FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (May 29, 2025) – With the football season less than 100 days away, the Northern Arizona football team has checked in at No. 19 in the HERO Sports FCS Top 25 Media Poll.
NAU join five other Big Sky Conference teams in the poll in Montana State (No. 2), Montana (No. 7), Idaho (No. 10), UC Davis (No. 11), and Sacramento State (No. 12).
The Lumberjacks face three of those five teams this season, including Montana State (Oct. 4) and Idaho (Oct. 31) at home and UC Davis (Oct. 11) on the road.
Defending FCS National Champions North Dakota State were picked first, receiving four first place votes.
Northern Arizona is led by head coach
Brian Wright who enters his second year at the helm. During his first season, Wright guided the Lumberjacks to their first FCS playoff appearance since the 2017 season. NAU ended the regular season 8-4 overall and 6-2 in Big Sky Conference play, winning its final five games for the longest winning streak since 2017. The Lumberjacks finished undefeated at home for just the third time in program history at 5-0 (2015, 1978) and were nationally ranked at the end of the season in both the FCS Stats Perform and AFCA Coaches Poll.
NAU kicks off its season on Aug. 30 at Arizona State.
More information on the
HERO Sports FCS Top 25 can be found below:
Our Top 25 media poll included ballots from HERO Sports' Sam Herder, Kevin Marshall of FCS Nation Radio, Zach McKinnell of The Bluebloods and FCS Football Central, and Jamie Williams of FCS Fans Nation. Each slot was given a point total, and the four rankings were combined and ordered by total points.
1. North Dakota State (4 1st-place votes)
2. Montana State
3. South Dakota State
4. South Dakota
5. UIW
6. Tarleton State
t7. Illinois State
t7. Montana
9. Rhode Island
10. Idaho
11. UC Davis
t12. Mercer
t12. Sacramento State
14. Villanova
15. Jackson State
16. Southern Illinois
17. Lehigh
18. Western Carolina
19. Northern Arizona
20. Tennessee Tech
t21. Monmouth
t21. Stephen F. Austin
23. Harvard
24. Abilene Christian
25. Stony Brook
Received votes (ordered from most voting points to least): Richmond, Chattanooga, East Tennessee State, North Dakota, Southern Utah, North Carolina Central, UT Martin
