In the first two years of the division format for MIAC football, Bethel and St. John's reached the league's championship game.
MIAC title game could feature two surprise teams based on Saturday's results
St. John's met Bethel in the MIAC's previous two championship games, but Gustavus and Concordia could each go there this time by winning Saturday.
November 2, 2023 at 12:17PM
Both teams need victories on Saturday — with St. John's needing additional help from Carleton — to reach the title game for the third consecutive season.
Bethel and Concordia (Moorhead), who are each 3-0 in the Skyline Division, will play in Arden Hills, while St. John's travels to Northfield to face St. Olaf.
St. John's is 2-1 in the Northwoods Division. Gustavus (3-0 Northwoods) will play host to Carleton (2-1 Northwoods).
Victories by Carleton and St. John's would create a three-way tie for first (with 3-1 records) in the Northwoods. St. John's would earn the berth in the championship game based on the MIAC tiebreaker of winning percentage against all common nondivisional MIAC opponents — in this case, that means against Bethel. Carleton and Gustavus each lost to Bethel, while the Johnnies defeated the Royals.
Gustavus has won four consecutive games — including 38-35 over St. John's two weeks ago and 41-40 in overtime at St. Olaf last week.
The other MIAC games this week are Hamline at St. Scholastica and Augsburg at Macalester. This week's games determine the seedings for next week's "Championship Week."
The top teams in the Northwoods and Skyline Divisions will play at the winner of the Skyline Division. The winner of the next week's game receives the MIAC's automatic berth in the Division III playoffs.
Bethel, coached by Steve Johnson who is retiring at season's end, and St. John's were among the seven teams listed alphabetically in the first Division III regional rankings, announced Wednesday.
The rankings for Region 6 included Linfield, Whitworth and three teams from the WIAC (UW-La Crosse, UW-River Falls and UW-Whitewater).
The 32-team Division III playoff field will be announced Nov. 12. The field includes 28 automatic berths (conference champions) and four at-large teams.
Here are four other things to watch this week:
Tommies are idle
St. Thomas is idle this week, but the defending Pioneer League champion Tommies could move up in the Pioneer League standings.
The Tommies are in third place in the Pioneer League standings with a 5-1 record. Co-leaders Davidson and Drake, who are each 5-0, both play on the road Saturday.
Drake plays at Marist, while Davidson plays at Stetson.
The Tommies next play on Nov. 11 at San Diego.
Regional rankings
Four NSIC teams were among the 10 teams ranked in this week's Division II Super Region 4 rankings — Augustana is No. 5, Minnesota State Mankato No. 6, Bemidji State No. 7 and Wayne State No. 8.
Minnesota Duluth, which is in fourth place in the NSIC standings, was not ranked. Wayne State, which is tied with MSU Moorhead for fifth in the NSIC, defeated previously unbeaten Augustana 14-12 last week.
The 28-team Division II playoff field consists of seven teams from each of the four regions. The field will be announced Nov. 12.
Staying focused
UMAC co-leaders Minnesota Morris and Northwestern (St. Paul), who are each 4-0 in the conference, will try not to look past this week's opponents to their showdown next week in Morris.
On Saturday, Morris travels to New Ulm to take on Martin Luther, while Northwestern, which has won 11 consecutive UMAC games dating to 2021, plays host to Westminster.
MCAC playoffs
Rochester Community & Technical College and North Dakota State College of Science will play in the MCAC championship game on Sunday in St. Cloud.
Rochester, which is ranked No. 2 in the NJCAA Division III poll, defeated No. 3 NDSCS 28-27 on Oct. 7 in Wahpeton, N.D.
Two offensive linemen from Lakeville, Bryce Benhart and Riley Mahlman, are standouts for Big Ten rivals of Minnesota.
