The Cal Poly football team was ranked sixth in the USA Today Sports Weekly College Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Preseason Top 25 released Monday.
The Mustangs will play three teams ranked in its top 14 this season, hosting No. 3 Montana and traveling to No. 11 McNeese State and No. 14 South Dakota State.
Cal Poly senior wide receiver Ramses Barden was named as one of 10 “players to watch.”
Sixth is the highest slot the Mustangs have received in any of this year’s early preseason rankings, as they were tabbed No. 10 by both The Sporting News and Phil Steele’s Preseason Top 25, and No. 13 in the Any Given Saturday fan poll. Thus far, Lindy’s has been the only significant dissenter, leaving the Mustangs entirely out of its preseason top 25.
Three-time defending national champion Appalachian State was ranked first in all but Phil Steele’s list, wherein James Madison was awarded top honors.
Cal Poly, the only Great West Football Conference team to be ranked in any poll, opens the season Aug. 30 at San Diego State.