The Appalachian State University football team is ranked sixth in the College Sporting News Preseason Top 25 FCS Poll. The Mountaineers (8-4), who lost to Maine in the second round of the FCS playoffs last season, had two players named to the CSN Preseason All-American Team. Linebacker Jeremy Kimbrough and defensive back Demetrius McCray werefirst-team selections. Joining Kimbrough and McCray on the first team was fullback Eric Breitenstein of Wofford College.
North Dakota State, which won the national championship last season, is No.1 in the preseason poll; Sam Houston State, last season's national runnerup, is No.2 in the preseason poll.
Georgia Southern, a national semfinalist and the preseason favorite to win the Southern Conference title, is No. 3, Montana State and James Madison round out the top five. Montana, which travels to Boone to play ASU at Kidd Brewer Stadium on Saturday, September 8, is ranked tenth; Wofford is 15th and Chattanooga among teams receiving votes.
The Colonial Athletic Association had six teams in the CSN preseason poll. James Madison was fifth, Towson, the preseason favorite to win the CAA this season, is seventh, Old Dominiion is eighth, Delaware is 13th, New Hampshire is 14th, and Maine is 19th. Eastern Washington, the 2010 national champions, which started the 2011 season with four straight losses but finished with six wins to end the season, is ranked 12th.

College Sporting News 2012 FCS Preseason Top 25

1. North Dakota State
2. Sam Houston State
3. Georgia Southern
4. Montana State
5. James Madison
6. Appalachian State
7. Towson
8. Old Dominion
9. Northern Iowa
10. Montana
11. Lehigh
12. Eastern Washington
13. Delaware
14. New Hampshire
15. Wofford
16. Stony Brook
17. Youngstown State
18. Illinois State
19. Maine
20. Eastern Kentucky
21. Central Arkansas
22. Indiana State
23. Liberty
24. Murray State
25. Stephen F. Austin

Others receiving votes: Bethune-Cookman, Harvard, Chattanooga, Grambling State, Norfolk State, Southern Illinois, Villanova, Jacksonville State.