Pre-Season Rankings

[SuperHornet]

I know pre-season rankings are often worthless, but they ARE the basis for what happens once the season starts. It's hard to be in position to win a championship at the end of the season if you're not in the Top Ten before the season starts. (Probably not impossible, but certainly much more difficult.)

In any event, the Big Sky has SIX teams ranked, including our beloved Hornets. I'm shocked to see us ranked so high given how much we've lost to graduation, not to mention the shift in coaching staff. I'm even MORE shocked to see Idalol ranked ahead of us. While seeing the Kitties ahead of us hurts, that's not so surprising. I would be much more likely to put the Griz or BBQ ahead of us than Idalol, though.

That said, it'll be VERY interesting to see how things actually play out....

[Gil Dobie]

Not sandbagging here, but NDSU will be 8-3 at best. Big hits on defense is the main reason. Mostly graduation, but all the next best players entered the transfer portal. This is the year to beat the Bison, other than SDSU.

[kalm]

I know pre-season rankings are often worthless, but they ARE the basis for what happens once the season starts. It's hard to be in position to win a championship at the end of the season if you're not in the Top Ten before the season starts. (Probably not impossible, but certainly much more difficult.)

In any event, the Big Sky has SIX teams ranked, including our beloved Hornets. I'm shocked to see us ranked so high given how much we've lost to graduation, not to mention the shift in coaching staff. I'm even MORE shocked to see Idalol ranked ahead of us. While seeing the Kitties ahead of us hurts, that's not so surprising. I would be much more likely to put the Griz or BBQ ahead of us than Idalol, though.

That said, it'll be VERY interesting to see how things actually play out....

Transfer portal makes it even more difficult. Coaching plays an even bigger role. Idaho returns one hell of a young QB in McCoy and perhaps the best WR in the conference in Hatten. But only 9 starters are back and while Eck appears to be a very solid coach he’s bringing in 10 new assistants including OC who will implement a new offense.

They are not alone with this type of turnover and rankings will be a crapshoot.