The college football season, with Summer training is not far off. North Central College in Division III is represented in the top 25 pre-season rankings.
Northern Illinois University will open the season at 2:30 p.m. at the University of Iowa Saturday, Sept. 1. Mid-American football game starting times have been released.
The North Central College in Naperville is ranked seventh in the Street & Smith’s College Football Yearbook and 20th in the Lindy’s Sports Annuals College Football Preview. Both publications are available on newsstands.
North Central senior linebacker DJ Warkenthien, from Naperville, has been singled out as one of Division III’s top players to watch this season. He is one of 24 players nationwide to appear on the Street & Smith’s preseason all-America team.
The University of Mount Union (Ohio), the defending Division III national champion, is ranked first by Street & Smith’s, followed by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Texas; the University of Saint Thomas, Minnesota; and Linfield College, Oregon. Mount Unioin tops the Lindy’s rankings, with the top five rounded out by Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Mary Hardin-Baylor, the College at Brockport, New York, and Saint John’s University, Minnesota.
Warkenthien, of Neuqua Valley High School, has played in each of the Cardinals’ 34 games the past three seasons and started all 12 in 2017. He led North Central with 90 tackles as a junior, including 5.5 quarterback sacks, and ranked second in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) and 34th nationally with 20 tackles for loss. A second team All-CCIW honoree at the close of last season, he enters the 2018 season fifth in the Cardinals’ history in tackles for loss, 40, and 10th in quarterback sacks, 14.5.
North Central will open the 2018 schedule September 8 at Lake Forest College.
Northern Illinois will play its home-opener against Utah, the first Pac-12 team to visit Huskie Stadium for a game at 6:30 p.m. September 8.
Conference play will come early this year for the Huskies when Northern Illinois will play host to Central Michigan at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, and their road game at Eastern Michigan Saturday, Sept. 29 will kickoff at 5 p.m.. Both games will be shown on ESPN’s new platform, ESPN+. Northern Illinois’ 112th Homecoming Game against Ohio Saturday, Oct. 13 will kick off at 2:30 p.m. and will be shown on one of the ESPN networks.
Northern Illinois defensive end Sutton Smith, and left tackle Max Scharping, were named preseason all-America players by Athlon Sports this week.
