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5 Things To Know About The Division III Football Rankings After Week 6

5 Things To Know About The Division III Football Rankings After Week 6

Halloween is still two weeks away, but it already has been a gruesome month for the top-ranked teams. Here's a deeper dive into the Division III rankings.

Oct 15, 2026 by Matt Cannizzaro
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D1R 244 - GLIAC Supremacy, D3's At-Large Crisis, NAIA's Best Resumes1:05:08

Halloween is still two weeks away, but it already has been a gruesome month for the top-ranked college football teams.

Three No. 1 teams were knocked from their perches this month, with the latest being perennial NCAA Division III powerhouse North Central College.

The Cardinals, who have played in the last six Division III championship games, were stunned at home by Wheaton College in a low-scoring tussle that ended NCC’s 53-game College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin winning streak.

Following the loss, North Central slid to No. 5 in the new FloCollege D3 Football Rankings.

Earlier in the day Saturday, the top team in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the Texas Longhorns, was upset by unranked Oklahoma 27-24 in the 122nd edition of the Allstate Red River Rivalry.

The last time the Sooners beat Texas was in 2023, while the Longhorns still lead the series 65-52-5.

Unfortunately, what happened in the past isn’t going to help UT’s title hopes in 2026.

In the latest American Football Coaches Association FBS Coaches Poll, Texas (4-1, 1-1 SEC) landed at No. 6.

The first No. 1 team to fall this month did so immediately after the calendar changed to October.

After a couple of earlier scares this season, Montana State finally was knocked off by winless rival Idaho for the biggest win in program history.

The Vandals eked out a 35-34 win at home, and the result saw the reigning Football Championship Subdivision national champions tumble from the top spot to No. 6 in the AFCA FCS Coaches Poll.

To make the Oct. 2 loss sting even more, MSU has been forced to wait more than two weeks for redemption, as the Bobcats weren’t scheduled to play again until Oct. 17.

What about Division II, you ask? Well, it has been an impossible task to unseat the two-time defending Ferris State Bulldogs, but their own biggest rivalry game is coming up this weekend. It's the 59th edition of the famed Anchor-Bone Classic, the annual battle between FSU and Grand Valley State.

GVSU leads the series 32-25-1, but Ferris State has won their last two meetings and gone on to win the 2024 and 2025 Division II national titles. 

The Bulldogs are 6-0 this year, have scored more than 40 points four times and have recorded back-to-back shutouts while outscoring their opponents in those games 97-0. Oh, and they're entering this week on a 36-game winning streak.

Do the Lakers (5-1, 1-1 GLIAC) have what it takes to register another upset of the No. 1 team?

Before we look ahead to Week 7 and the opportunity to see how the former top teams rebound from their losses, as well as what happens at the Anchor-Bone Classic, let’s dig a little deeper into this week’s FloCollege D3 Football Rankings:

FloCollege D3 Football Rankings Week 6

  1. Wheaton (Ill.) (6-0) - Prev. 2
  2. Saint John’s (Minn.) (5-0) - Prev. 3
  3. UW-Platteville (5-0) - Prev. 4
  4. UW-Whitewater (5-0) - Prev. 5
  5. North Central (4-1) - Prev. 1
  6. Hardin-Simmons (4-0) - Prev. 8
  7. Trinity (Texas) (5-0) - Prev. 7
  8. Christopher Newport (5-0) - Prev. 6
  9. Endicott (5-0) - Prev. 10
  10. Hope (5-0) - Prev. 11
  11. Cortland (5-0) - Prev. 13
  12. UW-River Falls (4-1) - Prev. 12
  13. WashU (5-0) - Prev. 19
  14. Mary Hardin-Baylor (4-1) - Prev. 15
  15. John Carroll (4-1) - Prev. 14
  16. Susquehanna (4-1) - Prev. 17
  17. Berry (4-1) - Prev. 20
  18. DePauw (4-1) - Prev. 18
  19. Concordia-Moorhead (5-0) - Prev. 23
  20. Salisbury (4-1) - Prev. 9
  21. Springfield (4-1) - Prev. 22
  22. Rowan (4-1) - Prev. NR
  23. Chapman (4-1) - Prev. 25
  24. Ursinus (5-0) - Prev. NR
  25. Calvin (5-0) - Prev. NR

Also Receiving Votes (RV): Bethel (Minn.) (3-2), Lake Forest (6-0), Illinois Wesleyan (5-1), Utica (5-1), Wartburg (3-2), Merchant Marine (5-0), Linfield (3-1), Ithaca (5-1), Washington & Jefferson (4-1), LaGrange (4-1), Benedictine (IL) (5-0), Heidelberg (4-1), Franklin & Marshall (4-1).

Wheaton College Claims No. 1 Spot After Defeating North Central

An 11-point final quarter helped Wheaton College to a noteworthy win over the No. 1 team in Division III football, a perfect start to the 2026 season and its own opportunity to sit atop the rankings halfway through the campaign.

Despite a combined 540 yards of offense from Wheaton and North Central, the usually high-scoring offenses put up just 23 total points in the CCIW clash.

Each team reached the end zone once in the contest, both in the final stanza, with Wheaton's 13-10 victory decided by an 18-yard field goal from senior Caleb Ryan with five ticks left on the clock.

Wheaton is 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the CCIW, while North Central fell to 4-1 overall and 2-1 in CCIW action.

The Wheaton victory ended a 53-game conference winning streak for North Central that began after the Thunder rolled over the Cardinals in October 2019.

It also was the first time in 109 meetings that the two programs met as the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country.

Loss Sends North Central Tumbling Down FloCollege D3 Football Rankings

Since 2019, North Central has been the team to beat in NCAA Division III football.

The last time the Cardinals lost more than one game in a season was 2018, and in the six seasons that followed, they compiled an 86-4 record that included two 15-0 campaigns, six consecutive title-game appearances and national titles in 2019, 2022 and 2024.

In 2026, after scoring 25 or more points on the way to a 4-0 start, North Central was humbled at home by the No. 2 team in the last edition of the rankings, Wheaton College.

NCC managed just one touchdown in the game, which was strange from start to finish.

The only score of the first half was a Wheaton safety in the first two minutes, and a North Central field goal gave the Cardinals a 3-2 lead with three minutes to play in the third quarter.

North Central was simply outperformed by the Thunder, who put up 354 total yards, compared to 165 for the Cardinals.

The loss sent NCC tumbling from No. 1 in the last FloCollege rankings to No. 5 in this week’s edition.

The Cardinals have won the last five CCIW football titles, and there’s still time to claim another, but it’ll take some work.

They’ll finish the season with five consecutive conference games, and the journey will start on the road Saturday against Elmhurst (1-4, 0-3).

Wheaton has four CCIW games on the horizon, beginning with Carroll University (4-2, 3-1).

There Was Plenty Of Movement In The Division III Rankings This Week

Sure, it’s easy to focus on what happened between the top two teams in the rankings because it was a strange and epic battle, but there was some other significant movement, too.

The No. 2-5 teams all moved up one spot. Nothing crazy there.

How about Washington University in St. Louis beating No. 14 John Carroll 35-25 and jumping six spots to No. 13?

What about Concordia-Moorhead crushing Hamline 56-10 to improve to 5-0 overall and move four spots from No. 23 to No. 19? Not impressed? Well, keep an eye on the Cobbers, because they’re outscoring their opponents 229-22 this year, and they’re probably not done climbing yet.

A bit farther down the rankings, Salisbury suffered the biggest slide of the week, along with a spoiled Homecoming at the hands of Rowan.

The Sea Gulls led 21-14 at halftime and no doubt had the Homecoming fans ready for an epic celebration of 101 years of Salisbury pride and a perfect start to the 2026 season.

Instead, they watched their beloved team go scoreless in the second half, give up 12 fourth-quarter points, lose their first game of the season - a conference contest - and ultimately slide from No. 9 in the rankings to No. 20. The final score was 26-21.

Salisbury is 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the eight-team New Jersey Athletic Conference. Rowan also is 4-1 on the season but part of a three-way tie atop the conference standings at 2-0.

Rowan University One Of Three Teams To Break Into FloCollege D3 Top 25

Rowan’s 26-21 NJAC win over Salisbury helped the Profs headline a list of three teams making their way into the FloCollege D3 Top 25.

The Profs landed at No. 22 and were joined by Ursinus (No. 24) and Calvin (No. 25).

Ursinus hails from the Centennial Conference, where the Bears are 2-0 and in a three-way tie in the race for the conference title.

The Calvin Knights are part of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and also locked in a three-way tie atop the standings at 2-0.

Ursinus and Calvin both are 5-0 overall and two of 14 undefeated teams in the FloCollege D3 Football Rankings.

Top-ranked Wheaton is 6-0, and the rest of the unbeaten ranked teams are 5-0.

Division III Football On FloCollege This Week

Here's all the Division III action happening this week on FloCollege:

Saturday, Oct. 17

All Times Eastern

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