The 2024 NCAC Football season ended with the Little Giants falling to the Dannies in the 130th Monon Bell Classic and finishing second in the conference standings. It was a disappointing and bitter end to the season to say the least, but Wabash is ready to fight harder than ever to win the NCAC and bring OUR bell back home. Since last season, John Carroll has joined the conference, and they, unlike Hiram – who left the conference – are not slouches. The NCAC will expand even more next season when Washington University-St. Louis joins the conference, but let’s focus on this season, which thankfully starts tomorrow.

#1 DePauw – The Dannies come into this season as the No. 14 team in the country according to the D3football.com rankings, and it seems only fair as they have won three straight Monon Bell games and four consecutive NCAC Conference Championships. In the NCAC Preseason Coach’s Poll, the School Down South received 75 points (including five first place votes), which put them at the top of the pack. I am shocked, however, that they could count that high considering the fact that they can’t even spell a simple word like ex(c)ellence correctly in their Bell Game commercial. While my Wabash family may not like this, DePauw is the team to beat to start this season.

#2 John Carroll – The Blue Streaks are the new kids on the block, but they possess quite the reputation as they enter the season as the No. 25 team in the country according to the D3football.com rankings. Coming from the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), John Carroll has had to deal with Mount Union, a notorious D3 football powerhouse that has won 31 of the last 32 OAC Conference Championships. The only other team to win a conference championship in the last 32 seasons: John Carroll in 2016. Constantly coming up just short has been a common theme for the Blue Streaks, but they look to change that script this season with an NCAC Championship to earn their spot in the D3 Football National Tournament.

#3 Wabash – Your (and my) Wabash College Little Giants come in at third in my preseason poll, which for some, may come as a shock given where Wabash was at in the coach’s poll. The Little Giants were voted to finish second, behind DePauw and ahead of John Carroll, but they received no first-place votes. In my eyes, it is hard to give Wabash any first place votes because there are two top-25 teams in the conference now. But I am not lacking any faith in my brothers! There are plenty of amazing things going on in this football program. Jake Gilbert ‘98 is the head coach. Brand Campbell ’27 has beefed up. Quinn Scholar ’26 is a preseason All-American. There is continuity with this team, and they are hungrier than ever to compete for a conference championship. I am excited to see what this team does tomorrow against St. Norbert. Little Giants by a MILLION!

#4 Denison – The Big Red have been an interesting, yet sore subject (especially for Wabash), in recent years. In the last six matchups, Denison has split the series against Wabash 3-3 with the last four contests being one-score games. Denison also put up a noteworthy fight against DePauw last year as they scored 34 points against a tough Tiger defense. The Big Red finished third in the NCAC with a 6-2 conference record during the 2024 campaign. Not sure if they can call themselves the Big Red, though, because they play football like the annoying little brother in a backyard football game. Maybe the Little Red can get over the hump, but not this year. 

#5 Wittenberg – The other and somewhat nicer Tiger team in the conference seems to be the second-most predictable team in the NCAC (see below). If ESPN had a “Matchup Predictor” for Wittenberg football games, the Tigers would find a way to ensure that the probabilities come true. They beat the teams they are supposed to beat, and they lose to the teams they are expected to lose to. Either way, someone has a lot of faith in the Tigers, which is evident given that one head coach voted for Wittenberg to finish first in the conference, even with two nationally ranked teams in the NCAC…yeah, I’ll let that one sit for you.

#6 Ohio Wesleyan – This is where things start to become a little unstable in the conference. The Battling Bishops finished sixth last season in the NCAC. How appropriate that they’re in my sixth spot. I won’t lie, though, my ranking for them was solely based on the coach’s preseason poll since I don’t know that much about them in the first place. For some reason, they’re ranked above Kenyon, even though the Owls beat the Battling Bishops last year in an extremely high-scoring affair with a final score of 13-12. I’ve also been wondering why OWU has bishops that battle. I thought bishops were supposed to be nice people, but instead, the ones from Delaware, Ohio fight against teams that they know they can’t beat. Seems like a lot of wasted energy in my eyes. 

#7 Kenyon – The Owls have had up and down seasons in recent years. Some seasons they have a couple of wins, and some seasons they have five wins. Last year, they couldn’t decide if they wanted a winning or losing record, so they kept it easy and stayed right at 5-5. Whooo…whooo…whooo will they lose to this year? Definitely the Little Giants.

#8 Wooster – The Fighting Scots are the bottom feeders of the conference. Before Hiram left, the only two wins Wooster would have were against the Terriers and the Yeomen (see below) from Oberlin. Now that Hiram got out of dodge, the only team Wooster can seemingly beat is Oberlin. It’s looking like a one-win season in the conference because it’s literally impossible to play worse than the last team on this list. I think I do know why Wooster struggles offensively, however. The Scots are playing the wrong kind of football. Probably explains why their quarterback throws everything low, and their receivers try to catch everything with their feet. 

#9 Oberlin – Welcome to the bottom of the barrel of the NCAC. Here you will find the Yeomen. “What is a Yeoman?” you may ask. Well, in all honesty, I didn’t know either. But by using my professional journalistic investigating skills (and Dr. Google), a Yeoman is “a man holding and cultivating a small landed estate; a freeholder” (Oxford Languages). I’d like to think of the Yeomen as more of freeloaders as opposed to freeholders, however. They take advantage of our generosity of being allowed to play in the NCAC, but we don’t get competitive games and they don’t score any points. On the bright side, we do get to use them as our own personal punching bag every year.