D3 Football Overview

Divisions
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What does D3 stand for?

There are no subdivisions in Division 3 football, so every NCAA Division III school that sponsors football is considered D3 (Division 3).

D3 Football History

The first college football game dates back to the 19th century with Princeton and Rutgers both honored as the first official champions in 1869 by the National Championship Foundation.

However, most would consider the 1936 Associated Press national champion, Minnesota, as the first modern-era Division I championship because the 1937 AP poll was the first poll to officially name a champion.

It wasn’t until 1956 that the NCAA broke up its schools between the bigger schools, the University Division, and the smaller ones, the College Division, and established different NCAA divisions.

Then in 1973, there was a split in the College Division between those who were still willing to offer athletic scholarships, Division II, and those who did not, Division III. These are the current NCAA divisions in 2022.

For four years between 1969 and 1972, the NCAA had two regional championship games with the West Regional game being called the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl and the East Regional being the Knute Rockne Bowl.

When Division 3 was united for one championship game in 1973, the Stagg Bowl stuck as the name, and that is still the title of the national championship game in 2021.

Mount Union is the most successful team in Division III history with 13 national championships in 21 appearances.

Throughout the mid-2000s into the 2010s, the Purple Raiders had a rivalry with Wisconsin-Whitewater, and the teams met nine times in a 10-year span from 2005-2014 in the Stagg Bowl with Whitewater winning six of those nine meetings.

D3 Football Teams

No NCAA division has undergone more changes than Division III over the past three decades. With financial aid packages going up and the costs of offering athletic scholarships increasing, there have been many schools that dropped into DIII from a higher NCAA division.

However, there have also been many DIII schools that have dropped their athletic program entirely or just stopped supporting football to save money.

Right now there are more than 200 DIII schools playing football, but that number could be changing in the post-pandemic world.

American Rivers

The American Rivers Conference has had some historical success with teams like Central playing for the national title three times in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the league has lost some of the prestigious recently despite having some good teams be crowned champions. There is a bit more parity in the league, but just as important are the past successes of a team like Wartburg that also has a winning postseason record like Central.

  • Buena Vista Beavers
  • Central (Iowa) Dutch
  • Coe Kohawks
  • Dubuque Spartans
  • Loras Duhawks
  • Luther Norse
  • Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves
  • Simpson Storm
  • Wartburg Knights

American Southwest

When people think of the American Southwest Conference, most will look straight at Mary Hardin-Baylor, the 2021 national champions. It was the fifth title game appearance for the Crusaders, who also took home the title in 2018, though two of those seasons (2016 and 2017) were later vacated due to violations. However, Hardin-Simmons has also had some past success with four wins in 10 playoff appearances, including a run to the semifinals in 2000. The rest of the conference members have combined for four playoff appearances and just three total wins.

  • Austin Kangaroos
  • East Texas Baptist Tigers
  • Hardin-Simmons Cowboys
  • Howard Payne Yellow Jackets
  • Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders
  • McMurry War Hawks
  • Southwestern Pirates
  • Sul Ross State Lobos
  • Texas Lutheran Bulldogs

Centennial

For better or worse, the Centennial Conference has a major problem nationally. Johns Hopkins and Muhlenberg have both excelled on the football field over the past few years, but the same pesky foe keeps showing up and ending their season. In 2018, Muhlenberg’s season was ended in the quarterfinals by Mount Union, which proceeded to beat Hopkins in the semifinals. In 2021, Mount Union beat Hopkins in the second round before taking down Muhlenberg in the quarters. Muhlenberg did advance to the semifinals in 2019 by avoiding the Purple Raiders but lost to North Central. Before that recent run, no Centennial team had made it past the quarterfinals since 1985 when Gettysburg also lost in the semifinals.

  • Dickinson Red Devils
  • Franklin & Marshall Diplomats
  • Gettysburg Bullets
  • Johns Hopkins Blue Jays
  • Juniata Eagles
  • McDaniel Green Terror
  • Moravian Greyhounds
  • Muhlenberg Mules
  • Susquehanna River Hawks
  • Ursinus Bears

Commonwealth Coast

The Commonwealth Coast Conference is not the place to go for fantastic football. The intraconference competition can be fierce, but it has struggled mightily on the national stage with just three playoff wins since 2000. None of the members have reached further than the second round and just twice has any of them earned an at-large bid to the postseason.

  • Curry Colonels
  • Endicott Gulls
  • Husson Eagles
  • New England Nor’easters
  • Nichols Bison
  • Salve Regina Seahawks
  • Western New England Golden Bears

CCIW

In recent years, North Central has carried the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin’s national football profile with a national championship victory in 2019 and an appearance in the 2021 finals. Augustana had a successful run of four straight titles in the 1980s, which was started by a loss in the 1982 national championship game. Besides North Central’s success, though, Wheaton has also had a run of success recently after advancing to the quarterfinals in 2016 and 2019 and going all the way to the semifinals in 2008.

  • Augustana (Ill.) Vikings
  • Carroll (Wis.) Pioneers
  • Carthage Firebirds
  • Elmhurst Bluejays
  • Illinois Wesleyan Titans
  • Millikin Big Blue
  • North Central (Ill.) Cardinals
  • North Park Vikings
  • Wheaton (Ill.) Thunder
  • Washington (Mo.) Bears

Empire 8

The Empire 8 Conference has relied mainly on St. John Fisher to carry the torch for the league in the national postseason. The Cardinals went as far as the national semifinals in 2006 than were quarterfinalists in 2007, 2011, and 2013. However, in 2017, Brockport made a run to the semifinals itself to add some prestige to the conference.

  • Alfred Saxons
  • Brockport Golden Eagles
  • Cortland State Red Dragons
  • Hartwick Hawks
  • St. John Fisher Cardinals
  • SUNY-Morrisville Mustangs
  • Utica Pioneers

Eastern Collegiate

The Eastern Collegiate Football Conference is widely considered one of the worst Division III conferences in the nation. There have been a few bright spots, but none of those can be credited to current teams in the league. Instead, these schools battle and compete valiantly for the conference every week in the fall only to get smashed in the NCAA Division III playoffs. All but two of their losses in the playoff have come by at least 20 points with four teams putting up at least 60 points on these schools.

  • Alfred State Pioneers
  • Anna Maria Amcats
  • Castleton Spartans
  • Dean Bulldogs
  • Gallaudet Bison
  • Keystone Giants
  • SUNY-Maritime Privateers

Heartland

Franklin is the only team from the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference that has found much of success in the Division III postseason. The Grizzlies have won just five times in nine trips to the postseason, but that is much better than any other member, none of which have more than one victory. The conference champion has always been fairly competitive in the postseason at least, so it is not as if the Heartland is getting embarrassed, either, which is a positive.

  • Anderson Ravens
  • Bluffton Beavers
  • Defiance YellowJackets
  • Franklin Grizzlies
  • Hanover Panthers
  • Manchester Spartans
  • Mount St. Joseph Lions
  • Rose-Hulman Engineers

Liberty

The earliest days of the Division III playoffs belonged in some respect to the Liberty League members with Ithaca making seven national title games between 1974 and 1991 and Union adding a pair of trips to the national championship. The Bombers won three titles, the last being that 1991 squad, but the league has yet to get any closer than the semifinals. RPI has had a few runs deep in the playoffs the past few years as well, giving the league three teams with some postseason success, which is a lot more than most conferences.

  • Buffalo State Bengals
  • Hobart Statesmen
  • Ithaca Bombers
  • Rochester Yellowjackets
  • RPI Engineers
  • St. Lawrence Saints
  • Union Dutchmen

Middle Atlantic

The Middle Atlantic Conference is perhaps a little bit underrated because it lacks that one true dominant team that can advance far in the postseason. The conference champion has won at least one playoff game for much of the past two decades, and they have advanced to the quarterfinals in many years as well before running into a national power. Lycoming went to the national title game in 1990 and 1997, and Widener made a run to the semifinals in 2000, but otherwise, it’s been a fairly solid run of success for the MAC without any national titles.

  • Albright Lions
  • Alvernia Golden Wolves
  • Delaware Valley Aggies
  • Farleigh Dickinson-Florham Devils
  • King’s Monarchs
  • Lebanon Valley Flying Dutchmen
  • Lycoming Warriors
  • Misericordia Cougars
  • Stevenson Mustangs
  • Widener Pride
  • Wilkes Colonels

Massachusetts State

The Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference is not known for football, and it shows in the postseason. Though there are plenty of rivalries in this conference due to proximity, there is a lack of playoff success with most programs losing in the first round of every appearance in the Division III bracket.

  • Bridgewater State Bears
  • Fitchburg State Falcons
  • Framingham State Rams
  • UMass-Dartmouth Corsairs
  • Massachusetts Maritime Buccaneers
  • Plymouth State Panthers
  • Western Connecticut Colonials
  • Westfield State Owls
  • Worcester State Lancers

MIAA

Recently, the champion of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association has not done well in the postseason. The conference has won just one playoff game in the last 10 years and has advanced out of the first round just three times since 2000. The only time a MIAA team won more than one game in a postseason was in 1994 when Albion actually won the national title, but since then, no one has been able to advance further than the second round.

  • Adrian Bulldogs
  • Albion Britons
  • Alma Scots
  • Hope Flying Dutchmen
  • Kalamazoo Hornets
  • Olivet Comets
  • Trine Thunder

MIAC

The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference might be well-known for booting St. Thomas from the league, but it has a rich football history outside the Tommies. St. John’s won the national championship in 2003 and played for the title in 2000. But the Johnnies also went to the semifinals in 2001, 2002 and 2019. Plus Bethel made runs to the national semifinals in 2007 and 2010, so it is clear that the league is able to compete at the highest levels at least once every five or six years at a minimum.

  • Augsburg Auggies
  • Bethel Royals
  • Carleton Knights
  • Concordia Cobbers
  • Gustavus Adolphus Gusties
  • Hamline Pipers
  • Macalester Scots
  • Saint John’s (Minn.) Johnnies
  • St. Olaf Oles
  • St. Scholastica Saints

Midwest

One might argue the Midwest Conference is another one of those leagues that battles for the title of worst football conference in Division III. Only four of its current members have actually played in the postseason before and none of them have had much success outside of the occasional victory. Some of that has to do with the difficult geography of the league with so many difficult opponents around them, but the gap between the Midwest champion and those other teams is fairly vast as well with multi-score losses not that uncommon.

  • Beloit Buccaneers
  • Chicago Maroons
  • Cornell (Iowa) Rams
  • Grinnell Pioneers
  • Illinois Blueboys
  • Knox Prairie Fire
  • Lake Forest Foresters
  • Lawrence Vikings
  • Monmouth (Ill.) Fighting Scots
  • Ripon Red Hawks

Northern Athletics

Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference is 2-35 in Division III postseason games, which should put the league in the conversation for least successful conferences. St. Norbert has both wins for the conference with victories in 2003 and 2018 to advance to the second round. Otherwise, the conference champion has run into programs such as North Central or Wisconsin-Whitewater in the first round, and have been far less successful in those matchups.

  • Aurora Spartans
  • Benedictine Eagles
  • Concordia (Ill.) Cougars
  • Concordia (Wis.) Falcons
  • Lakeland Muskies
  • Rockfort Regents
  • St. Norbert Green Knights
  • Wisconsin Lutheran Warriors

North Coast

The early years of Division III football were dominated by the North Coast Athletic Conference and its members. Wittenberg won the first combined national title in 1973 then added a title in 1975 before losing in the national championship game in 1978 and 1979. Wabash played for the championship in 1977 and lost, but Alleghany was the 1990 national champion. The recent run hasn’t been nearly as successful nationally, but it is impossible to write the history of football at this level without the NCAC schools.

  • Allegheny Gators
  • Denison Big Red
  • DePauw Tigers
  • Hiram Terriers
  • Kenyon Lords
  • Oberline Teomen
  • Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops
  • Wabash Little Giants
  • Wittenberg Tigers
  • Wooster Fighting Scots

NESCAC

The New England Small College Athletic Conference is the only Division III league to not send its champion to the Division III playoffs. In fact, none of the NESCAC schools even play games outside the league, so it’s a simple nine-week schedule for conference superiority. The NESCAC is the Division III version of the Ivy League, putting academics before athletics. It isn’t completely uncommon for one team to rule the roost, either, as 13 times since 2000 someone has gone undefeated in league play.

  • Amherst Mammoths
  • Bates Bobcats
  • Bowdoin Polar Bears
  • Colby Mules
  • Hamilton Continentals
  • Middlebury Panthers
  • Trinity (Conn.) Bantams
  • Tufts Jumbos
  • Wesleyan Cardinals
  • Williams Ephs

NEWMAC

The New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference is the newest Division III conference to support football. None of the members have won a playoff game since football was first supported in 2017, but there are a handful of schools that did win a postseason contest prior to the merger. That would include Springfield, which went to the quarterfinals in 2000 and has three wins in six appearances in the NCAA Division III playoffs.

  • Catholic Cardinals
  • Coast Guard Bears
  • Maine Maritime Mariners
  • Merchant Marine Mariners
  • MIT Engineers
  • Norwich Cadets
  • Springfield Pride
  • WPI Engineers

New Jersey Athletic

It’s not that the New Jersey Athletic Conference isn’t good, the league simply hasn’t converted on its opportunities. Rowan went to five national championship games in the 1990’s and lost all of them while Salisbury lost the 1986 title game. Rowan has the fifth most postseason wins of any Division III program with 31, but it hasn’t played in the postseason since 2014. The Profs did advance to the semifinals in 2004 and 2005, but they have made just four playoff appearances since 2005 and have been one-and-done twice and lost once in the second round. Meanwhile, none of the other programs have found much recent success in the postseason either.

  • Christopher Newport Captains
  • New Jersey Lions
  • Kean Cougars
  • Montclair State Red Hawks
  • Rowan Profs
  • Salisbury Seagulls
  • William Paterson Pioneers

Northwest

It’s been a little bit since the Northwest Conference had a deep playoff run from one of its member programs. Linfield advanced to the quarterfinals in 2021, the furthest it has advanced since semifinal runs in 2009, 2014, and 2015. The Wildcats are by far the league’s most successful programs with a 2004 national title to go along with those semifinal appearances. Pacific Lutheran is the other program with a national title, winning one in 1999, but the Lutes have made the playoffs just twice since 2001.

  • George Fox Bruins
  • Lewis & Clark Pioneers
  • Linfield Wildcats
  • Pacific (Ore.) Boxers
  • Pacific Lutheran Lutes
  • Puget Sound Loggers
  • Whitworth Pirates
  • Willamette Bearcats

Ohio Athletic

When it comes to the dominance of a sport, it is hard to argue against what Mount Union has done in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

The Purple Raiders have won all but one league title since 1992, and they have appeared in 21 national championship games over the past 30 seasons, winning 13 titles. Their 104 wins in the Division III football playoffs are nearly double the amount of the next most successful program.

However, the league won two of the four West Region championships from 1969-72 with Capital and Heidelberg, and Baldwin-Wallace won the 1978 national championship. John Carroll advanced to the national semifinals in 2002 before losing to Mount Union then went back to the semis in 2016 after ending Mount Union’s stranglehold on the conference.

  • Baldwin-Wallace Yellow Jackets
  • Capital Comets
  • Heidelberg Student Princes
  • John Carroll Blue Streaks
  • Marietta Pioneers
  • Mount Union Purple Raiders
  • Muskingum Fighting Muskies
  • Ohio Northern Polar Bears
  • Otterbein Cardinals
  • Wilmington Quakers

Old Dominion Athletic

The Old Dominion Athletic Conference might not be as well known for its football prowess, but it wasn’t that long ago that the league had a national contender. Bridgewater went to the national championship game in 2001 and followed up with a semifinal appearance in 2003 along with quarterfinals appearances in 2002 and 2005. However, since 2005 the ODAC champion has won just two playoff games, though oftentimes it has been a tight margin of defeat.

  • Averett Cougars
  • Bridgewater Eagles
  • Ferrum Panthers
  • Guilford Quakers
  • Hampden-Sydney Tigers
  • Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets
  • Shenandoah Hornets
  • Washington & Lee Generals

Presidents’ Athletic

The Presidents’ Athletic Conference has historically been dominated by Washington & Jefferson, the 1992 and 1994 national runners-up. The Presidents have won 26 conference titles and hold a respectable 23-26 record in the playoffs, including those runs to the national championship game as well as the 2004 and 2008 teams making it to the quarterfinals. However, there has not been much else success from the league when someone does topple Washington & Jefferson to earn the automatic bid.

  • Bethany Bison
  • Carnegie Mellon Tartans
  • Case Western Reserve Spartans
  • Geneva Golden Tornadoes
  • Grove City Wolverines
  • St. Vincent Bearcats
  • Thiel Tomcats
  • Washington & Jefferson Presidents
  • Waynesburg Yellow Jackets
  • Westminster (Penn.) Titans

Southern Athletic

The Southern Athletic Association does not have the best track record in the Division III playoffs. However, the addition of Trinity gave the league a potential power with the Tigers owning a 12-13 record in the postseason, including a run to the 2002 national title game. The conference’s record isn’t terrible as most teams are able to either get out of the first round or be competitive in that opening matchup. But no team has been able to sustain a long playoff run in a challenging bracket with some of the nation’s best teams in the same region.

  • Berry Vikings
  • Birmingham-Southern Panthers
  • Centre Colonels
  • Hendrix Warriors
  • Millsaps Majors
  • Rhodes Lynx
  • Sewanee Tigers
  • Trinity (Texas) Tigers

SCIAC

It is sometimes shocking just how poor the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is at football. The conference is 1-20 all-time in postseason games with the one win coming in 2019 when Chapman won a chaotic overtime game at home in the first round only to lose in the second round. Otherwise, it has been a lot of one-and-done for the SCIAC in a sport that isn’t as popular on the west coast at the Division III level.

  • Cal Lutheran Kingsmen
  • Chapman Panthers
  • Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags
  • La Verne Leopards
  • Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens
  • Redlands Bulldogs
  • Whittier Poets

Upper Midwest

The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference has not had much national postseason success on the gridiron. The current members haven’t won a playoff game since the 1980s, and several of them have never even been to the Division III football playoffs. It is another conference that is up there for the worst football conference in Division III because of that lack of national success.

  • Crown Storm
  • Eureka Red Devils
  • Finlandia Lions
  • Greenville Panthers
  • Martin Luther Knights
  • Minnesota-Morris Cougars
  • Northwestern (Minn.) Eagles
  • Westminster (Mo.) Blue Jays

USA South

The USA South’s current membership has really struggled in the postseason, but even its previous iterations have struggled. The conference is in a difficult position geographically with its conference champion potentially facing a variety of opponents depending upon the location of the champion. Most of the recent champions have come from the south where the competition is a bit stiffer, which makes it harder to make a deep run.

  • Belhaven Blazers
  • Brevard Tornados
  • Greensboro Pride
  • Huntingdon Hawks
  • LaGrange Panthers
  • Maryville Scots
  • Methodist Monarchs
  • North Carolina Wesleyan Battling Bishops
  • Southern Virginia Knights

WIAC

Most people would assume that Whitewater has dominated the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for decades. There is no doubt the Warhawks are the most successful team in the conference with 10 national championship appearances and six titles, all since 2005, but they are not the only Wisconsin team with a lot of success. Oshkosh went to the national title game in 2016 and then made a run to the semifinals in 2017. Plus La Crosse won titles in the early 1990s and has a 16-9 record in the postseason. The 55 playoff wins for Whitewater clearly dominate the league, but they are not the only team with postseason success in the league.

  • UW-Eau Claire Blugolds
  • UW-La Crosse Eagles
  • UW-Oshkosh Titans
  • UW-Platteville Pioneers
  • UW-River Falls Falcons
  • UW-Stevens Point Pointers
  • UW-Stout Blue Devils
  • UW-Whitewater Warhawks

D3 Football Schedule

The Division III schedule works very differently than the FBS or FCS calendar. Games may not begin until the Thursday before the weekend which is 11 weeks before the start of the Division III playoffs in mid-November, and they may play a maximum of 10 games in the regular season.

The D3 Playoffs feature 32 teams with no seeding and the bracket is laid out with geography in mind as much as possible.

In 2021, there were 27 automatic bids handed out and five at-large teams selected to round out the field.

The playoffs take place on five consecutive weekends with the Stagg Bowl taking place in the middle of December.

D3 Football Stadiums

Although there have been a lot of successful DIII football programs, there aren’t many stadiums that stand out.

Mount Union Stadium is the oldest college football stadium in Ohio, so there is some historical significance there.

Johns Hopkins plays at legendary Homewood Field, which is probably more well-known for hosting the nationally-ranked men’s lacrosse team and several Division I lacrosse championships than anything else.

Then there are the picturesque views that come with the smaller stadiums at Division III schools.

D3 College Grants & Scholarships

There is very little recruiting when it comes to Division III schools, though coaches definitely go out on the road a little bit.

There are no athletic scholarships awarded for Division III sports, but there is still financial aid offered to these students, it is simply academic or merit-based financial aid.

D3 Football Recruiting

When it comes to recruiting many DIII schools start local and try to keep underappreciated local talent close to home. There are some out-of-state students who want to continue their football careers in college, but DIII football rosters are often very large and have a lot of turnovers.

Division III is often where smart college athletes who might not have the best skills end up trying to extend their careers.

The recruiting calendar is broken up into four different types of periods, each with its own set of rules for the contact between a player and coach.

The easiest one to explain is the dead period because that is when all recruiting activities must cease between a recruit and a college coach. There is no contact permitted either on or off-campus and student-athletes are not allowed to be on an official or unofficial visit. This does not prohibit a prospective recruit from visiting college campuses for his own tour, but there won’t be any help or meeting with the coaching staff at the school.

A quiet period is a next step from the dead period because recruiting contact is allowed on campus. This opens up the door for on-campus visits, but it limits college coaches from holding recruiting events off-campus. These are the weeks when official and unofficial visits take place for prospective student-athletes.

Then you have the evaluation periods when college coaches are on the road and watching recruits on their home territory off-campus. There cannot be any contact between the recruit and the player during these periods, but coaches will watch recruits practice and play games, and they have a chance to talk to coaches and school administrators about potential recruits.

Finally, there is the free-for-all that most people think about when they hear the word “recruiting,” the contact period. This is when anything allowed by the NCAA manual is permissible on and off-campus, and these periods typically occur after the regular-season ends through the signing periods in December and February.

It’s the last-ditch effort for many coaches to close the deal with recruits who haven’t made a verbal commitment and try to persuade them to sign their national letters of intent.

Because there are no athletic scholarships being awarded, Division III recruits do not sign a National Letter of Intent. All commitments are verbal, and there are many times when a recruit is either denied entry into the school or cannot afford to attend the school after the financial aid package is awarded.

Many students decide against having big ceremonies to promote playing Division III football until all the details are finalized. Once they become college athletes, though, they have a very similar experience to those in the other college divisions of the NCAA.

D3 Football Awards

The Gagliardi Trophy is a relatively new award for Division III student-athletes, having first been awarded in 1993.

Former Mount Union quarterback Kevin Burke is the only player to be named the Division III Player of the Year twice, doing so in 2013 and 2014.

The Purple Raiders have won the award seven times as a program, but not since Burke’s second win.

The 2021 winner was Blaine Hawkins, the quarterback from Central, which is now the 18th different school to have a student-athlete win the prestigious award.

D3 Football Alumni

It is rare for a Division III player to make it in the modern-day NFL even with the advanced scouting tools that help teams identify talent at smaller schools. The notable recent exception is Pierre Garcon from Mount Union, who was a dominant force in the NFL as a wide receiver for a stretch in the early 2010s.

Currently, it’s players like Jake Kumerow from Wisconsin-Whitewater and Ali Marpet from Hobart leading the way for Division III players in the NFL.

In the modern era, there have been several other notable names, including Vern Den Herder, who was a defensive lineman on those Dolphins teams in the 1970s, and Tom Newberry, who was a staple on the offensive line for the Rams. Then of course there was longtime punter Matt Turk, who also attended Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The bigger impact of Division III might have been on the coaching profession. Mount Union is littered with successful coaches starting with Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, but also Iowa State coach Matt Campbell as well as longtime NFL defensive coordinator Dom Capers.

Wesleyan produced Patriots coach Bill Belichick and John Carroll famously was the start for Hall-of-Fame coach Don Shula.

Many Division III student-athletes end up in the coaching profession and make a tremendous impact, so it would not be surprising to see the next crop of excellent coaches from DIII schools.