North Central and Wheaton Earn Top-Five Spots in D3football.com Preseason Poll

NAPERVILLE, Ill. - A pair of College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin football teams were featured in D3football.com's 2026 Preseason Top 25 Poll ahead of the 2026 season. North Central College and Wheaton College enter their 2026 campaigns ranked No. 1 and No. 5, respectively.

For the fourth consecutive year, North Central enters the season as the No. 1 team in the country. The Cardinals earned 625 points and all 25 first-place votes to become the unanimous preseason No. 1. They are coming off a strong 2025 season in which they finished as the national runner-up following a 24-14 loss to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. North Central also enters the upcoming season riding a conference-record 51-game winning streak in CCIW play and seeking its sixth consecutive CCIW championship.

Wheaton earned the No. 5 spot in the preseason poll after finishing the 2025 season ranked No. 7. The Thunder notched 11 wins last season for the second-highest win total in program history while advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III Football Championship before falling to UW-River Falls. This marks the 19th consecutive year Wheaton has appeared in D3football.com's preseason poll.

Both squads will open their seasons September 5 against fellow top-five teams in the preseason poll. North Central will host No. 2 Bethel University at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium in an early showdown between the nation's top two teams, while Wheaton will face No. 3 University of Mount Union at McCully Stadium.