{"id":55765,"date":"2026-10-19T10:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T15:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/?p=55765"},"modified":"2026-10-19T10:53:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T15:53:37","slug":"tarleton-state-ranked-no-1-in-nation-for-first-time-in-program-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-state-ranked-no-1-in-nation-for-first-time-in-program-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarleton State Ranked No. 1 in Nation for First Time in Program History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Republished from Tarleton State Athletics<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Tarleton State Football is the No. 1 ranked team in the country.

On Monday, the AFCA FCS Coaches Poll<\/a> and Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll<\/a> were released. The Texans surpassed South Dakota State in both rankings to the No. 1 position, the first time in program history that Tarleton State has held the No. 1 rank at any level. The best ranking Tarleton State had earned in its NCAA Division II era was No. 3, and the Texans have been No. 2 twice in their NCAA Division I era, once last year and then last week.

The Texans are one of three undefeated teams remaining at the FCS level, and one of two teams with seven wins or more (Stephen F. Austin). In the AFCA FCS Coaches Poll, the Texans earned 24 of 26 first-place votes, with SFA picking up the other two, and in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll, the Texans earned 49 of the 57 first-place votes, with SFA getting four, Montana State three, and Youngstown State one.

The Texans have started 7-0 for the second straight season. Since the beginning of 2025, the Texans are 18-1 in the regular season. Tarleton State is No. 1 in the FCS in total offense (509.3 YPG) and tied-third in scoring offense (40.9 PPG).

In the AFCA Coaches Poll, Tarleton State earned 648 points. SFA is behind the Texans at 623 points. The Texans are one of three UAC teams in this poll now, with Austin Peay at No. 9 and West Florida at No. 23. The AFCA FCS Coaches Poll is voted on by the panel chosen by random draw, conference by conference plus independents, from a pool of coaches who have indicated to the AFCA their willingness to participate. Each coach submits a Top-25 with a first-place vote worth 25 points, second-place 24, and so on down to one point for 25th.

In the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll, the Texans are now at 1,417 points, with SFA behind them at 1,331 points. The Texans are one of two UAC teams in the poll with Austin Peay at No. 9.

The Texans have been ranked in 35 straight iterations of the polls, dating back to the preseason polls in 2024. Tarleton State is one of six teams to have been ranked in each poll over the past three seasons, along with Illinois State, Montana, Montana State, South Dakota State and UC Davis.

AFCA FCS Coaches Poll<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Tarleton State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Stephen F. Austin<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Montana State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Youngstown State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. South Dakota State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. South Dakota<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Northern Arizona<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. North Dakota<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Austin Peay<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Illinois State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. Tennessee Tech<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  12. Lehigh<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  13. Mercer<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  14. Montana<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  15. Lamar<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  16. Campbell<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  17. Harvard<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  18. Monmouth<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  19. Richmond<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  20. East Tennessee State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  21. UC Davis<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  22. Jackson State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  23. West Florida<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  24. Southeastern Louisiana<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  25. South Carolina State<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. Tarleton State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Stephen F. Austin<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Montana State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    4. Youngstown State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    5. South Dakota State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    6. North Dakota<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    7. Northern Arizona<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    8. South Dakota<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    9. Austin Peay<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    10. Illinois State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    11. Lehigh<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    12. Tennessee Tech<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    13. Campbell<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    14. Montana<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    15. Harvard<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    16. Lamar<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    17. Mercer<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    18. ETSU<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    19. Monmouth<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    20. UC Davis<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    21. Northern Iowa<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    22. Weber State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    23. Southeastern Louisiana<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    24. Jackson State<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    25. Richmond<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

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      <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Republished from Tarleton State Athletics. STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Tarleton State Football is the No. 1 ranked team in the country. On Monday, the AFCA FCS Coaches Poll and Stats Perform …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595,"featured_media":55770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":382,"footnotes":""},"categories":[382,421,426],"tags":[433,456],"class_list":["post-55765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-featuredstories","category-honors-achievements","tag-athletics","tag-stephenville"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"jpartin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/jpartin\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2026\/10\/FB-1-Ranking-V2_University-900x600-1-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["_Homepage<\/a>","Featured Stories<\/a>","Honors & Achievements<\/a>"],"unlinked":["_Homepage<\/span>","Featured Stories<\/span>","Honors & Achievements<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Athletics<\/a>","Stephenville<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Athletics<\/span>","Stephenville<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 6 hours ago","modified":"Updated 5 hours ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on October 19, 2026","modified":"Updated on October 19, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on October 19, 2026 10:41 am","modified":"Updated on October 19, 2026 10:53 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/595"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55765"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55768,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55765\/revisions\/55768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}