Philadelphia, PA -- (Sports Network) - For the second year in a row, Appalachian State was a near unanimous pick as the No. 1 selection in The Sports Network FCS preseason top-25 poll released Tuesday morning.

The Mountaineers, the three-time defending national champs, received 97 of 101 first-place votes and 2,546 points. It is the third consecutive year that ASU has opened the season ranked No. 1 by The Sports Network.

North Dakota State, the No. 2 team in the poll with 2,275 points, received one first-place vote and No. 6 James Madison was selected first by three voters.

The poll was dominated by three major leagues -- the Colonial Athletic Association, the Missouri Valley Football Conference and the Southern Conference.

The CAA landed four teams in the top 10 (Richmond at No. 4, Massachusetts at No. 5 and Delaware at No. 9 to join James Madison) and six teams in the top 25. New Hampshire placed 16th and Villanova finished at 21.

The MVC also had six teams ranked, with Northern Iowa at No. 3, Southern Illinois 11th, Youngstown State 12th, South Dakota State 19th and Western Illinois 25th to join North Dakota State.

The SoCon placed five teams in the poll, with Appalachian State being followed by Wofford at No. 13, Elon at 15th, Georgia Southern at 17th and The Citadel ranked 23rd.

Other teams in the top 10 include two Big Sky schools at seven and eighth, Eastern Washington and Montana, and McNeese State of the Southland finishing at No. 10.

Cal Poly of the Great West came in at No. 14 and two Ohio Valley Conference teams, Eastern Illinois and Eastern Kentucky were ranked 18th and 20th.

Completing the top 25 were No. 22 Central Arkansas of the Southland and the lone Ivy League representative, Harvard at No. 24.

The regular season top-25 poll will be released every Monday afternoon during the football year, except the final weekend when it will be released on Sunday morning to allow it to be used officially by the NCAA Division I Football Committee when it selects the 16-team playoff field.

The Sports Network will release a final top-25 poll following the national championship game, which will be held December 19 in Chattanooga, TN.