PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo Football enters Thursday's final non-conference game of the 2025 regular season at Central Missouri ranked in the Top 15 in both of this week's latest AFCA Division II Coaches' and D2Football.com polls that were released Monday.
In this week's second weekly national Division II football polls of the season, the ThunderWolves, who are 1-1 on the season after suffering a heartbreaking 36-35 home loss last Thursday against Fort Hays State, fell nine spots from No. 5 to No. 14 in the latest AFCA Division II Coaches' Poll presented by Hudl and fell seven spots from No. 6 to No. 13 in the latest D2Football.com Media Top 25 Poll.
The Pack received 337 points in this week's AFCA Coaches' Poll to sit one point in front of No. 15 Central Oklahoma (1-1) and 27 points behind No. 13 Virginia Union (1-0).
The Pack are one of three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference schools either ranked or receiving votes in the latest AFCA poll and one of three league schools ranked in the D2Football.com poll. Besides the Pack in the AFCA poll, Western Colorado (2-0) remains ranked No. 9, while Colorado School of Mines (1-0) was one of 17 teams to earn votes this week as they received 37. In the D2Football.com poll, Western Colorado jumped one spot to No. 7 and Mines moved into the rankings at No. 24.
There were a lot of upsets in the second weekend of Division II football that caused some shake-up in both of the national polls as long with the Pack's loss to Fort Hays State, the other Top 25 teams that lost last week included Central Washington fall in to Division I FCS Montana (42-17), Charleston (W.Va.) falling to nationally-ranked California (Pa.) (23-19), Valdosta State losing to Johnson C. Smith (28-16), Pittsburg State losing to Central Oklahoma (27-24), Ouachita Baptist losing to East Central (Okla.) (24-22) and Indianapolis falling to Findlay (Ohio) (38-35).
Despite the shake-up in the rankings this week, four of the Top 5 teams in the AFCA poll remain the same as Ferris State (2-0) sits atop the rankings as they earned all 31 first place votes and 775 points, while Harding (1-0), Grand Valley State (2-0) and Slippery Rock (1-0) all remain at No. 2-4 respectively, while West Florida (2-0) jumped one spot to No. 5 this week.
Meanwhile, the Top 5 teams in the D2Football.com poll remain the same as Ferris State headlines the poll at No. 1 and is followed by Harding (1-0) at No. 2, Minnesota State (2-0) at No. 3, Kutztown (1-0) at No. 4 and Grand Valley State (2-0) at No. 5.
CSU Pueblo will look to start a new win streak this coming Thursday, Sept. 11 as they travel to Warrensburg, Mo., for a 7 p.m. CT game with the University of Central Missouri. The Pack has won nine straight road games dating back to the 2023 season and that nine game road win streak is the longest active streak in Division II football.
