Rankings through games played Saturday, September 26, 2026.
By Michael Phillips | Sports & Whatever
Three weeks ago this was a wide-open race. Two weeks ago Virginia and Maryland were both unbeaten and it looked like a four-team conversation. Now it’s simple: Virginia Tech and James Madison are the only teams left standing at 4-0, and the gap between them and everyone else just got a little wider. Maryland lost by 51. William & Mary, ranked two weeks ago, just got beaten by 55 at Duke. Georgetown lost in overtime to finally look competitive. And Towson, it turns out, has actually been 0-5 the entire season — the Maine loss that opened their year got lost in the shuffle, but it’s very much part of the story now.
Here’s where all sixteen DMV programs stand. (For these rankings, “DMV” covers Division I programs across D.C., Maryland, and Virginia statewide — not just the Washington metro area, which is why Blacksburg, Norfolk, and Lexington are all on the list.)
1. Virginia Tech (4-0)
James Franklin’s Hokies needed a nor’easter and a 76-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run from Jeffrey Overton Jr. to survive Boston College 21-14, and that’s fine — this is what 4-0 looks like when it isn’t always pretty. Virginia Tech has now scored a program-record 152 points through three games heading into this one, leads the FBS in tackles for loss, and still owns the best win anyone in the region has produced this season: the 35-26 takedown of a Maryland team that has since been outscored 89-29 combined by Virginia Tech and UCLA. Pitt comes to Lane Stadium next.
2. James Madison (4-0)
Billy Napier’s Dukes opened Sun Belt play by handling their in-state rival on the road, 46-20, building a 30-7 lead before Old Dominion made the score respectable late. Morgan Suarez was 9-for-9 on field goals to open the season through this game, George Pettaway ran for 110 yards, and JMU is unbeaten with zero games that have felt genuinely in doubt. Virginia Tech’s best win is still better than anything JMU has on paper, but the résumé gap has never been thinner — both are playing like the best two teams in the region by a wide margin.
3. Virginia (3-1)
Whatever last week’s loss to West Virginia meant, Virginia answered it about as emphatically as possible: a 42-3 rout of Delaware, with Beau Pribula and the offense clicking well enough that a 74-yard touchdown pass to Chris Abdullah felt almost like garbage time by the fourth quarter. Rico Flores Jr. had his first 100-yard, double-digit-catch game as a Cavalier. Virginia is unranked for the first time all season, but this was the response of a team that isn’t rattled. Next up: Florida State on the road.
4. Liberty (3-1)
Nobody in the region has been better over the last two weeks than Liberty. After needing a late score to survive Gardner-Webb, Jamey Chadwell’s team has now blown out two FBS opponents in a row — Ball State by 36, and Coastal Carolina 34-17 on Thursday night after trailing 17-10 at the half. Deshawn Purdie has quietly become one of the more efficient quarterbacks in the region, and Liberty’s defense hasn’t allowed a fourth-quarter touchdown all season. The only loss on the résumé is to James Madison. That’s a really good football team hiding a few spots down this list.
5. Richmond (4-1)
The Spiders’ lone loss is still the 73-0 non-conference blowout at NC State that never should have been a fair fight. Everything against real competition has gone right: Richmond survived a scare from Georgetown, then held off Furman 13-9 in a defensive slog and remained 4-1 overall and 2-0 in Patriot League play. Russ Huesman’s team doesn’t have a signature win, but it also doesn’t have a bad loss, and that’s been enough to keep climbing.
6. Maryland (2-2)
There is no soft way to describe what happened in College Park on Saturday: UCLA led 20-3 at half, 34-3 by the third quarter, and rolled to a 54-3 win that was the most lopsided defeat of Michael Locksley’s eight years as head coach. Two Maryland interceptions were returned for touchdowns. The Terrapins are 2-2 for the first time under Locksley with real questions about his seat, having been outscored 89-29 combined in back-to-back losses to Virginia Tech and UCLA. Nebraska is next, on the road, and there isn’t much margin left for another bad week.
7. Norfolk State (3-2)
Michael Vick’s program is doing something it hasn’t done in years: winning consecutive games. A week after routing Hampton in the Battle of the Bay, Norfolk State went to Chicago State and pulled away for a 43-20 win, Vick’s first victory as a road head coach at any level. Jalyn Daniels ran for 102 yards and a 95-yard fourth-quarter touchdown, and the Spartans are already at 3-2 — one win shy of last season’s win total with half the schedule still to play, including South Carolina State to open MEAC play on Oct. 24.
8. Morgan State (3-1)
The Bears were off this week, still enjoying the high of ending a 17-year losing streak against Towson. Damon Wilson’s team gets a full two weeks to savor it before an Oct. 3 trip to Villanova, and at 3-1 they’ve quietly built the best record of any HBCU program in the region.
9. William & Mary (2-3)
It got worse before it could get better. A week after the stunning home loss to Fordham, William & Mary went to Duke and lost 62-7, held scoreless in the second half for the second straight week. Winston Watkins has thrown for nearly 800 yards on the season and gives Mike London’s team a real quarterback, but a program that opened with wins over Villanova and Delaware State has now been outscored 114-14 over its last two games. Cornell is next, and W&M badly needs a version of the team that showed up in September.
10. Old Dominion (1-3)
ODU’s third loss looks worse on paper than it played: James Madison led 30-17 at the half before JMU pulled away with a 16-3 second-half margin in the eventual 46-20 final. ODU has now lost to Virginia Tech, East Carolina, and its in-state rival, with the East Carolina game a genuine one-score defeat — the record says 1-3, but there’s been real competitiveness in stretches of every loss. East Carolina, Virginia Tech, JMU: a brutal opening stretch against three quality opponents, now behind them.
11. Navy (1-2)
The Midshipmen’s bad luck continued in Birmingham, where UAB scored a 24-20 win — the program’s first-ever victory over Navy in the series. Brian Newberry’s defense has now allowed fourth-quarter or late-game points to slip away in back-to-back losses, and a team that looked like a run-and-stop machine against Towson in Week 1 has lost its handle on close games. Air Force and the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy await Oct. 3.
12. Howard (1-3)
Rutgers scored on five of its first six possessions in a 58-7 rout that dropped Howard to three straight losses. Ted White’s program still has the signature win over Alabama A&M to point to, and a first-year coach absorbing a loss to a Big Ten program isn’t damning on its own — but the roster clearly isn’t deep enough yet to survive a schedule with this many quality opponents packed into September.
13. Hampton (1-4)
No. 22 Campbell needed a 31-point third quarter to pull away, but pull away it did, beating Hampton 44-20 in the Pirates’ CAA opener. Van Malone’s team is 1-4, with the one win coming against a non-Division I opponent — against actual competition, Hampton is 0-4 and has been outscored 137-23. Howard visits Audi Field in Washington next Saturday in a game between two programs both trying to find their first real win.
14. Georgetown (0-3)
This was the game that finally made Georgetown look like a real football team, even in defeat. The Hoyas took Columbia to overtime before falling 20-17 in the Lou Little Trophy game, a legitimate step forward from the lightning-shortened no-contest and the blowout loss to Lehigh that opened their season. Rob Sgarlata’s team is still winless, still 0-2 in the Patriot League, but for the first time all year it played four full quarters (plus overtime) with a real chance to win.
15. Towson (0-5)
The record has been perfect all season in the worst possible way. What got lost after the Navy and South Carolina blowouts is that Towson actually opened the season with a heartbreaking 21-18 loss to Maine — down 21 points, they scored 18 of the next 18 before a missed field goal and a late fumble sealed it. That pattern repeated itself against Delaware State on Saturday: Towson retook the lead 28-27 with under five minutes left, only for the Hornets to answer with a 95-yard, game-winning touchdown drive in 42 seconds, falling 33-28. Andrew Indorf has thrown for over 1,000 yards and eight touchdowns across five losses. This is a team that can move the ball and still hasn’t found a way to close one out.
16. VMI (0-5)
VMI’s fifth loss was, once again, its most competitive: a 45-7 defeat at Samford that included a 45-yard pick-six on the game’s opening drive and put the Keydets in an early hole they couldn’t escape. Ashley Ingram’s team has been outscored 142-23 this season, the worst differential in the region, and opens 0-1 in Southern Conference play. Mercer visits Lexington next.
What to watch this weekend: Pitt visits Lane Stadium looking to knock off an unbeaten Virginia Tech, Maryland tries to find its footing at Nebraska, and Liberty — the hottest team in the region — heads to Delaware on Oct. 2 looking for a fourth straight win. James Madison hosts Marshall and Old Dominion travels to Georgia State, both opening Sun Belt play in earnest.
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