WACO, Texas – The Slippery Rock University football team held steady at No. 6 in this week's Division II national rankings when the American Football Coaches Association announced its weekly poll Monday.
 
The AFCA poll is widely regarded as the official Division II national ranking recognized by the NCAA throughout the season.
 
Slippery Rock has been ranked in every AFCA national poll since the final poll of the 2018 season and has spent at least one week ranked inside the top 10 in each of the last five seasons. SRU opened the year at No. 11 in the preseason poll, spent three weeks at No. 9 and moved up to No. 6 entering last week's game against Gannon.
 
The top eight in the poll remained unchanged this week after there were no upsets at the top of the rankings. Slippery Rock kept its spot at No. 6 after posting a 35-17 Homecoming win over Gannon to move to 6-0 on the year.
 
The Rock are one of two teams from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference to be ranked in the top 10 this week with Kutztown also holding steady at No. 5. Two more teams from Super Region One are ranked this week to give the region four in the top 25 after having six ranked teams last week. The two undefeated Mountain East Conference teams are the other ranked schools in the region with Charleston moving up one spot to No. 13 this week and Frostburg State climbing two spots to No. 22. Those two will meet this week, guaranteeing one of the four unbeaten teams in Super Region One will take a loss. Findlay from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference and Indiana (Pa.) were ranked last week, but dropped out of the poll after suffering upsets to unranked opponents.  
 
Five other teams from Super Region One are listed in the "others receiving votes" section of the poll this week with Northeast 10 representatives New Haven and Assumption joining GMAC schools Findlay and Ashland and MEC representative West Virginia State.
 
The top of this week's poll remains unchanged with defending national champion Harding still sitting at a unanimous No. 1 in the poll. The Bison have allowed just 13 total points through six weeks and are scoring more than 60 points per game while extending their current winning streak to 25 straight games. Grand Valley State and Valdosta State remained at No. 2 and No.3 this week with Ferris State and Kutztown rounding out the top five.
 
Slippery Rock stayed put at No. 6, followed by Pittsburg State, Western Colorado, Ouachita Baptist and West Alabama rounding out the top 10.
 
The Rock will face another stiff challenge in week seven with a road trip to PSAC West rival California (Pa.) Saturday for a third straight Homecoming game. Slippery Rock played on the road at rival IUP for the Crimson Hawks' Homecoming two weeks ago before hosting its own Homecoming last Saturday. SRU will now try to play Homecoming spoiler again with first place in the PSAC West on the line Saturday at 3 p.m. at Adamson Stadium.  
 
A look at the updated AFCA national poll can be found below.
 
SRU also moved up one spot to No. 7 in this week's D2football.com media poll, which can be viewed HERE.
 
AFCA DIVISION II NATIONAL POLL – OCT. 14

Rank	School (1st votes)	W-L	Pts.	Prev.
1	Harding (Ark.) (30)	6-0	750	1
2	Grand Valley St. (Mich.)	6-0	718	2
3	Valdosta St. (Ga.)	6-0	666	3
4	Ferris St. (Mich.)	5-1	625	4
5	Kutztown (Pa.) *	6-0	613	5
6	SLIPPERY ROCK *	6-0	590	6
7	Pittsburg St. (Kan.)	5-1	583	7
8	Western Colorado	6-0	537	8
9	Ouachita Baptist (Ark.)	6-0	508	10
10	West Alabama	5-0	467	11
11	Central Oklahoma	6-0	448	13
12	Colorado School of Mines	5-1	419	12
13	Charleston (W.Va.)	6-0	364	14
14	Colorado St.-Pueblo	6-1	352	16
15	Minnesota St.	6-1	347	15
16	Emporia St. (Kan.)	6-1	277	18
17	Lenoir-Rhyne (N.C.)	5-1	275	17
18	Carson-Newman (Tenn.)	6-0	203	23
19	Indianapolis (Ind.)	5-1	200	21
20	Johnson C. Smith (N.C.)	6-0	185	22
21	Central Washington	4-2	147	9
22	Frostburg St. (Md.)	6-0	143	24
23	West Florida	3-2	59	NR
24	Southern Arkansas	5-1	48	NR
25	Henderson St. (Ark.)	5-1	44	NR

 
Dropped Out: Delta St. (Miss.) (19), Findlay (Ohio) (20)*, Indiana (Pa.) (25)*^
 
Others Receiving Votes: Augustana (S.D.), 34; Delta St. (Miss.), 19; Virginia Union, 19; Findlay (Ohio), 17*; New Haven (Conn.), 12*^; Wayne St. (Neb.), 12; Angelo St. (Tex.), 11; Colorado Mesa, 8; Emory & Henry (Va.), 8; Saginaw Valley St. (Mich.), 8; Assumption (Mass.), 7*; Limestone (S.C.), 7; Sioux Falls (S.D.), 7; Fort Hays St. (Kan.), 6; Ashland (Ohio), 2*; Davenport (Mich.), 2; Wingate (N.C.), 2; West Virginia St., 1*.

* NCAA Super Region One Schools
^ SRU Opponents in 2024



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