Florida A&M, Johnson C Smith Remain Atop 2024 HBCU-PSMA Week Four Football Polls

 

By:  A.D. Drew, Black College Sports Network

As non-conference play begins to wind down, the top teams are beginning to take shape, or cause more confusion, depending on your perspective.  While the CIAA dominates the mid-major polls, the major division is cloudy with top teams having defeated lower division teams, been blown out by FBS teams, and competing against non-conference FCS teams.  The panel has weighed in and given its opinion.

MAJOR DIVISION

The Florida A&M Rattlers, despite two consecutive losses to FBS programs, hold on to the top position in the ranking.  Grambling State, coming off a dominating performance in a non-conference game against Jackson State, has risen to the second position.  Hampton continues to dominate the series with the Howard Bison and sit at number three.  North Carolina Central, ranks fourth after they laid the law down against in-state rival North Carolina A&T.  All four of these teams received at least one first-place vote.  Jackson State and Morgan State tied for the fifth position.  Jackson State fell to Grambling State while Morgan State bullied Virginia-Lynchburg.  Howard, Tennessee State, Southern, and Alabama State round out the top ten.

Rank	Team	W/L	Points	FPV	PW
1	Florida A&M	2-2 (0-0)	79	3	1
2	Grambling State	3-1 (0-0)	76	1	5
3	Hampton	3-1 (0-0)	75	4	NR
4	North Carolina Central	2-2 (0-0)	69	1	6
T-5	Jackson State	2-2 (0-0)	42		2
T-5	Morgan State	2-2 (0-0)	42		T-7
7	Howard	2-2 (0-0)	34		4
8	Tennessee State	2-2 (0-0)	23		3
9	Southern	2-2 (1-0)	17		NR
10	Alabama State	1-2 (0-0)	8		NR

Receiving Votes:  Texas Southern (1-2), 6 pts., LW-10; Alabama A&M (2-2), 4 pts., LW-T7

Dropped Out:  Alabama A&M, South Carolina State, Texas Southern

MID-MAJOR DIVISION

For the second consecutive week, the Johnson C. Smith Bulls top the mid-major poll.  They easily handled Virginia Union last week.  Clark-Atlanta pulled off a dramatic 4^th quarter comeback against FCS Bethune-Cookman to hold on to the second position.  Winston-Salem continues to impress the votes and has risen to the third position after handling Virginia State.  Shaw rises one position after blowing out Lincoln (PA).  Fayetteville State always finds a way to stay in the conversation and rises to fifth.  Virginia Union falls and the forgotten HBCU, West Virginia State makes an appearance at seven.  The CIAA continues to dominate the poll with Virginia State and Livingstone at eight and ten, respectively.  Florida Memorial of the NAIA continues to crash the party, coming in at number nine.

Rank	Team	W/L	Points	FPV	PW
1	Johnson C. Smith	4-0 (1-0)	89	8	1
2	Clark-Atlanta	3-0-1 (2-0)	82	1	2
3	Winston-Salem State	3-1 (1-0)	64		6
4	Shaw	3-1 (1-0)	63		5
5	Fayetteville State	2-1 (0-0)	55		10
T-5	Virginia Union	1-2 (0-0)	39		3
7	West Virginia State	2-1 (1-0)	25		NR
8	Virginia State	1-2 (0-0)	22		4
9	Florida Memorial	1-1-1 (0-0)	13		9
10	Livingstone	2-2 (0-1)	11		8

Receiving Votes:  Fort Valley State (1-2), 10 pts, LW-RV; Elizabeth City State (2-2), 5 pts, LW-7; Bowie State (1-2), 4 pts, LW-NR; Texas College, (2-1), 4 pts, LW-RV

ABOUT THE POLL

The poll is made up of the members of the HBCU-Pro Sports Media Association.  The voters make up a cross-section of media members who cover all four HBCU conferences and the independent institutions.  The members who make up the sample of voters reside in eight different states.

ABOUT HBCU-PSMA

Established in 2021, the HBCU-Pro Sports Media Association is an organization of professionals providing multimedia coverage of Historically Black College and University sports, as well as professional sports.

The purpose of the association is to transform and empower the culture of media by providing informative broadcast stories, rich contextual reporting and inspirational photography of the marginalized by educating, inspiring, and informing a global community.