Chaos continues as another giant falls, and a newcomer takes the top spot👑

This one was easy to call, right? 

Top-ranked South Dakota State had star quarterback Chase Mason back, while No. 14 North Dakota standout signal caller Jerry Kaminski was thought to be hobbled from an ankle injury and the team still reeling from a loss to unranked Northern Iowa the week before.

Well, you clearly haven’t watched FCS football this season, have you?

The Missouri Valley Football Conference continued its season of cannibalism over the weekend as the Fighting Hawks turned up the defensive pressure on the Jackrabbits to earn a 21-10 victory in Grand Forks, the second time in three weeks that the No. 1 team in the country fell.

Kaminski’s start was a bit of a surprise for some after getting hurt against the Panthers the week before, but the senior threw for 116 yards and two key touchdowns. Meanwhile the UND defense held Mason to well under 50 percent passing, allowing just 169 yards and no scores in Mason’s first action in three weeks.

But the biggest winner of the contest, new No. 1 Tarleton State.

The Texans have been on the brink of the top spot, putting up impressive performance after impressive performance, but the roadblocks of SDSU and Montana State have always been in Tarleton’s way.

Kaden Anderson has led the way for the Texans through the air this season to the tune of 1,972 yards and 20 scores, while Tylan Hines is returning to form after injury, looking to add to his 672 yards and four scores in just over three games of full action.

The schedule also looks favorable for an unbeaten finish as the only teams left on the Texans schedule that are at or above .500 are Abilene Christian (4-4), West Florida (4-2) and North Alabama (4-3).

With that weaker strength of schedule, it will be interesting to see what the playoff picture looks like for Tarleton in just over a month, but Tuesday afternoon might have brought a sign of things to come.

That’s when the FCS Playoff Committee released its Top 10 rankings through week eight of the season, and the Texans were placed in the No. 2 spot behind defending national champion Montana State.

The committee likely looked at MSU’s tougher schedule, its win over Northern Arizona and missing star players in the Bobcats’ lone loss to Idaho as key reasons to keep MSU at the top of its rankings.

Following MSU and Tarleton were Youngstown State, Stephen F. Austin, SDSU, North Dakota, NAU, South Dakota, Austin Peay and finally Harvard.

Now it is up to the Texans to impress enough on the field, and maybe hope for a little more Big Sky chaos to help wrestle away that top seed.

The giant killers are at it again: Can someone please tell Idaho it’s fine to do this every week?

Just two weeks after the Vandals stunned top-ranked Montana State to win their first game of the season, Idaho was back at it again on Saturday looking for win number two, this time in Missoula against No. 6 Montana.

And following suit of this chaotic campaign for coach Tom Ford and the rest of the Vandals, Idaho again came through with the stunner.

Joshua Wood was spectacular for Idaho, throwing for 335 yards and three touchdowns, while also leading the way on the ground adding 85 yards and a score. He threw the ball all around Washington-Grizzly Stadium, completing passes to nine receivers, five of which had 45 yards or more.

And in a game where defense was optional at best, it was the Vandals that stood tallest at the end, sacking Montana quarterback Keali’i Ah Yat twice in the final drive to seal the win.

The Vandals now fall into the fun conversation of “are they good?” after beating both Montana schools, something no one has done since 2019 when Sacramento State accomplished the feat. If Idaho can somehow find a way to win out, which given how their season has gone seems unlikely, would a 7-5 Vandals team with three ranked wins make the playoffs?

Harvard rolling: Speaking of “are they good?” Harvard is off to a hot start to the Ivy League campaign again — but as is the case most seasons, we really aren’t sure of just how good the Crimson can be given their schedule so far.

Harvard is a perfect 5-0 to start the season after thumping Holy Cross 30-7 last weekend. The Crimson have allowed more than 20 points just once, against Cornell, and are led on offense by quarterback Charlie Smith, who is dealing this season, passing for 1,223 yards and 10 touchdowns already.

The Crimson is up to No. 17 in our rankings and is the only Ivy League school ranked. But a tough test awaits Harvard this Saturday as they host 4-1 Princeton (3 p.m. EDT, ESPN+) and then finish with rival Yale on Nov. 21.

Looking ahead: A trio of Top-23 matchups dot the FCS landscape this Saturday, highlighted again by a MVFC showdown between No. 8 North Dakota at No. 7 South Dakota (1 p.m. CDT, ESPN+).

Kaminski will look to keep the Fighting Hawks (6-2, 3-1 MVFC) rolling after the SDSU upset, while Austyn Modrzewski and Charles Pierre Jr. hope to make it four straight for the Coyotes (6-2, 3-1 MVFC).

In the Southland, No. 22 Southeastern Louisiana will travel to No. 6 Stephen F. Austin (5 p.m. CDT, ESPN+) as the Lions (4-3, 2-2 Southland) will try and hand the Lumberjacks (7-0, 4-0) their first loss of the season. 

That will be a tall task though as SFA quarterback Gavin Rutherford has the Lumberjacks rolling, throwing for 1,721 yards and 19 touchdowns this season. Just as impressive though has been the SFA defense, which blanked Nicholls last week and has allowed opponents to score more than 20 points just twice this season.

And in the Big Sky, the showdown of the week is No. 2 Montana State hosting a surging Weber State team that rocketed to No. 19 in the rankings this week after beating Idaho State. 

The Bobcats (6-1, 3-1 Big Sky) returned to form last week at Eastern Washington, with quarterback Justin Lamson, running back Adam Jones and defensive back Caden Dowler all back from injury. The question moving forward will be if and or when star wideout Taco Dowler is back in the fold. But even with their stars back, the Wildcats (5-3, 4-1) can make noise on offense and have turned the clock back on what has been a struggling program in the past few years now under first-year coach Eric Kjar.

Other games to keep an eye on include St. Thomas at Marist for a spot atop the Pioneer League standings and Houston Christian at Lamar, both 3-1 in the Southland.