EIU Football Team Finishes Ranked 25th

CHICAGO – With the close of the FCS football season on Saturday with North Dakota State winning its fifth straight FCS National Championship, the final FCS STATS Media Top 25 poll was released on Monday afternoon with the Eastern Illinois Panthers ranked 25th in the final rankings.   It marks the 17th time that EIU has finished the season ranked in the FCS Top 25 poll.
 
The Panthers were ranked No. 25 in the poll after making their 17th FCS playoff appearance.  EIU posted a 7-5 record finishing second in the Ohio Valley Conference behind national runner-up Jacksonville State.  
 
NDSU was a unanimous number one after the Bison finished 13-2 overall winning the program’s fifth straight FCS National Championships.  Jacksonville State was ranked second with a 13-2 record.  JSU was ranked No. 1 in the nation for 11 straight weeks during the regular season.  Sam Houston State was ranked third followed by Richmond and Illinois State in the top five.   Charleston Southern was sixth followed by McNeese State, Northern Iowa, Chattanooga and Portland State in the top ten.
 
James Madison was ranked 11th followed by William & Mary, The Citadel, Montana and South Dakota State in the top fifteen.  Coastal Carolina was 16th followed by Colgate, Southern Utah, Fordham and Harvard in the top twenty.  North Carolina A&T led the final five schools in the rankings in 21st with Western Illinois, Dartmouth, Grambling State and Eastern Illinois rounding out the top 25.