South Dakota State tops MVFC preseason poll for third time in four years

South Dakota State stayed on top of the Missouri Valley Football Conference preseason poll, but the Jackrabbits did not run away from the field. Their 312 points and 28 of 36 first-place votes still made them the clear No. 1, yet the rest of the top five left little doubt that the league’s playoff path is crowded again.

Illinois State followed with 256 points and three first-place votes, while Youngstown State landed third with 235. North Dakota was fourth with 211 points and two first-place votes, and South Dakota rounded out the top five with 196 points and two first-place votes. Southern Illinois checked in sixth with 186 points and one first-place vote, then came Northern Iowa with 99, Indiana State with 80 and Murray State with 45.

That spread matters because the MVFC is still the sport’s measuring stick. The conference said it owns an FCS-best 14 national championships, a total built in large part by North Dakota State’s run of 10 titles, including the 2024 crown. South Dakota State has answered with back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023, which is why the Jackrabbits remain the standard until someone proves otherwise.

The voting, though, hints at a league with more volatility behind the favorite than the usual preseason script allows. Illinois State was the national runner-up last season and earned three first-place votes, so second place was no surprise. The more interesting number was Youngstown State at No. 3, the program’s highest preseason slot since 2017, the year after it reached the FCS title game. The Penguins are led by 2025 Walter Payton Award winner Beau Brungard, and that combination gives them a profile that looks closer to a top-tier contender than a middle-of-the-pack challenger.

North Dakota and South Dakota were separated by only 15 points and both pulled in first-place votes, which tells you the middle of the league can swing the playoff race in a hurry. If the top three hold up, the MVFC should again send multiple teams to the bracket and keep national-title debate centered in the league. If one of those teams slips, the at-large race gets messy fast, because the preseason order already shows how little separates the contenders from the rest.