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(STATS) - There were enough games matching two teams in the STATS FCS Top 25 that having 10 nationally ranked teams fall on Saturday was surprisingly typical.
At least six Top 25 teams have fallen in each of the nine full weeks of action during yet another unpredictable season. Even excluding the 13 in Week 1, when there's the highest number of matchups against FBS teams, the average is over seven during the last eight weeks.
The Week 9 schedule, including the upsets, was perhaps the best of the regular season. Here are five takeaways from all the action:
- The number of unbeaten teams dropped from four to three as Columbia fell 23-6 to Yale in the Ivy League. Top-ranked James Madison, No. 2 North Dakota State and No. 7 North Carolina A&T each take an 8-0 record into November. Jackson State, Savannah State and Tennessee Tech notched their first wins, leaving VMI (0-9), Cal Poly (0-8), Portland State (0-8), Indiana State (0-8) and Texas Southern (0-7) as the five winless teams in the FCS.
- While JMU, NDSU and N.C. A&T are a given, there was a whopping 17 teams that didn't lose a game during the month of October. A first-place team in 11 of the 13 conference - all but the Ivy and Patriot leagues - had an unbeaten October. Particularly impressive from the list on Saturday were Southern Conference co-leader Furman, which used 363 rushing yards to race past No. 18 Western Carolina 28-6 for its sixth straight win since a season-opening three-game losing streak (to teams that are a combined 20-4) under first-year coach Clay Hendrix, and Kennesaw State and Monmouth, which both posted road wins and all but assured one of them will be the Big South champion for the first time.
- The most significant injury of the weekend occurred when South Dakota quarterback Chris Streveler suffered an upper shoulder injury and left early in the No. 6 Coyotes' 42-0 win over Southern Illinois in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. But Streveler, a leading candidate for the STATS FCS Walter Payton Award, warmed up at halftime, and, given the lopsided game, coach Bob Nielson chose to play it safe and not bring him back into the game. Nielson said the team trainers think "he'll be back and be back relatively quickly."
- On a pivotal Saturday night in the Southland Conference, No. 4 Central Arkansas and No. 5 Sam Houston State delivered huge wins. UCA hammered No. 20 McNeese 47-17 by solving a defense that had allowed only one touchdown in its last four conference games. Brandon Cox and Lester Wells both caught two touchdown passes from Hayden Hildebrand for the first-place Bears. Sam Houston went on the road to beat Southeastern Louisiana 33-23 as Corey Avery rushed for 129 yards and two touchdowns. There's still a team sitting between UCA (7-1, 6-0) and 2016 champ Sam Houston (7-1, 5-1) in the standings: Nicholls (6-2, 5-1). Just two years ago, coach Tim Rebowe's squad ended a 23-game losing streak, but it will finish with a winning record for the first time since 2007.
- As always, the season's biggest FCS crowd - an announced 61,221 - turned out for the "Magic City Classic" between Alabama A&M and Alabama State at Birmingham's Legion Field. Alabama State won the defensive battle 21-16, forcing two turnovers and controlling the game clock with its rushing (221 yards). The Hornets, who are 2-5 overall, but 2-0 under interim coach Donald Hill-Eley, will now root for its rival A&M, which visits SWAC East Division leader Alcorn State next Saturday. If Alcorn wins, it will be on cruise control to a fourth straight division crown. An A&M win makes it a three-team fight to the finish.
