Southland skips preseason football poll ahead of media day

The Southland Conference held media day today without releasing a preseason football poll or preseason team, a break from a recent habit that gave the league one of its easiest offseason attention grabs. Craig Haley called the decision a missed opportunity for fan engagement ahead of the 2026 season, and the timing matters because this is the part of the calendar when FCS leagues sell hope, hierarchy and a race to the playoff bracket.

Southland football has not been shy about using that tool before. Last July 21, the league rolled out its preseason poll and all-conference team as part of the Southland Football Opening Drive, and the 2024 preseason announcement on July 22 also bundled the poll with the all-conference team. In 2025, UIW was picked first, Stephen F. Austin second, Southeastern Louisiana third and Lamar fourth, while East Texas A&M checked in tied for seventh. Those numbers did what preseason numbers are supposed to do: they gave every fan base a target and every school a talking point.

The schools themselves turned that ranking into instant content. East Texas A&M, Stephen F. Austin, Lamar and UIW all publicized their spots within days of the 2025 release, turning a conference list into local momentum in Commerce, Nacogdoches, Beaumont and San Antonio. That is the low-cost value of a poll in a league like the Southland. It creates an argument before a snap is played, and it gives the conference a public pecking order before September starts sorting the real one out.

Haley’s larger point tracks with where the FCS is headed. In a 2026 preseason rankings update, he noted that player and coaching movement was largely in the rear-view mirror heading into the season, which makes July the right time for a conference to crystallize its story, not hide it. The Southland’s 2026 football schedule was released Jan. 8, but without a preseason poll or all-conference team, the league left one of its most reliable narrative builders off the table.

Other FCS conferences continue to use preseason rankings to frame their races and feed the offseason conversation. The Southland had been doing the same, and its 2024 and 2025 releases showed how a poll can help define the stakes before the first league game. Skipping it now shifts that spotlight away from the conference office and onto the individual programs that have to create their own buzz.