Tigers 14th in D2Football Poll, 4th in Massey Ratings

LIVINGSTON — West Alabama dropped to No. 14 in the D2Football.com Top 25 poll, but remained in the top five of the Massey Ratings following a loss at Midwestern State on Saturday.

The Tigers dropped just two places in the Massey Ratings to No. 4. The top five in the current Massey Ratings are Northwest Missouri, Missouri Western, Midwestern State (Texas), UWA and Pittsburg State (Kansas).

The Massey ratings assess a team’s performance to this point in the season, the team’s estimated strength moving forward, its ability to score points and prevent opponents from scoring, estimated home advantage, strength of schedule for both games already played and games left to play. The final variable is expected wins and losses for the remaining schedule.

The top five teams in the D2Football.com poll remained the same, with Minnesota State, Northwest Missouri, CSU-Pueblo, Missouri Western and Minnesota-Duluth holding down those spots.

West Alabama (5-2, 3-0 GSC) returns to Gulf South Conference action Saturday by hosting West Georgia (4-3, 1-2) in a 6 p.m. Homecoming Game kickoff.

The complete D2Football.com poll can be found at http://www.d2football.com/top25poll/11/ and the current Massey Ratings at http://bit.ly/1acdVbu.