If the rest of the spring plays out like Saturday did, good luck to the FCS playoff committee in deciding what schools deserve at an-large bid into the postseason.

It was a wild weekend, highlighted by Southern Illinois’ 38-14 throttling of No. 1 North Dakota State. The Bison had their 39-game winning streak snapped and suffered their most lopsided loss since 2005.

Aside from North Dakota State, 10 other teams from this past week’s Stats Perform FCS Top 25 were beaten including No. 3 South Dakota State, which fell at North Dakota.

This spring, I’m lucky enough to be one of 40 voters who have the privilege of trying to make sense of results even on the heels of the wackiest of weekends. Each Monday morning, I’ll post my ballot and some thoughts about how it came together.

First, let’s start with my vote:

And now, some thoughts …

- What to do with the top spot on my ballot was tricky. James Madison, North Dakota and Weber State all got consideration.

The Dukes earned the nod even after playing, perhaps, their worst half of football since the final 30 minutes of their lost to Colgate in second round of the 2018 FCS playoffs, in the opening 30 minutes against Robert Morris on Saturday. That said, to show up poorly and still win convincingly, 36-16, proves JMU is a force. The Dukes outscored Robert Morris 20-0 in the second half and the JMU defense held the Colonials to 24 yards on 24 plays in the last two quarters.

North Dakota has the best two wins early in this season – beating Southern Illinois in Week 1 and South Dakota State in Week 2. Weber State’s offense piled up 638 yards in a season-opening victory at Idaho State.

- With North Dakota State’s setback, determining how far to drop the Bison didn’t make for an easy task, especially considering they got beat by 24 points. If the result was closer, I probably wouldn’t have dropped them all the way down to No. 7. But Southern Illinois had 25 first downs to NDSU’s 12 and the Salukis dominated time of possession – 41:26 to 18:34.

Add two wins for North Dakota, which beat SIU in Week 1, and it was only right that the Bison had to be behind those two this week. South Dakota State led North Dakota until late in the third quarter before its lead disappeared, but the Jackrabbits already entered this past Saturday with a Top 10 win on the road so they did not deserve to plummet. They edged Northern Iowa in Week 1. Northern Iowa shutout Youngstown State on Saturday for a 21-0 win. Both UNI and the Bison beat YSU similarly, except UNI did it on the road. So because of what has happened in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, the Bison were moved to No. 7.

- Newcomers to my ballot this week are: Southern Illinois, Idaho, Southeast Missouri State, South Dakota, Chattanooga and Robert Morris.

- As far as placing Robert Morris in the No. 24 spot, I did it because the Colonials are improved immensely in the offensive and defensive lines. Having seen many past foes of James Madison get clobbered in those departments over the past five years, it was impressive to see RMU even give the Dukes trouble at times.

Its offensive line is a veteran unit with four of five starters back and its defense will benefit from the addition of Florida State transfer Ricardo Watson, who had a tackle for loss against the Dukes on Saturday.

RMU quarterback George Martin can throw the ball down the field effectively and transfer receivers Daevon Robinson (Rutgers) and D’Andre Hicks (McNeese State) should help balance their offense and open space up for running back Alijah Jackson moving forward. If they play like they did in the first half in Harrisonburg on Saturday, they’ll make some noise in the Big South.