WACO, Texas – The Slippery Rock University football team moved up one spot to No. 7 in this week's NCAA Division II national rankings when the American Football Coaches Association released its updated national poll Monday.
 
The Rock began the year outside the top 25 but jumped into the rankings after a season-opening win over then 12th ranked Minnesota Duluth. SRU climbed into the top 10 one month into the season and spent the last two weeks at No. 8 before moving up one more place to No. 7 this week.   
 
SRU has been ranked or at least listed in the receiving votes category of every AFCA Division II national poll since Oct. 8, 2018. The Rock have been ranked in the top 10 for at least one week in each of the last seven straight seasons and in 10 of the last 11 seasons.
 
The AFCA poll is widely regarded as the "official" national ranking used throughout the regular season. The Rock also moved up one place to No. 8 in the D2football.com media poll that was announced Monday (available HERE).
 
The top five spots in the poll remain unchanged this week with defending champion Ferris State still earning all 29 first-place votes to sit at No. 1 ahead of Harding, Kutztown, Colorado State Pueblo and Minnesota State.
 
The rest of the top 10 saw a shakeup this week with Grand Valley State dropping from No. 6 to No. 13 after an overtime loss to Michigan Tech and Indiana (Pa.) dropping from No. 10 to No. 19 after a loss to Lock Haven. Western Colorado moved up one spot to No. 6, Slippery Rock climbed one spot to No. 7, Emporia State moved up one place to No. 8, Davenport jumped two spots to No. 9 and Northwood moved up two spots to No. 10.
 
Kutztown leads all teams in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and Super Region One with a No. 3 ranking. Slippery Rock is the next highest ranked team from the region at No. 7. Fellow PSAC West rival Indiana (Pa.) dropped nine spots to No. 19 this week and Virginia Union of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association moved into the rankings at No. 24 to give the region four ranked teams this week.
 
The region also has five teams listed in the "others receiving votes" section of the poll this week, including Virginia State and Johnson C. Smith of the CIAA, Shepherd and East Stroudsburg from the PSAC East and West Liberty from the Mountain East Conference.
 
Slippery Rock's opening opponent Minnesota Duluth moved back into the rankings this week at No. 23.
 
After hosting games in each of the last two weeks, The Rock will hit the road again this week for a 2 p.m. kickoff at No. 19 Indiana (Pa.).
 
A look at the updated AFCA national poll can be found below. This week's D2football.com poll is available HERE.
 
AFCA DIVISION II NATIONAL RANKINGS
Oct. 12, 2026

Rank	Team (1st votes)	W-L	Pts.	Prev.
1	Ferris St. (29)	6-0	725	1
2	Harding	6-0	696	2
3	Kutztown *	6-0	659	3
4	CSU Pueblo	6-0	635	4
5	Minnesota St.	7-0	614	5
6	Western Colorado	6-0	553	7
7	SLIPPERY ROCK *	6-0	545	8
8	Emporia St.	6-0	517	9
9	Davenport	6-0	482	11
10	Northwood	6-0	436	12
11	Central Washington	4-2	409	13
12	Northwest Missouri St.	4-1	392	14
13	Grand Valley St.	5-1	388	6
14	Michigan Tech	5-1	358	19
15	Henderson St.	6-0	334	17
16	Findlay	5-1	301	16
17	Valdosta St.	4-1	213	18
18	Carson-Newman	6-1	207	21
19	Indiana (Pa.) *^	5-1	190	10
20	UT Permian Basin	5-1	183	23
21	West Alabama	5-1	173	22
22	North Greenville	5-1	92	15
23	Minnesota-Duluth ^	5-2	62	NR
24	Virginia Union *	5-1	50	NR
25	Wayne St. (Neb.)	6-1	49	NR

Dropped Out: Mars Hill (20), Central Missouri (24), Northern St. (25)
 
Others Receiving Votes: Shepherd, 34*; Benedict, 33; Virginia St., 20*; Augustana (S.D.), 11; East Central, 11; Mars Hill, 9; Johnson C. Smith, 8*; Central Missouri, 7; West Liberty, 6*; Northeastern St., 5; Edward Waters, 4; Hillsdale, 4; MSU Moorhead, 4; East Stroudsburg, 2*^; Colorado Mines, 1; Midwestern St., 1; South Dakota Mines, 1; Washburn, 1.

* NCAA Super Region One school
^ SRU opponent in 2026




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