rated FCS conference in Sagarin:

Sagarin FCS Conference Ratings (Sagarin)
1. Missouri Valley Football
2. Big Sky 
3. Coastal
4. United Athletic
5. Ivy

MVFC in Select Company
NDSU, SDSU, and USD are the only FCS teams to rank in the Top 15 of four major metrics (MoState not included below as the Bears are not eligible for FCS playoffs):

Wins Against Top 25 (Massey rated)
3 - North Dakota State
3 - South Dakota State
3 - Montana State

Wins Against Top 50 (Massey rated)
6 - North Dakota State
6 - Montana State
5 - South Dakota State
5 - UC Davis

Teams in Top 15 (Massey, KPI, Sagarin, SOS)
NDSU (1-Massey, 1-KPI, 2-Sagarin, 8-SOS)
SDSU (2-Massey, 4-KPI, 1-Sagarin, 4-SOS)
South Dakota (4-Massey, 13-KPI, 4-Sagarin, 14-SOS)