PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo maintained its rankings from last week in this week's latest AFCA Division II Coaches Poll, presented by GoRout Gridiron and D2Football.com Media Poll that were released on Monday morning.
In this season's fourth weekly national Division II polls, the ThunderWolves, who are 4-0 after picking up a 33-6 win this past Saturday at Chadron State, are ranked No. 5 and No. 7 respectively by the AFCA and D2Football.com.
The Pack received 652 points in this week's AFCA Coaches' Poll to sit 16 points behind No. 4 Minnesota State (4-0), who received 668 points after picking up a 35-17 win over Northern State this past Saturday and 41 points in front of No. 6 Grand Valley State, who moved to 4-0 on the season with a 96-0 win over Judson. In the D2Football.com poll, the Pack remained ranked No. 7 and is just behind No. 6 Grand Valley State and in front of No. 8 Western Colorado (4-0), who improved to 2-0 in RMAC play with a 31-17 win this past Saturday at Colorado Mesa. In the preseason polls, the Pack was ranked sixth in the AFCA poll and 10th in the D2Football.com poll.
CSU Pueblo and Western Colorado are the only two RMAC schools ranked in this week's latest national polls as Western Colorado is ranked No. 8 in both the AFCA and D2Football.com polls. In addition, Black Hills State (3-1) was the lone RMAC school to earn votes in this week's AFCA poll as the Yellowjackets earned one vote after suffering a 44-36 loss on Saturday at New Mexico Highlands. Additionally, one of the Pack's previous opponents – Fort Hays State (3-1) earned 31 votes in the latest AFCA poll and is ranked 25th in the D2Football.com poll.
The top five teams remained the same in both the AFCA and D2Football.com polls as Ferris State (3-0) and Harding (3-0) are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in both polls. In addition to Ferris State and Harding, the AFCA has Kutztown (Pa.) (3-0) at No. 3, Minnesota State at No. 4 and CSU Pueblo ranked fifth, while D2Football.com has Minnesota State at No. 3, Kutztown at No. 4 and Northwest Missouri (3-0) at No. 5.
CSU Pueblo will look to stay undefeated on the season this coming Saturday, Sept. 26 as the ThunderWolves host Colorado Mesa (2-2 overall, 1-1 RMAC) for a 2 p.m. contest on Band Day in the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl. The Pack enters the game having won 13 straight regular season games dating to last season's 36-35 home setback to Fort Hays State and 27 consecutive conference games dating to the 2023 season, which is the longest active conference win streak in Division II football.
