Defending SWAC and Black College Football national champion Alcorn State opens the 2015 season unranked in the FCS Coaches Poll.
Even though Alcorn State completed a 10-3 season on their way to a SWAC East championship and conference title, the Braves’ resume was not impressive enough for coaches to place them in the top 25.
Three schools that finished 2014 unranked — McNeese State (No. 23), Idaho State (No. 24) and Eastern Illinois (No. 25) — were ranked ahead of Alcorn State.
What’s confounding here is that Eastern Illinois ended the 2014 season with a 5-7 record and still garnered enough votes to sneak into bottom of the poll.
While it is understood that preseason rankings can be taken with a grain of salt, the coaches should be obligated to explain the reason Alcorn State isn’t better than a school that wasn’t ranked for the final 11 weeks of the regular season after getting off to a 1-5 start in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Bethune-Cookman, North Carolina A&T, Jackson State and South Carolina State were the only other HBCUs to receive votes in the poll.
I have said it before and will continue , thus poll will never place a SWAC school in their polls until 1) they beat one of their own 2) participate in their lopsided playoffs and 3) beat the top MEAC schools and go undefeated at the same time