For one week, Jackson State had it all. The Tigers ranked No. 1 in the Black College Football Poll, and national computers liked them best. Then they went to Daytona Beach and lost 24-21 to Bethune-Cookman on a touchdown pass with 40 seconds left.
Somebody had to replace them at the top. The Black College Football Poll voters chose Alabama A&M, which moved up from second with 12 of the 22 first-place votes and 430 points. South Carolina State is right behind with the other 10 first-place votes and 420 points.
The Data Driven HBCU Computer Poll went the other way. South Carolina State is our new No. 1, Alabama A&M slipped to second, and Jackson State is third. So which is right? We lined up our poll with the voters and with the 23 computer systems in the Massey Composite to find out.
Our Rankings Next to the Black College Football Poll
The Black College Football Poll ranks 10 teams and lists the rest of the vote-getters, so the table shows our full 21-team order alongside the voters’. The gap column compares our rankings to the voters’ for the 10 teams they ranked. A plus means our poll ranks the team higher than the voters do, and a minus means we rank it lower. The two biggest gaps are highlighted.
| School | Our poll | Our poll last week | BCFP | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Carolina State | 1 | 4 | 2 | +1 |
| Alabama A&M | 2 | 1 | 1 | -1 |
| Jackson State | 3 | 2 | 4 | +1 |
| Bethune-Cookman | 4 | 12 | 3 | -1 |
| Howard | 5 | 7 | 9 | +4 |
| Prairie View A&M | 6 | 14 | 8 | +2 |
| Morgan State | 7 | 3 | 5 | -2 |
| Grambling State | 8 | 11 | 6 | -2 |
| Alabama State | 9 | 6 | 7 | -2 |
| North Carolina Central | 10 | 16 | RV | |
| Delaware State | 11 | 9 | RV | |
| Norfolk State | 12 | 5 | RV | |
| Arkansas-Pine Bluff | 13 | 8 | RV | |
| North Carolina A&T | 14 | 13 | RV | |
| Alcorn State | 15 | 10 | 10 | -5 |
| Tennessee State | 16 | 15 | NR | |
| Mississippi Valley State | 17 | 20 | NR | |
| Texas Southern | 18 | 19 | NR | |
| Southern | 19 | 17 | NR | |
| Hampton | 20 | 21 | NR | |
| Florida A&M | 21 | 18 | NR |
RV means receiving votes. NR means not ranked and not receiving votes.
The two lists are closer than the top spot suggests. Our top nine and the voters’ top nine are the same nine teams. Both polls list Alabama A&M, South Carolina State, Jackson State, and Bethune-Cookman as the top four, just in a different order, and each is within one spot of where the voters have it. The only difference in the top 10 is at No. 10: the voters have Alcorn State, and we have North Carolina Central.
Why South Carolina State Is No. 1
Last week, Inside the Numbers: Why Alabama A&M Is No. 1 in The Data Driven HBCU Top 5 Computer Poll While the National Computers Pick Jackson State laid out the case for the Bulldogs. That case has not changed. Alabama A&M still has the best dominance score in our poll, and no team we track has won by more. It was idle on Saturday.
South Carolina State was not. The Bulldogs beat Norfolk State 22-7 in their MEAC opener, and Norfolk State was No. 5 in our poll a week ago. That win matters in our model, because results against the other HBCUs we track carry real weight. South Carolina State is now 3-0 against those teams, with wins over Florida A&M, Bethune-Cookman, and Norfolk State, and its head-to-head score is second only to Howard’s. Both losses came against FCS teams outside the HBCU ranks: The Citadel and Charleston Southern.
Alabama A&M is 4-2 against the HBCUs we track, and both losses to Howard and Jackson State count against it. The Bulldogs also have the weakest strength-of-schedule score of the 21 teams. Last week, their margins outweighed all of that. This week, South Carolina State’s win over a top five team tipped the balance.
It is close. Alabama A&M trails South Carolina State by about five hundredths of a point in our composite, and the next game for each could flip it back.
Who Gets the First Place Votes?
Another way to settle it is to treat each system’s top HBCU as a first-place vote. The 23 rating systems in this week’s Massey Composite give us 23 computer votes, and the Black College Football Poll gives us 22 human ones.
| School | BCFP first-place votes | Massey Composite systems | Our poll |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama A&M | 12 | 13 | |
| South Carolina State | 10 | 8 | No. 1 |
| Howard | 0 | 1 | |
| Jackson State | 0 | 1 |
Alabama A&M wins both counts, but neither is a landslide. The Bulldogs rank first in 13 of the 23 computer systems, including Sagarin and the Laz Index. South Carolina State ranks first in eight, including the Massey ratings themselves. Wilson’s system puts Howard first, while Wolfe’s still puts Jackson State first.
Add our poll to the computer count, and it becomes 13 for Alabama A&M and nine for South Carolina State. Add the voters, and it is 25 to 19. Alabama A&M is the most common No. 1 among the humans and the computers. Our pick is the minority view, but it is not a lonely one.
Alabama A&M is also No. 1 among the 21 Division I HBCUs in the Massey Composite itself, at 37th of 128 FCS teams. South Carolina State is next at 42nd, followed by Jackson State at 51st.
Bethune-Cookman’s Big Jump
No team gained more on Saturday than Bethune-Cookman. The Wildcats climbed from eighth to third in the Black College Football Poll and from 12th to fourth in ours, the biggest jump in our poll this week, tied with Prairie View A&M.
Beating the No. 2 team in our poll does that. Bethune-Cookman now has the second-strongest schedule among our top five, behind Howard, and is 4-2 against FCS teams.
The question for Bethune-Cookman is whether it can keep winning this way. The Wildcats have been outgained by 51 yards per game against FCS opponents, and they’ve won both of their one-score FCS games. Less than two thousandths of a point separate them from No. 5 Howard in our composite.
Saturday’s Stars: SWAC Weekly Honors
The SWAC’s weekly awards, announced Monday, went to the two teams behind Saturday’s last-second finishes. Bethune-Cookman and Texas Southern each took two.
- Offensive Player of the Week: Athean Renfro Jr., Texas Southern (23 rushes, 135 yards, 1 TD)
- Defensive Player of the Week: Stephen Sparrow, Bethune-Cookman (11 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 sack, 1 FF, 1 PBU)
- Newcomer of the Week: Tyler Jefferson, Bethune-Cookman (8 of 14, 113 yards, 3 TD passes, 68 rushing yards)
- Special Teams Player of the Week: Miguel Arana III, Texas Southern (46-yard game-winning FG, 3 for 3 PAT)
Sparrow and Jefferson were at the center of the upset that reshaped both polls’ top. Sparrow, a graduate linebacker, made a season-high 11 tackles as Bethune-Cookman held Jackson State to 33 rushing yards. Jefferson, a junior quarterback, needed only 14 throws to beat the No. 1 team in the Black College Football Poll, and his third touchdown pass was the 19-yard game-winner to Rickie Shaw II with 40 seconds left. It is the first weekly award of the season for both.
Texas Southern does not appear in either poll, but its 24-21 Homecoming win over Southern was its first in SWAC play. Renfro carried five times on the final drive to set up Arana’s 46-yard field goal with one second left. Renfro now has 666 rushing yards this season and his second weekly award, and freshman Arana is 6-for-6 from 40 to 49 yards.
Where We Differ
Bethune-Cookman’s climb is one move both polls agree on. Further down the board, they part ways.
Howard: our No. 5, the voters’ No. 9
Howard jumped into the voters’ top 10 from unranked after its overtime win at Morgan State, but we have the Bison four spots higher. They are 4-4 and have been outscored by 9.5 points per game, which is what the voters see.
Our model sees something else. Howard has beaten Alabama A&M and Morgan State, has not lost to an HBCU we track, and has played the toughest schedule in our top 10. The lopsided numbers come from two FBS trips, a 55-0 loss at Indiana and a 58-7 loss at Rutgers. Against FCS opponents, Howard is 3-2 and has outscored teams by 3.2 points per game.
Alcorn State: our No. 15, the voters’ No. 10
Alcorn State is the biggest gap on the board. The Braves entered the voters’ top 10 without playing on Saturday, while they slid five spots in our poll. At 4-4, the Braves have lost to Grambling State and Prairie View A&M, two teams ranked ahead of them in both polls. Alcorn State has also scored and allowed more points against FCS opponents than anyone in the field, 42.6 for and 46.6 against per game.
Prairie View A&M and Morgan State
Prairie View A&M climbed eight spots in our poll, from 14th to sixth, and two spots with the voters, to eighth. Its 30-19 win at East Texas A&M helped, and so did a schedule that keeps looking tougher. Two of the Panthers’ early losses came against Tarleton State and Stephen F. Austin, and both of those teams are now 8-0 and in the top five of the Massey Composite. At 4-5, the Panthers are still the only team in the voters’ top 10 with a losing record.
Morgan State went the other way. The Bears fell from third to seventh in our poll and from fourth to fifth with the voters after losing to Howard. Three of Morgan State’s four wins over FCS teams came by three points or fewer, and the Bears allow 266 passing yards per game against FCS opponents, the most among our top nine.
North Carolina Central and Norfolk State
North Carolina Central rose six spots to 10th in our poll after its 31-12 win at Delaware State, and it received votes from only one voter. Its wins over North Carolina A&T and Delaware State carry it in our model. Norfolk State fell seven spots, from fifth to 12th, after the loss at South Carolina State, and it dropped out of the voters’ top 10 from ninth.
North Carolina Central Cleans Up: MEAC Weekly Honors
North Carolina Central’s climb came with plenty of hardware. The Eagles took four of the five MEAC weekly awards after their win in Dover, and Gino Addison claimed two himself.
- Offensive Player of the Week: Gino Addison, North Carolina Central (31 rushes, 214 yards, 2 TDs)
- Offensive Lineman of the Week: Victor Goree, North Carolina Central (272 team rushing yards, 427 total yards)
- Defensive Player of the Week: Zarion Walters, North Carolina Central (6 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 sack)
- Rookie of the Week: Gino Addison, North Carolina Central (31 rushes, 214 yards, 2 TD)
- Specialist of the Week: Jason Wonodi, Norfolk State (47-yard punt return TD)
Addison ran 31 times for 214 yards and two touchdowns, and the Eagles ran for 272 yards as a team behind a line that includes Goree. Walters made all six of his tackles on his own, with two tackles for loss and a sack. He has 6.5 sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss this season.
Wonodi gave Norfolk State its only points in Orangeburg, returning a punt 47 yards for a third-quarter touchdown to cut South Carolina State’s lead to 19-7. The Spartans got no closer.
The FCS Only Test
Every week, someone points to a team’s Division II wins or its FBS losses. So we set those games aside again and looked at how each team has played only against FCS opponents. Point margin is the average point differential, and yardage margin is the average difference in total yards. A minus means the opponent had more. The table is in our poll order.
| School | FCS record | Point margin | Yardage margin | Games set aside |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Carolina State | 4-2 | +5.5 | +105 | 2 |
| Alabama A&M | 4-2 | +17.3 | +198 | 2 |
| Jackson State | 4-2 | +3.8 | +22 | 2 |
| Bethune-Cookman | 4-2 | +1.0 | -51 | 2 |
| Howard | 3-2 | +3.2 | -17 | 3 |
| Prairie View A&M | 4-4 | +0.5 | -26 | 1 |
| Morgan State | 4-2 | +2.3 | -21 | 2 |
| Grambling State | 2-2 | -6.5 | -110 | 3 |
| Alabama State | 3-2 | +7.6 | -57 | 2 |
| North Carolina Central | 2-4 | -3.2 | -17 | 2 |
| Delaware State | 2-3 | -7.8 | -7 | 3 |
| Norfolk State | 2-2 | +6.8 | +141 | 4 |
| Arkansas-Pine Bluff | 2-2 | +6.5 | -1 | 3 |
| North Carolina A&T | 3-4 | -3.6 | -32 | 1 |
| Alcorn State | 2-3 | -4.0 | +55 | 3 |
| Tennessee State | 2-5 | -7.3 | -68 | 1 |
| Mississippi Valley State | 2-3 | -15.0 | -28 | 3 |
| Texas Southern | 2-3 | -6.0 | -27 | 2 |
| Southern | 1-4 | -10.2 | -22 | 3 |
| Hampton | 0-6 | -22.8 | -142 | 2 |
| Florida A&M | 1-5 | -8.7 | -104 | 2 |
Alabama A&M passes this test easily. Against FCS teams, the Bulldogs win by 17.3 points and 198 yards per game. No one else is close.
South Carolina State’s case leans more on its overall body of work. Its 87-0 and 66-0 wins over Savannah State and Virginia State inflate its season margins, and it wins by 5.5 points and 105 yards per game against FCS teams. That is still the second-best yardage margin among our top 10.
Norfolk State is the interesting case. The Spartans outgain FCS opponents by 141 yards per game, second only to Alabama A&M, but four of their eight games came against FBS, Division II, or non-NCAA opponents, the most of any team. That leaves a 2-2 record against FCS teams on a small sample.
The Bottom Line
Voters and computers agree on who belongs at the top but disagree on the order. The disagreement comes down to the same question it did a week ago. Alabama A&M has been the most dominant team, while South Carolina State has the cleaner record against the HBCUs we track.
Both get a chance to settle it this week. Alabama A&M meets Alabama State in the Magic City Classic, and South Carolina State visits Morgan State. Bethune-Cookman goes to Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and Howard visits North Carolina Central.
See the full rankings and every team’s results on the 2026 football season dashboard.
