MINNEAPOLIS – The defending national champions, UW-Whitewater, got all 25 No. 1 votes and Mount Union was ranked lower than No. 2 in the preseason for the first time since 2005 in the 2014 D3football.com preseason Top 25 poll.
Guilford College received five points. The Quakers return 15 starters from last year’s 6-4 team that placed second in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) with a 5-2 record, their best ODAC mark in school history. Coach Chris Rusiewicz starts his fourth season on Guilford’s sidelines Sept. 6 when the Quakers host Greensboro College at 7:00 p.m. in the annual Gate City Soup Bowl contest.
The poll, in its 12th season, is voted on by a panel of 25 coaches, Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country, and is published weekly during the season. The first weekly poll will be conducted on Sept. 7, following the first weekend of games.
# School (1st votes) Rec Pts Prev. 1 UW-Whitewater (25) 15-0 625 1 2 Mary Hardin-Baylor 13-1 583 2 3 Mount Union 14-1 580 3 4 Linfield 11-1 510 4 5 Wesley 10-3 505 7 6 North Central (Ill.) 13-1 500 5 7 Bethel 12-1 491 6 8 UW-Platteville 10-2 434 9 9 St. John Fisher 10-3 376 8 10 John Carroll 9-2 330 13 11 St. Thomas 8-2 316 20 12 Hobart 10-1 294 14 13 Wittenberg 10-2 244 10 14 Johns Hopkins 10-1 226 12 15 Rowan 9-3 201 23 16 Wabash 9-1 191 22 17 Wartburg 9-3 175 15 18 UW-Oshkosh 8-2 171 11 19 Pacific Lutheran 8-2 169 17 20 Heidelberg 8-2 165 21 21 Hampden-Sydney 9-3 164 18 22 Thomas More 9-1 145 25 23 Ithaca 9-3 140 16 24 Wheaton (Ill.) 8-2 139 -- 25 Franklin 8-4 75 19
Others receiving votes: Millsaps 47; Illinois Wesleyan 43; Maryville 35; Lycoming 34; Concordia-Moorhead 32; Redlands 29; Washington and Jefferson 23; St. John’s 21; Salisbury 21; Chapman 20; Texas Lutheran 18; Willamette 16; Cortland State 15; Cal Lutheran 9; Guilford 5; Framingham State 2; Muhlenberg 2; Louisiana College 2; Washington U. 1; Wesleyan 1.