WACO, Texas – The Slippery Rock University football team moved up one spot to No. 5 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 have now climbed into the top five for the first time this year.
 
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 and have been ranked in the top five for at least one week in each of the last four seasons, in five seasons since 2021 and seven seasons since 1998.
 
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. 6 in the D2football.com media poll that was announced Monday (available HERE). SRU was listed at No. 2 when the NCAA Power Index (NPI) rankings came out Sunday (more info HERE).
 
The top five spots in the AFCA poll saw their first shakeup in weeks with previously unbeaten No. 4 Minnesota State falling to No. 22 Augustana. Defending national champion Ferris State won its 40th straight game to tie the all-time Division II record for consecutive wins and remained No. 1 in this week's poll. Harding stayed at No. 2 and Colorado State Pueblo stayed at No. 3. Western Colorado moved up one spot to No. 4 and Slippery Rock moved up one place to No. 5. CSU Pueblo and Western Colorado will meet this week in Pueblo.
 
Northwood moved up one spot to No. 6, Northwest Missouri State jumped one place to No. 7, Central Washington moved up one place to No. 8, Findlay climbed one spot to No. 9 and Minnesota State dropped six places to No. 10 to cap the top 10 this week.
 
The Rock lead all teams in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and Super Region One with a No. 5 ranking. Kutztown is the next highest ranked team from the region at No. 11. SRU and Kutztown are joined by East Stroudsburg at No. 14 to give the PSAC three teams in the top 25 this week.
 
Virginia Union moved up four places to No. 15 to give the region four teams ranked in the top 25 this week. Johnson C. Smith and Assumption are the only other teams from the region to be listed in the "Others Receiving Votes" section this week.
 
Slippery Rock's opening opponent Minnesota Duluth was as high as No. 12 earlier this year and was No. 21 last week, but dropped from the rankings this week after losing to Bemidji State last week.
 
The Rock will host No. 14 East Stroudsburg Saturday in the PSAC Championship game at 1 p.m. The two teams met back on Sept. 12 at ESU with Slippery Rock coming away with a 59-35 win. Since then, ESU has reeled off seven straight wins, ended Kutztown's run of PSAC East supremacy and got to 9-1 on the year.
 
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
Nov. 9, 2026

Rank	Team (1st votes)	W-L	Pts.	Prev.
1	Ferris St. (29)	10-0	749	1
2	Harding	10-0	719	2
3	CSU Pueblo	10-0	685	3
4	Western Colorado	10-0	637	5
5	SLIPPERY ROCK (1) *	10-0	633	6
6	Northwood	10-0	587	7
7	Northwest Missouri St.	8-1	563	8
8	Central Washington	8-2	520	9
9	Findlay	9-1	490	10
10	Minnesota St.	9-1	460	4
11	Kutztown *	9-1	458	11
12	Michigan Tech	8-2	431	14
13	Valdosta St.	7-1	376	17
14	East Stroudsburg *^	9-1	367	18
15	Virginia Union *	9-1	315	19
16	Augustana (S.D.)	8-2	294	22
17	Benedict	9-1	290	20
18	Davenport	8-2	233	12
19	Midwestern St.	8-2	162	24
20	Carson-Newman	8-2	136	13
21	Emporia St.	8-2	131	15
22	North Greenville	8-2	116	16
23	Grand Valley St.	7-3	112	23
24	Wayne St. (Neb.)	8-2	109	25
25	Ouachita Baptist	8-2	42	NR

Dropped Out: Minnesota-Duluth (21) ^
 
Others Receiving Votes: Henderson St., 40; Washburn, 38; Newberry, 17; UNC Pembroke, 13; Johnson C. Smith, 11*; Kentucky St., 8; Northeastern St., 5; Assumption, 2*; Colorado Mines, 1.

* NCAA Super Region One school
^ SRU opponent in 2026




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