WACO, Texas – The Slippery Rock University football team jumped into the top 25 at No. 18 in this week's NCAA Division II national rankings when the American Football Coaches Association released its updated national poll Wednesday.
 
The Rock climbed into the rankings this week after opening the season in the "others receiving votes" section of the preseason poll. The jump into the top 25 comes after Slippery Rock erased a 16-point fourth quarter deficit and pulled off a 45-43 double overtime win over then 12th ranked Minnesota Duluth in the opener last week. The Bulldogs slid seven places to No. 19 in this week's poll.
 
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 AFCA poll is widely regarded as the "official" national ranking used throughout the regular season. The Rock also climbed six places to No. 19 in the D2football.com media poll that was also announced this week (available HERE).
 
Defending national champion Ferris State earned all 31 first place votes after a convincing win over preseason No. 4 Pittsburg State to stay atop the poll this week. Harding and Kutztown remained in their spots at No. 2 and No. 3, while Minnesota State moved up one spot to No. 4 and Colorado State Pueblo climbed one place to No. 5.
 
Kutztown leads all teams in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and Super Region One with a No. 3 ranking. Frostburg State of the Mountain East Conference is the next highest ranked team from the region at No. 14, followed by Slippery Rock at No. 18. The fourth and final team from Super Region One in this week's top 25 is No. 22 Indiana (Pa.).
 
Virginia Union of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association is joined by California (Pa.), East Stroudsburg, Assumption from the Northeast 10 Conference, Johnson C. Smith (CIAA), Charleston (MEC) and Virginia State (CIAA) in the "others receiving votes" section this week to give Super Region One a total of 11 teams mentioned in this week's poll.
 
Slippery Rock will face two of those teams in the receiving votes section in its next three games with a trip to East Stroudsburg Sept. 12 and a trip to California Sept. 26 bookending a three-game road swing that includes a visit to Millersville Sept. 19.
 
A look at the AFCA preseason national poll can be found below. This week's D2football.com poll is available HERE.
 
AFCA DIVISION II NATIONAL RANKINGS
Sept. 2, 2026

Rank	Team (1st votes)	W-L	Pts.	Prev.
1	Ferris St. (31)	1-0	775	1
2	Harding	0-0	743	2
3	Kutztown *	0-0	708	3
4	Minnesota St.	1-0	671	5
5	CSU Pueblo	1-0	645	6
6	Central Washington	0-0	585	7
7	Grand Valley St.	1-0	568	9t
8	Northwest Missouri St.	1-0	561	8
9	UIndy	1-0	517	9t
10	Pittsburg St.	0-1	492	4
11	Western Colorado	1-0	482	11
12	Ashland	0-0	414	13
13	Newberry	0-0	372	15
14	Frostburg St. *	0-0	310	17
15	Findlay	0-0	296	16
16	Augustana (S.D.)	1-0	262	20
17	Western Oregon	1-0	258	22
18	SLIPPERY ROCK *	1-0	200	NR
19	Minnesota-Duluth ^	0-1	185	12
20	Ouachita Baptist	0-0	161	24
21	Lenoir-Rhyne	1-0	145	NR
22	Indiana (Pa.) *^	0-0	110	25
23	Valdosta St.	1-0	94	NR
24	Northeastern St.	1-0	75	NR
25	Fort Hays St.	1-0	62	NR

 
Dropped Out: Virginia Union (14)*, UT Permian Basin (18), Wingate (19), Albany St. (21), Johnson C. Smith (23)*
 
Others Receiving Votes: Benedict, 55; UNC Pembroke, 47; UT Permian Basin, 41; Virginia Union, 38*; Central Oklahoma, 36; Michigan Tech, 34; Albany St., 30; North Greenville, 22; Northwood, 18; Wingate, 18; California (Pa.), 11*^; Southern Arkansas, 9; East Stroudsburg, 6*^; Assumption, 5*; Johnson C. Smith, 5*; Davenport, 3; Carson-Newman, 2; Upper Iowa, 2; Charleston, 1*; Virginia St., 1*.

* NCAA Super Region One school
^ SRU opponent in 2026




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