WACO, Texas – The Slippery Rock University football team jumped five spots to No. 13 in this week's NCAA Division II national rankings when the American Football Coaches Association released its updated national poll Tuesday.
The Rock began the year outside the top 25 but have soared all the way up to No. 13 after two weeks with the most recent jump coming following an idle week thanks to a handful of losses by ranked teams last 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 AFCA poll is widely regarded as the "official" national ranking used throughout the regular season. The Rock also climbed fives places to No. 14 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 to stay atop the poll this week. The top five positions remain unchanged with Harding, Kutztown, Minnesota State and Colorado State Pueblo rounding out the top five.
Kutztown leads all teams in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and Super Region One with a No. 3 ranking. Slippery Rock is now the next highest ranked team from the region at No. 13. Fellow PSAC West rival Indiana (Pa.) jumped eight spots to No. 14 this week, while Frostburg State of the Mountain East Conference slid nine spots to No. 23 to give the region just four teams ranked in the top 25 this week.
California (Pa.), Virginia State of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, East Stroudsburg, Shepherd, Concord of the MEC, Virginia Union of the CIAA, Fayetteville State of the CIAA and Assumption of the Northeast 10 Conference were all listed in the "others receiving votes" section of this week's poll to give the region 11 total teams mentioned this week.
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. The Rock's week zero opponent, Minnesota Duluth, is back up to No. 15 in this week's poll after slipping from No. 12 to No. 19 following SRU's win in the opener.
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
Sept. 8, 2026
| Rank |
Team (1st votes) |
W-L |
Pts. |
Prev. |
| 1 |
Ferris St. (31) |
2-0 |
775 |
1 |
| 2 |
Harding |
1-0 |
744 |
2 |
| 3 |
Kutztown * |
1-0 |
707 |
3 |
| 4 |
Minnesota St. |
2-0 |
666 |
4 |
| 5 |
CSU Pueblo |
2-0 |
647 |
5 |
| 6 |
Grand Valley St. |
2-0 |
626 |
7 |
| 7 |
Northwest Missouri St. |
1-0 |
579 |
8 |
| 8 |
Western Colorado |
2-0 |
536 |
11 |
| 9 |
Central Washington |
0-1 |
480 |
6 |
| 10 |
Findlay |
1-0 |
477 |
15 |
| 11 |
Newberry |
1-0 |
463 |
13 |
| 12 |
Western Oregon |
2-0 |
421 |
17 |
| 13 |
SLIPPERY ROCK * |
1-0 |
361 |
18 |
| 14 |
Indiana (Pa.) *^ |
1-0 |
329 |
22 |
| 15 |
Minnesota-Duluth ^ |
1-1 |
316 |
19 |
| 16 |
Valdosta St. |
2-0 |
284 |
23 |
| 17 |
UIndy |
1-1 |
247 |
9 |
| 18 |
Northeastern St. |
2-0 |
225 |
24 |
| 19 |
Ashland |
0-1 |
170 |
12 |
| 20 |
Michigan Tech |
2-0 |
127 |
NR |
| 21 |
Benedict |
2-0 |
115 |
NR |
| 22 |
Augustana (S.D.) |
1-1 |
112 |
16 |
| 23 |
Frostburg St. * |
0-1 |
71 |
14 |
| 24 |
Emporia St. |
2-0 |
60 |
NR |
| 25 |
Pittsburg St. |
0-2 |
57 |
10 |
Dropped Out: Ouachita Baptist (20), Lenoir-Rhyne (21), Fort Hays St. (25)
Others Receiving Votes: West Alabama, 55; Central Oklahoma, 52; Fort Hays St., 41; Carson-Newman, 38; UT Permian Basin, 36; Northwood, 35; California (Pa.), 30*^; Virginia St., 24*; Davenport, 23; Lenoir-Rhyne, 20; East Stroudsburg, 18*^; Shepherd, 18*; North Greenville, 17; Henderson St., 14; Ouachita Baptist, 9; Concord, 8*; Virginia Union, 7*; East Central, 6; Black Hills St., 5; Fayetteville St., 4*; MSU Moorhead, 4; Wingate, 4; Northern St., 3; Walsh, 3; Saginaw Valley St., 2; Arkansas Tech, 1; Assumption, 1*; Lincoln (Mo.), 1; Wayne St. (Neb.), 1.
* NCAA Super Region One school
^ SRU opponent in 2026
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