By: CSC Athletics
LANCASTER, Pa. – After turning heads with an eight-win season and NCAA playoff appearance in 2025, Chadron State earned a No. 21 national ranking in the preseason edition of the D2Football.com poll, unveiled by the organization on Monday night.
The No. 21 preseason ranking comes after Chadron State closed at No. 18 in the final poll of 2025. The Eagles entered last season's D2Football.com rankings for the first time ahead of last season's win over Western Colorado and were ranked No. 22, No. 19, No. 17 and No. 18 over the final four polls of the year.
Chadron State is one of three RMAC teams ranked in the poll, joining No. 10 CSU Pueblo and No. 11 Western Colorado. The ThunderWolves and Mountaineers are the only two of CSC's 2026 opponents to be included in the D2Football.com preseason top 25 rankings.
CSU Pueblo, Western Colorado and Colorado School of Mines (unranked in the D2Football.com poll) were the only schools ranked ahead of Chadron State in the RMAC Preseason Poll that saw the Eagles picked fourth. Chadron State faces all three back-to-back – traveling to Western Colorado on September 12 before hosting CSU Pueblo on September 19 and Mines on September 26.
Defending national champions Ferris State topped the poll, followed in the top five by Harding, Minnesota State, Kutztown, and Pittsburg State, who ended CSC's season in the first round of the NCAA playoffs last year.
D2Football.com recently revealed its Elite 100 preseason watch list, featuring Eagles defensive end William Stemler as one of the squad team defensive players.