LANCASTER, Pa. – For the first time since the 2018 preseason poll, the Franklin & Marshall football team is ranked in the national top 25. The Diplomats (8-1, 6-0 CC) are ranked 25th by both D3football.com and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) ahead of this weekend's showdown with Johns Hopkins for the Centennial Conference Championship.

The Diplomats garnered 42 votes in the AFCA poll and 27 points in the D3football.com polls after they had been receiving votes and climbing towards the top 25 during recent weeks. Franklin & Marshall is riding a seven game-winning streak for just the second time this century, with the last being when the team won nine consecutive games between the 2017 and 2018 campaigns and was also a top 25 program.

Dating back to last season, Franklin & Marshall has now won eight straight games on the road after its 31-24 triumph at Carnegie Mellon on Saturday. That stretch is tied for the program's longest road winning streak which is now shared with the 1995-97 teams and 1988-89 teams who also won eight consecutive road contests. F&M last finished a regular season undefeated on the road during the 2017 campaign which was also the team's most recent conference title.

The Diplomats have additionally won seven consecutive Centennial Conference games dating back to 2024 which is just two shy of tying the team's best mark since joining the Centennial and had been accomplished just three times prior in the Centennial era.

Since the second week of the Centennial Conference schedule, the Diplomats have been alongside Johns Hopkins as the only undefeated teams in conference play. Those two teams will finally meet this Saturday at 1 p.m. inside Shadek Stadium where the Centennial Conference Championship and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament will be on the line at at 1 p.m. Johns Hopkins enters the week No. 3 nationally in both of these polls.