2017 NAIA Football Coaches’ Top 25 Poll — No. 6
By Alan Grosbach, Associate Director of Athletic Communications and Media
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – None of the top 14 teams shifted positions this week, including top-ranked Saint Francis (Ind.), which locked down the No. 1 ranking for a ninth-straight edition of the 2017 NAIA Football Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Monday. The Cougars claimed all 15 first-place votes and 340 total points.
Top 25 Highlights (historical information dates back to 1999):
• Saint Francis owns the No. 1 ranking for the 12th time in program history. Additionally, the top billing marks the 20th-consecutive edition that a team from the Mid-States Football Association Mideast League has held the No. 1 mark.
• The Cougars were dominant last weekend, downing Siena Heights (Mich.), 36-9, to extend their NAIA-best winning streak to 16-straight games. Saint Francis boasts an average victory margin of 28.1 points per game this season.
• Saint Francis travels to Missouri Baptist on Saturday.
• No. 25 Campbellsville (Ky.) is the lone newcomer this week. The Tigers, who have not been ranked since the 2016 preseason poll, are off to a 5-0 start this season. Campbellsville travels to Ave Maria (Fla.) on Saturday before an important showdown with No. 9 Georgetown (Ky.) on October 28.
• Carroll (Mont.) owns the most No. 1 rankings with 58, followed by former NAIA member Sioux Falls (S.D.) (55), No. 9 Georgetown (25), No. 4 Morningside (Iowa) (20), No. 10 Saint Xavier (Ill.) (14) and Saint Francis (12).
• Morningside holds the longest active streak with 132-straight Top 25 mentions. Additionally, the Mustangs have been ranked within the top 10 in 81-straight polls.
Poll Methodology
• The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences.
• Each conference is given one rater for every four schools in the league.
• The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each voter ranks the best teams. A team receives 25 points for each first-place vote, 24 for second-place and so on through the list.
• The highest and lowest ranking for each team (a non-rating is considered a low rating) is removed and the team’s ranking will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the teams appear on.
• Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered “receiving votes.”
2017 NAIA Football Coaches’ Top 25 Poll – No. 6 (October 16, 2017)
| RANK | LAST TIME^ | SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES) | 2017 RECORD | TOTAL POINTS |
| 1 | 1 | Saint Francis (Ind.) (15) | 7-0 | 340 |
| 2 | 2 | Baker (Kan.) | 7-0 | 327 |
| 3 | 3 | Reinhardt (Ga.) | 6-0 | 312 |
| 4 | 4 | Morningside (Iowa) | 7-0 | 303 |
| 5 | 5 | Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) | 6-0 | 286 |
| 6 | 6 | Grand View (Iowa) | 6-1 | 272 |
| 7 | 7 | Southern Oregon | 6-0 | 265 |
| 8 | 8 | Langston (Okla.) | 6-0 | 237 |
| 9 | 9 | Georgetown (Ky.) | 5-0 | 233 |
| 10 | 10 | Saint Xavier (Ill.) | 5-1 | 225 |
| 11 | 11 | Montana Tech | 5-1 | 217 |
| 12 | 12 | Benedictine (Kan.) | 6-1 | 201 |
| 13 | 13 | Marian (Ind.) | 4-2 | 185 |
| 14 | 14 | Southeastern (Fla.) | 5-1 | 169 |
| 15 | 17 | Northwestern (Iowa) | 6-1 | 160 |
| 16 | 18 | Dickinson State (N.D.) | 6-1 | 148 |
| 17 | 21 | Concordia (Mich.) | 6-1 | 122 |
| 18 | 22 | SAGU (Texas) | 5-1 | 115 |
| 19 | 19 | Doane (Neb.) | 4-2 | 102 |
| T20 | 23 | Tabor (Kan.) | 5-2 | 75 |
| T20 | 15 | Sterling (Kan.) | 5-2 | 75 |
| 22 | 24 | Cumberland (Tenn.) | 6-2 | 64 |
| 23 | 16 | Arizona Christian | 5-2 | 45 |
| 24 | 25 | Kansas Wesleyan | 5-2 | 34 |
| 25 | RV | Campbellsville (Ky.) | 5-0 | 29 |
Dropped from the Top 25: Hastings (Neb.) (No. 19)
Others Receiving Votes: Oklahoma Panhandle State 15; Dordt (Iowa) 12; Rocky Mountain (Mont.) 9; Bethany (Kan.) 7; Hastings (Neb.) 3.
^ Top 25 ranking from Oct. 9, 2017 Top 25 Poll