By: Joshua Schroeder, NACC Assistant Commissioner
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (naccsports.org) --- Defending champion Aurora University has been named the favorite to capture the 2022 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) football crown according to the annual preseason poll released Wednesday.
Aurora secured 157 points and 13 of 18 first-place tallies in the poll, which consists of votes from the league's head football coaches and athletics communications professionals. The Spartans finished 8-3 overall and 8-0 in league play to win the 2021 crown, defeating league opponents by an average margin of 34 points (53.0-19.0). Aurora enters the 2022 season having won 22 consecutive league games.
Benedictine University sits second with 142 points and three first-place votes, while St. Norbert College edged Lakeland University and Concordia University Wisconsin for third place. The Green Knights posted 115 points and a first-place vote, while the Muskies accumulated 104 points and the Falcons 99. Wisconsin Lutheran College is sixth with 66 points, followed by Eureka College (54), Rockford University (44, 1 first-place vote), and Concordia University Chicago (29).
National Preseason Rankings: Aurora enters the 2022 season receiving votes in the D3football.com Preseason Top 25 and ranked 29th in the College Football America Yearbook Division III Preseason Top 30, while AU senior offensive lineman
Chris Toth was named a preseason all-American by D3football.com and Lindy's and was selected to College Football America Yearbook's Preseason Starting Lineup.
New Coaches: There will be one new head coach in the NACC this season as
Calvin Toliver was elevated to the top spot at Rockford after three years as an assistant. Since taking over the reigns as Rockford's offensive coordinator for the 2021 spring season, Toliver has transformed the Regents' offense into one of the top units not only in the NACC but also in all of NCAA Division III. In Fall 2021, Rockford broke or tied 32 offensive school records and ranked in the top 30 in NCAA Division III in a combined 19 team or individual categories. The Regents also scored over 30 points in six of their ten games and surpassed the 40-point threshold four times, both of which are firsts for Rockford since joining the NACC in 2008.
Fall 2022 Schedule: Lakeland will be the first NACC program to take the field this fall, hosting Illinois College on Thursday, Sept. 1. The rest of the conference gets underway two days later on Saturday, Sept. 3. Aurora travels to Hope, Concordia Wisconsin visits Martin Luther, Wisconsin Lutheran makes the trip to RV Lake Forest, St. Norbert takes the short drive to Ripon, and Benedictine heads to Finlandia, while Rockford entertains Beloit, Concordia Chicago plays host to the University of Chicago, and Eureka welcomes Nebraska Wesleyan.
The 36-game NACC slate begins two weeks later (Sept. 17) with Aurora traveling to Concordia Chicago, Benedictine hosting Concordia Wisconsin, Eureka entertaining Rockford, and Lakeland making the trip to Wisconsin Lutheran, while St. Norbert is idle. The Green Knights jump into league play the following weekend (Sept. 24) when they host Lakeland.
This season, a minimum of two NACC football programs will experience postseason play. The highest-placed team in the standings - once all necessary tiebreakers have been applied - will receive the NACC's automatic berth in the 2022 NCAA Divison III Football Championship. A second NACC program will face off against a representative from the Midwest Conference in the inaugural Cousins Subs Lakefront Bowl, which will be held Saturday, Nov. 19 at Wisconsin Lutheran's Raabe Stadium.
2022 NACC Football Preseason Poll
| Institution |
Points |
| Aurora (13) |
157 |
| Benedictine (3) |
142 |
| St. Norbert (1) |
115 |
| Lakeland |
104 |
| Concordia Wisconsin |
99 |
| Wisconsin Lutheran |
66 |
| Eureka |
54 |
| Rockford (1) |
44 |
| Concordia Chicago |
29 |