Weber State Represents Utah in the FCS Preseason Top 25

When the casual football fan thinks of FCS football, they often have their mind navigate towards the Dakota’s and rightfully so.

Between last year’s champion, the South Dakota State Jackrabbits, and the North Dakota State Bison, the FCS title has ended up In one of the Dakota’s for 11 of the last 14 seasons.

Only Eastern Washington (2010), James Madison (2016) and Sam Houston (2020) have been able to interrupt for a brief moment to secure a title of their own.

Two of those three schools in Sam Houston and James Madison have moved up the FBS level since then, making it pretty apparent that any “potential” competitor to the Dakotas dynasty isn’t around.

This was further cemented when “The Stats Perform FCS Top 25” preseason poll was released this week, featuring the Jackrabbits at #1 and the Bison at #2.

South Dakota State secured 52 of the possible 56 votes for spot #1, no surprise, as they have won 29 straight games, last losing in September of 2022 to FBS Iowa.

North Dakota State got 3 of the remaining first place votes, slotting into second in the poll.

Surprisingly, #3 Montana, last years runner up, received no first place votes as #4 Montana State got the final first place vote.

Right here in Utah, the three schools that compete at the FCS level are Weber State, Southern Utah and Utah Tech.

Of these three, only Weber State belongs to the Big Sky, one of the toughest conferences in the FCS.

The Big Sky saw six teams make the preseason top 25, 2^nd most of all conferences behind only the Missouri Valley Football Conference who had 7.

Weber State was one of those six, earning the 22nd spot in the polls.

Per Brett Hein of the Standard-Examiner, this will be the 8^th consecutive preseason top 25 ranking for the Wildcats.

One would have to travel back to 2014 to find the last time the Wildcats had a losing season, showing that this team has become more accustomed to winning than not.

This will be Mickey Mental’s 2^nd full year as the Wildcats head coach, and fans will get an immediate feel for his program as they start the season on the road in Husky stadium against Washington.

No, not Eastern Washington or Central Washington or even Washington State, THEE Washington that was your runner up in the College Football Playoff National Championship.

Regardless of how that one turns out, Weber State faces off against a handful of currently unranked squads before going through the gauntlet in conference play.

Not only do they draw the toughest opponents in conference play, but every preseason ranked team they face off against will be away from the coziness of Ogden and Stewart Stadium.

The Wildcats kick off Big Sky competition in Missoula taking on #3 Montana.

They continue the trend of difficult road games in Sacramento State against the #8 Hornets two weeks later.

The next ranked opponent is the #7 Idaho Vandals, in which, you guessed it, takes place in Moscow, Idaho in the Kibbie Dome.

The schedule is not kind to Weber State, but these Wildcats are competitors and more likely than not excited to ride the momentum that was a three game win streak to finish out last season.

Two of those three wins came on the road in Pocatello and San Luis Obispo against Idaho State and Cal-Poly.

The home win was over the aforementioned, now ranked #7 Idaho Vandals, who sat at #4 at the time of the 31-29 win last season.

Weber State found a special stride at the tail end of last season and Wildcat faithful are eager to see if it carries over, or if the teams gets off to another slow start.

If anything though, the #22 ranking should provide confidence that those submitting votes, feel that Weber State will be able to maintain and build up that competitive edge in Ogden.