August 14, 2000
FURMAN NO. 9 IN SPORTS NETWORK
PRE-SEASON NCAA I-AA POLL
GREENVILLE -- The Furman Paladins are ranked ninth in The Sports Network (TSN) NCAA I-AA Pre-Season Top 25 Poll, which was released today.
The Paladins, who completed the 1999 season ranked 12th in the final TSN Poll, are one of three Southern Conference teams to earn pre-season Top 25 rankings. Georgia Southern, the defending national champion, is No. 1 and Appalachian State is No. 6. All three teams shared the 1999 league championship with 7-1 conference records.
"It's great to be ranked any time, especially when considering a year ago at this time we weren't even in the (pre-season) poll," said Furman head coach Bobby Johnson. "Not being in the pre-season poll and losing our first game really hurt us last year. We won seven in row after that and nine of our last 10 regular season games, including a win over North Carolina, but we couldn't move higher than seventh, so it's a real bonus to start off in the poll this year."
The Paladins have earned national rankings 124 times covering 17 seasons since the Southern Conference was reclassified to NCAA I-AA in 1982.
Furman, which returns 17 starters off its 9-4, 1999 Southern Conference championship, NCAA playoff squad, opens its 2000 season on Sept. 2 at 7:00 p.m. against Elon in Paladin Stadium.
The Sports Network Pre-Season Top-25
I-AA Football Poll
(As of Monday, August, 14th)
| Rank | Team (First Place Votes) | Record | Points | Previous |
| 1) | Georgia Southern (66) | 13-2 | 1,788 | 1 |
| 2) | Montana (5) | 9-3 | 1,579 | 8 |
| 3) | Troy State (4) | 11-2 | 1,497 | 6 |
| 4) | Massachusetts | 9-4 | 1,484 | 7 |
| 5) | Illinois State | 11-3 | 1,451 | 3 |
| 6) | Appalachian State | 9-3 | 1,332 | 9 |
| 7) | Youngstown State | 12-3 | 1,322 | 2 |
| 8) | Florida A&M | 10-4 | 1,216 | 4 |
| 9) | FURMAN | 9-3 | 1,162 | 12 |
| 10) | Northern Iowa | 8-3 | 1,052 | 15 |
| 11) | Hofstra | 11-2 | 858 | 5 |
| 12) | Portland State | 8-3 | 769 | 20 |
| 13) | Southern | 11-2 | 703 | 17 |
| 14) | Villanova | 7-4 | 622 | 24 |
| 15) | North Carolina A&T | 11-2 | 612 | 9 |
| 16) | Delaware | 7-4 | 592 | NR |
| 17) | Stephen F. Austin | 8-3 | 578 | 22 |
| 18) | James Madison | 8-4 | 576 | 13 |
| 19) | Tennessee State | 11-2 | 563 | 11 |
| 20) | Eastern Kentucky | 7-4 | 460 | NR |
| 21) | Jackson State | 9-3 | 433 | 19 |
| 22) | Northern Arizona | 8-4 | 390 | 16 |
| 23) | Western Illinois | 7-4 | 297 | NR |
| 24) | Lehigh | 10-2 | 284 | 14 |
| 25) | Colgate | 10-2 | 276 | 18 |