The North Central College football team will continue to widen the gap between itself and its competitors in both NCAA Division III national top 25 Polls this week, retaining its No. 1 position in D3football.com and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) in polls released Monday.
The Cardinals, based in Naperville, improved to 6-0 (5-0 in CCIW) Saturday, by hammering Elmhurst University, 77-7, and rank as the highest-scoring team in Division III with 57.5 points per game. North Central received 17 first-place votes and 612 points in the D3football.com voting, and the No. 2-ranked University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas) received seven first-place votes.
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is ranked third, followed by the University of Mount Union (Ohio) and Saint John’s University (Minnesota). Rounding out the top 10 are Wheaton College, Linfield College (Oregon), Hardin-Simmons University (Texas), Delaware Valley University (Pennsylvania) and Central College (Iowa).
North Central received 40 of 47 first-place votes in the AFCA poll. Mary Hardin-Baylor is ranked second by the AFCA, followed by Wisconsin-Whitewater, Mount Union, Saint John’s, Linfield, Delaware Valley, Hardin-Simmons, Wheaton and Central.
Through six games, the Cardinals rank first among all NCAA Division III programs in scoring offense (57.5 yards per game), second in total offense (588.2 yards per game), third in scoring defense (7.8 ppg) and total offense (589.4 yards per game) and 12th in total defense (228.5 ypg). North Central has surpassed the 60-point mark four times this season.
The Cardinals currently own a 17-game winning streak starting in the 2019 campaign, which is the longest in the program’s history, and are on track to win their 15th College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) championship.
—North Central College