| Rank | Team | Comments | Prior | |
| 1 |  | North Dakota State | North Dakota State put up 66 points against Prairie View A&M. UNI will provide a tougher defense. | 2 |
| 2 |  | Montana State | Montana State cruised past Northern Colorado. The story should be the same against Southern Utah this week. | 3 |
| 3 |  | Youngstown State | Youngstown State had a thrilling victory against UNI. After a week to prepare, they head to North Dakota State | 6 |
| 4 |  | James Madison | James Madison went to Rhode Island and came away with an easy win. After a bye week, they host Towson. | 4 |
| 5 |  | Old Dominion | ODU and quarterback Taylor Heinicke had an amazing offensive performance against a good New Hampshire team. | 7 |
| 6 |  | Eastern Washington | Eastern Washington finally gets a home game. But it will be a tough home game against a reeling Montana team. | 5 |
| 7 |  | Sam Houston State | SHSU lost a thriller at UCA. They need to pull together quickly with a game at Texas Southern on Thursday night. | 1 |
| 8 |  | Towson | Towson crushed St. Francis (PA), but this week they may be on the business end of an LSU beat down. | 9 |
| 9 |  | Wofford | Wofford watched last week, but now travel to Elon. The Phoenix gave GSU a great game and should do the same. | 10 |
| 10 |  | Georgia Southern | Georgia Southern held on to beat Elon. This week they host another deceptively tough SoCon squad in Samford. | 11 |
| 11 |  | Appalachian State | Appalachian State got a quality road win at Chattanooga. Coastal Carolina will be another tough game. | 12 |
| 12 |  | Eastern Kentucky | Eastern Kentucky jumped all over Jacksonville State to take the early lead in the OVC title race. | 18 |
| 13 |  | Northern Iowa | Northern Iowa did not have a bad showing in a loss at YSU, but they must beat NDSU or they are in deep trouble. | 8 |
| 14 |  | Illinois State | Illinois State keeps cruising along and had a relatively easy time with Western Illinois. South Dakota is up next. | 14 |
| 15 |  | Lehigh | Lehigh had to hang on to beat Liberty 28-26. That was a tough road game and a test that the Mountain Hawks passed. | 15 |
| 16 |  | Central Arkansas | Central Arkansas got a huge win over Sam Houston State, but they won't have much time to gloat with SFA next. | 23 |
| 17 |  | New Hampshire | New Hampshire's defense could not stop ODU. The offense is cruising, but Delaware will provide another test. | 17 |
| 18 |  | Citadel | The Citadel couldn't hang with NC State, but they'll have another quality FCS opponent this week in Chattanooga. | 19 |
| 19 |  | Montana | Montana got outplayed by Northern Arizona. A trip to Eastern Washington will be very difficult now. | 16 |
| 20 |  | Jacksonville State | Jacksonville State will need some time to lick their wounds from the EKU game. SEMO should provide some relief. | 13 |
| 21 |  | Delaware | Delaware went to Williamsburg and got an easy win over W&M. This week they face a hungry UNH squad. | 24 |
| 22 |  | Harvard | Harvard survived a trip to Providence and this week will go out of conference to host Holy Cross on Friday. | 22 |
| 23 |  | Stony Brook | It took a fourth quarter comeback for SBU to knock off Colgate at home, but they did come away with the win. | 20 |
| 24 |  | Samford | Samford is 4-0, but GSU, Citadel, Appalachian State, Chattanooga and Wofford are their next five games. | NR |
| 25 |  | Cal Poly | Cal Poly got their first Big Sky win over UC Davis. This week they'll head to North Dakota and look for a 4-0 start. | NR |
Week 4 FCS Football Top 25 Rankings
Sat, 09/22/2012
