DIII CONFERENCE · 2026 SEASON

North Coast

#54 overall#12 in DIIIRR50 -13.7Upper strength -12.49 teamsTop 25 teams 0

VERDICT BEGINS · 2026

The Academic Powerhouse Belt

The NCAC is a conference of Ohio and Indiana liberal arts colleges — Wittenberg, Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Kenyon, Denison, Allegheny, Case Western Reserve, Hiram, and Oberlin — competing with some of the deepest academic profiles in DIII football. Wittenberg has appeared in the DIII national championship game multiple times. Wooster has won NCAC titles. Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana — the only DIII all-male institution with a Division III football program — plays in the NCAC and maintains the most intense small-college football culture in the Midwest.

Division III9 teamsRace: DIII BracketLeader: DePauw

North Coast · 2026 Season

Three Things to Watch

The TraditionWittenberg: Springfield's DIII Standard

Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio has appeared in the DIII national championship game multiple times and been the NCAC's most consistent playoff program. Their program draws from the Dayton and Columbus corridors, developing players who chose a Lutheran liberal arts education and have produced NFL combine participants at the DIII level. Wittenberg's football program is one of the most recognizable brands in non-scholarship college football.

The RivalWooster: The College of Wooster's Identity

The College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio has won NCAC titles and appeared in the DIII bracket with a program built on northeast Ohio's football tradition. Their Fighting Scots recruit from the same Ohio pipeline as the OAC programs but with an academic profile that attracts a different kind of student-athlete. When Wooster's roster is deep, they are the NCAC's most physically complete program outside of Wittenberg.

Wild Card

Wabash: The Little Giants of Crawfordsville

Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana is one of three remaining all-male liberal arts colleges in the United States and maintains a football culture more intense than programs with ten times their enrollment. The Little Giants play the Monon Bell game against DePauw every year — one of DIII's most celebrated rivalries — and compete in the NCAC with a program that treats football as the center of campus life in a way that co-educational institutions structurally cannot replicate.

Conference Standings · North Coast · 2026

Standings

# Team Conf Overall Pwr Last 5
1Wabash1–02–0-12.4
2Washington St. Louis1–02–0-12.7
3Denison1–01–1-13.3
4Wooster1–01–1-14.3
5Ohio Wesleyan0–01–1-14.1
6DePauw0–11–1-11.5
7Kenyon0–11–1-15.0
8Wittenberg0–10–2-13.0
9Oberlin0–10–2-16.2

Conference record determines standing. Power = neutral-field pts vs. all-level average. Last 5 = most recent game results.

Projected Standings · North Coast · 2026

Win Projection

Odds of winning at least N conference games from current power ratings — full slate played out, not locked to results. AVG = expected wins; W–L = most-likely record.

# Team W–L PWR AVG ≥8≥7≥6≥5≥4≥3≥2≥1
Favorites
1DePauw4–4+2.14.4162349759298✓
2Wabash4–4+1.24.3151943719098✓
Challengers
3Wittenberg4–4+0.64.141640678897✓
4Washington St. Louis4–4+0.94.141638668797✓
The Field
5Denison4–4+0.44.2141741698998✓
6Ohio Wesleyan4–4-0.53.931333618496✓
7Wooster4–4-0.73.831232608396✓
Rebuilding
8Kenyon4–4-1.43.83113159839699
9Oberlin3–5-2.63.4162045739199

Conference Power · Division III

Where We Stand

# Conference Avg Power vs Focal Top Team
1Wisconsin
-12.1
—Wisconsin Whitewater
2American Southwest
-12.3
—Hardin Simmons
3USA South
-13.3
—LaGrange
4Old Dominion
-13.4
1–1Randolph Macon
5Southern Athletic
-13.6
1–0Berry
6Centennial
-13.6
—Johns Hopkins
7American Rivers
-13.6
—Wartburg
8Northwest
-13.6
—Whitworth
9Minnesota
-13.7
—Bethel (MN)
10Presidents'
-13.7
0–1Saint Francis
11Commonwealth Coast
-13.7
—Endicott
12North CoastYou are here
-13.7
—DePauw
13CCIW
-13.7
—North Central College
14NEWMAC
-13.8
—Springfield
15Michigan
-13.8
1–1Hope
16So. Cal.
-13.8
—Whittier
17Ohio
-13.8
0–2John Carroll
18Liberty League
-13.9
—Ithaca
19Empire 8
-14.1
—SUNY Cortland
20Landmark Conference
-14.1
—Susquehanna
21Southern Collegiate Athletic
-14.2
—Texas Lutheran
22New Jersey
-14.2
—Salisbury
23Heartland
-14.2
2–0Hanover
24Mid Atlantic
-14.2
—Delaware Valley
25NACC
-14.2
—Aurora
26NESCAC
-14.3
—Trinity (CT)
27MSCAC
-14.4
—Plymouth State
28Midwest
-14.5
—Monmouth (IL)
29Upper Midwest
-14.6
—Northwestern (MN)

Round-robin power = strength of schedule-adjusted conference average, points vs. all-level average team. Record = North Coast's record vs. that conference across all games this season.

The NCAC is a conference of Ohio and Indiana liberal arts colleges — Wittenberg, Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Kenyon, Denison, Allegheny, Case Western Reserve, Hiram, and Oberlin — competing with some of the deepest academic profiles in DIII football. Wittenberg has appeared in the DIII national championship game multiple times. Wooster has won NCAC titles. Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana — the only DIII all-male institution with a Division III football program — plays in the NCAC and maintains the most intense small-college football culture in the Midwest.

Conference Snapshot

RR50-13.7
Upper Strength-12.4
Median Power-13.5
Resume Pulse42.2
Avg ATS--
Wins vs Market+0.00
Top-to-Middle Gap1.7
Combined Record9-9

`RR50`, `Upper Strength`, and `Median Power` are shown on the same public power scale as the rest of the site: points on a neutral field versus the average all-level NCAA team. Very small affiliations are gently regressed toward their subdivision baseline so a one-team outlier does not hijack the entire conference board.

North Coast Team Board

The league stack, sorted by predictive strength. Power is shown as neutral-field points versus the all-level average team, while resume is shown on a 0-100 season score.

Rank Team Record Power Resume ATS Wins vs Market Recent Form
#452 DePauw 1-1 -11.5 29 -- +0.00 1-1 over the last 2 (W1 L2)
#474 Wabash 2-0 -12.4 78 -- +0.00 2-0 over the last 2 (W1 W2)
#483 Washington St. Louis 2-0 -12.7 81 -- +0.00 2-0 over the last 2 (W1 W2)
#495 Wittenberg 0-2 -13.0 11 -- +0.00 0-2 over the last 2 (L1 L2)
#506 Denison 1-1 -13.3 43 -- +0.00 1-1 over the last 2 (L1 W2)
#553 Ohio Wesleyan 1-1 -14.1 36 -- +0.00 1-1 over the last 2 (W1 L2)
#566 Wooster 1-1 -14.3 45 -- +0.00 1-1 over the last 2 (L1 W2)
#606 Kenyon 1-1 -15.0 54 -- +0.00 1-1 over the last 2 (W1 L2)
#653 Oberlin 0-2 -16.2 3 -- +0.00 0-2 over the last 2 (L1 L2)