MILWAUKEE, Wis. (naccsports.org) --- Defending champion Aurora University has been named the favorite to capture the 2023 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) football crown according to the annual preseason poll released Monday.
Aurora secured 159 points and 15 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 11-2 overall and 8-0 in league play to win the 2022 crown, advancing to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division III Football Championship with wins over UW-Whitewater (33-28) and Alma (48-26) before falling to Wartburg (45-17). The Spartans, who defeated league opponents by an average margin of 44.4 points (52.3-7.9) last season, enter the 2023 season having won 30 consecutive league games.
St. Norbert College edged Benedictine University, 134-130, for second place as both the Green Knights and Eagles picked up a first-place vote. Concordia University Wisconsin finished fourth with 102 points, just ahead of Wisconsin Lutheran College (84 points) and Lakeland University (77). Eureka College (53), Concordia University Chicago (36), and Rockford University (35, 1 first-place vote) round out this year's poll.
National Preseason Rankings: Aurora enters the 2023 season ranked 20th in the D3football.com Preseason Top 25, while a trio of AU seniors were named preseason all-America by D3football.com. Running back
Jhe'Quay Chretin was named to the first team offense, wide receiver
Trey Madsen was named to the second team offense, and linebacker
Marcellus Romious was named to the third team defense.
Fall 2023 Schedule: Lakeland and Rockford will be the first NACC programs to take the field this fall with games on Thursday, Aug. 31. Playing on the opening Thursday of the season has become a regular occurrence for the Muskies. This year, Lakeland will host UW-Platteville. Rockford makes the short trip up Interstate 39 to face Beloit College.
The rest of the conference gets underway two days later on Saturday, Sept. 2, with NACC schools playing hosts in six of the seven contests. St. Norbert hosts Ripon, Concordia Chicago entertains Greenville, Aurora welcomes Hope, Concordia Wisconsin plays host to Martin Luther, Eureka welcomes Knox in a battle for the Lincoln Trophy, and Wisconsin Lutheran hosts Lake Forest. Benedictine is the lone NACC school with a September 2 opener on the road, making the trip to Dubuque, Iowa, to face Loras.
The 36-game NACC slate begins two weeks later (Sept. 16) with Aurora traveling to Benedictine, Eureka entertaining Rockford, Lakeland entertaining Concordia Wisconsin, and St. Norbert hosting Wisconsin Lutheran, while Concordia Chicago is idle. The Cougars jump into league play the following weekend (Sept. 23) on the road at Benedictine.
Once again 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 2023 NCAA Divison III Football Championship. A second NACC program will face off against a representative from the Midwest Conference in the second annual Cousins Subs Lakefront Bowl, which will be held Saturday, Nov. 18 at Wisconsin Lutheran's Raabe Stadium.
2023 NACC Football Preseason Poll
| Institution |
Points |
| Aurora (15) |
159 |
| St. Norbert (1) |
134 |
| Benedictine (1) |
130 |
| Concordia Wisconsin |
102 |
| Wisconsin Lutheran |
84 |
| Lakeland |
77 |
| Eureka |
53 |
| Concordia Chicago |
36 |
| Rockford (1) |
35 |