PHILADELPHIA - The Illinois State football team just missed out on a top-25 preseason ranking Monday, as the Redbirds received 488 points to place 26th overall in The Sports Network/Fathead.com preseason Top-25 poll, as announced by The Sports Network on Monday.
This is the third national preseason recognition for the Redbirds, who head into the 2010 coming off a winning campaign for head coach Brock Spack. ISU was picked as the 13th-best team in the nation by college football guru Phil Steele in his annual preview magazine and The Sporting News ranked the Redbirds 16th in its preseason Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) poll.
Villanova, which won the Football Championship Subdivision title for the first time last December, was installed as a prohibitive No. 1 in the poll. Three Missouri Valley Football Conference schools were ranked in the top 14 of the poll. Defending MVFC champ and pre-season favorite Southern Illinois was ranked No. 5 nationally, receiving one first-place vote and 2,569 points overall.
South Dakota State (9) and UNI (14) also represent the MVFC in the Sports Network/Fathead.com poll, while Illinois State, Indiana State, Missouri State, North Dakota State and Youngstown State were all among others receiving at least one vote.
Of five nationally recognized pre-season top-25 polls, five different MVFC teams are ranked in the Top 25, including Illinois State, Missouri State, UNI, South Dakota State and Southern Illinois.
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