NAPERVILLE –- Reigning national champion North Central is the preseason #1 in the D3football.com poll released Wednesday. The Cardinals, 15-0 last season en route to their third national title, received 24 of a possible 25 first-place votes.
The Cardinals had 616 points in the preseason rankings. They were followed by Mount Union, Johns Hopkins, Susquehanna and St. John’s as the top five teams.
Wheaton, which went 9-2 last season and became the first College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) team to win the Culver’s Isthmus Bowl, was slotted at #17 on Wednesday. The Thunder notched 184 points in the poll.
NCC will open the campaign on Saturday, Sept. 13 against Wisconsin-Oshkosh in Naperville at 1 p.m. The Thunder’s opener is slated for Saturday, Sept. 6 at #2 Mount Union at 12:30 p.m. CT in Alliance, Ohio. NCC will host WC for the Little Brass Bell on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 6 p.m.
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The College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) was founded in 1946 and currently services nine member institutions including Augustana College (Rock Island, Ill.), Carroll University (Waukesha, Wis.), Carthage College (Kenosha, Wis.), Elmhurst University (Elmhurst, Ill.), Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, Ill.), Millikin University (Decatur, Ill.), North Central College (Naperville, Ill.), North Park University (Chicago, Ill.) and Wheaton College (Wheaton, Ill.).