NAPERVILLE ---  Following the fifth straight unbeaten regular season, North Central College head football coach Brad Spencer has been named the 2025 NCAA Division III Region 4 Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), the organization announced Tuesday.

Spencer becomes the second Cardinal football head coach to be named an AFCA Region 4 Coach of the Year, joining Jeff Thorne HOF'25, who was honored with the award in 2016. C.C. Grant (U.S. Coast Guard Academy), Dan Wodicka (Johns Hopkins University), Tony Kunczewski (Berry University) and Mike McElroy (Bethel University) round out the Division III recipients.

This is Spencer's first AFCA coaching honor, but he earned D3football.com's Regional and National Coach of the Year last season. In his four-year career as head coach, Spencer is 54-1 overall. He is 36-0 against College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin competition and 40-0 in the regular season. He was named the CCIW's Bob Reade Coach of the Year for the fourth straight season.

This year's squad has excelled on both sides of the ball, ranking first in Division III in scoring offense with 54.2 points per game during the regular season. The defense is third in Division III with just 6.6 points allowed per game and is second with 198.6 yards allowed per game. North Central also ranked in the top five nationally in team passing efficiency (No. 1, 214.90), red zone defense (No. 2, 46.7%), red zone offense (No. 4, 94.0%), defensive touchdowns (No. 3, five) and third down conversion percentage defensively (No. 5, 25%)

The regional winners in each division are the finalists for the AFCA's National Coach of the Year Award. Each Regional Coach of the Year will be formally recognized Jan. 12 in Charlotte, North Carolina, during the AFCA's annual convention.