PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – For the first time in program history (during the NCAA I-AA/FCS era), Lamar University football has ended the season nationally ranked. Approximately 12 hours after the conclusion of the 2025 FCS Championship game, STATS Perform released its final top 25 poll which has Lamar ranked 24^th nationally.
 
The Cardinals posted an 8-5 (.615) overall record during the 2025 campaign highlighted by nationally ranked wins over No. 4 South Dakota and No. 19 Southeastern Louisiana and a trip to the NCAA FCS playoffs. The postseason berth was the second in school history and the first since 2018.
 
After a season-opening setback at North Texas (who ended the year with a New Mexico Bowl victory), the Cardinals rattled off a seven-game win streak which was the longest since the 1971 and 1972 seasons.
 
The Cardinals, who climbed as high as 14^th in the polls this past season, tied a single-season school record for wins (as a four-year institution), which marks the third consecutive season that Lamar fans have witnessed an improvement under third-year head coach Pete Rossomondo.
 
Rossomando, who took over a program that won just one game in the year prior to his arrival, posted the nation's fourth-best single season turnaround in his first year and has never had a sub-.500 record (for a program that had only two winning seasons since its return to varsity status in 2010).
 
Despite having ended just his third season at LU, Rossomando already has more wins than any previous Lamar head coach after their first four seasons.