So I had some time today and dug into this because I thought it would be interesting to look at.
I looked at every Stats final poll since 2018 (excluding the 2020-2021 season, because...well...UM and MSU didn't play in it and I think it was too wonky to include), taking every team's final ranking and averaged them. If they were outside the top 25, I gave them a 10-point penalty, because I can't give them a proper placement without way more work than this deserves. :lol:
So for example, we finished outside the top 25 in 2018, so we got 35 points for that season. Same goes for every other team that also did so.
Since 2018, here is where every team stacks up:
North Dakota State 1.25
James Madison 4.67
South Dakota State 5.25
Montana State 6.75
Weber State 13.25
Kennesaw State 14.50
Sacramento State 15.00
Montana 15.25
Southeastern Louisiana 20.00
Southeast Missouri State 20.25
Eastern Washington 20.25
UC Davis 20.75
UIW 21.50
Northern Iowa 22.00
Villanova 23.25
Dartmouth 24.25
Holy Cross 24.50
Nicholls 24.50
Sam Houston 24.67
Furman 24.75
East Tennessee State 24.75
Wofford 25.00
Princeton 25.50
Jackson State 26.25
North Carolina A&T 26.25
Elon 26.50
Maine 27.25
Samford 28.00
Illinois State 28.00
William & Mary 28.25
Delaware 28.25
Colgate 28.25
Austin Peay 28.75
Jacksonville State 28.75
Richmond 29.00
Central Arkansas 29.00
UT Martin 29.25
New Hampshire 29.50
Monmouth 29.50
Missouri State 29.75
Florida A&M 29.75
Stony Brook 30.25
Southern Illinois 30.50
Idaho 30.75
Stephen F. Austin 30.75
North Dakota 31.25
South Dakota 31.25
Albany 31.25
Towson 31.25
North Carolina Central 31.50
Duquesne 31.50
Fordham 31.75
Central Connecticut 31.75
Chattanooga 32.00
Mercer 32.25
Yale 32.25
San Diego 32.50
We're 8th, right ahead of SELA, which...not exactly the best company. The 35 points in 2018 really drag us down, so in line with what hoops said, let's look at it since 2019:
North Dakota State 1.33
James Madison 2.50
Montana State 3.33
South Dakota State 6.00
Sacramento State 8.33
Montana 8.67
Southeastern Louisiana 15.00
Weber State 15.67
UIW 17.00
Kennesaw State 17.67
Villanova 19.33
Sam Houston 19.50
Holy Cross 21.00
Furman 21.33
Northern Iowa 21.67
Southeast Missouri State 22.00
Jackson State 23.33
UC Davis 25.33
Samford 25.67
East Tennessee State 25.67
Illinois State 25.67
William & Mary 26.00
Eastern Washington 26.33
Dartmouth 26.33
Austin Peay 26.67
Richmond 27.00
Central Arkansas 27.00
UT Martin 27.33
New Hampshire 27.67
Monmouth 27.67
Nicholls 28.00
Missouri State 28.00
Florida A&M 28.00
Wofford 29.00
Elon 29.00
Southern Illinois 29.00
Idaho 29.33
Stephen F. Austin 29.33
Delaware 29.67
North Dakota 30.00
South Dakota 30.00
Albany 30.00
Princeton 30.33
North Carolina Central 30.33
Fordham 30.67
Central Connecticut 30.67
North Carolina A&T 31.00
Chattanooga 31.00
Mercer 31.33
Yale 31.33
Maine 35.00
Colgate 35.00
Jacksonville State 35.00
Stony Brook 35.00
Towson 35.00
Duquesne 35.00
San Diego 35.00
So he's right, if you take out 2018 and remove JMU because they aren't here anymore, we do have the 5th-best final placement out of every FCS team since 2019. This looks a lot better, putting us up closer to the better teams like Sac, MSU, and........SELA....damn. :lol:
To me, this kind of points to everyone being able to see what they want here. There really have only been 6 teams better than us over the last 4 full seasons, which is honestly a lot less than I would've expected and goes to show how hard it is to stay consistently good, even in FCS.
On the other hand, Southeastern Louisiana State, a team no one would consider dominant AT ALL is only one spot behind us no matter if we exclude our awful 2018 season. I'm honestly surprised at how fast everything drops off after the top 4-5 teams.
You will notice that there are clear tiers of teams with drop-offs after them: MSU, SDSU, and NDSU have obviously been the best teams, but there's also a large drop-off after us in both views, suggesting that while we haven't been in the elite tier, we're still in a defined 2nd tier above the other playoff teams.
So yeah, if RTD means in that 1st tier, we aren't there (yet, I hope), but I think it should give at least a little more perspective that even with 2 seasons many would consider awful, we could be doing a lot worse.
Feel free to use this as fodder for your arguments. :lol: