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Posted: Aug 21, 2023

EC Football Selected Seventh in NACC Preseason Poll

File photo.
File photo.

WAUKESHA, Wis. – The Eureka College football team has been selected seventh in the 2023 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference preseason poll.

The Red Devils received 53 points in the poll, which was conducted by league head coaches and sports information directors, the NACC announced Monday afternoon.

Defending champion Aurora topped the poll with 159 points, garnering 15 of the 18 first-place votes. The Spartans were followed by St. Norbert with 134 points and one first-place vote, as well as Benedictine, which had 130 points and one first-place vote.

Concordia Wisconsin was fourth with 102 points, followed by Wisconsin Lutheran (84) and Lakeland (77).

Concordia Chicago came in eighth with 36 points, while Rockford rounded out the poll with 35 points and one first-place vote.

This will be the NACC's third season with nine football institutions, following St. Norbert's addition in 2021. This will be the Red Devils' sixth season in the NACC and fifth full season. The maroon and gold is looking to come back strong from a 2-8 campaign last fall.

The 2023 season is less than two weeks away. On Saturday, Sept. 2, Eureka will host Knox College at McKinzie Field at 6 p.m. in the first Lincoln Bowl competition in four years. Eureka owns a 6-2 advantage over Knox in the Lincoln Bowl series, winning the last one played 42-28 on Sept. 7, 2019.

EC will open NACC play at home against Rockford on Sept. 16 at 1 p.m. Last season, coach Kurt Barth's squad took down Rockford 31-14 at McKinzie Field.

Once again this season, a minimum of two NACC football programs will experience postseason play. The highest-placed team in the standings - once all necessary tiebreakers have been applied - will receive the NACC's automatic berth in the 2023 NCAA Division III Football Championship. A second NACC program will face off against a representative from the Midwest Conference in the second annual Cousins Subs Lakefront Bowl, which will be held Saturday, Nov. 18 at Wisconsin Lutheran's Raabe Stadium.