WACO, TEX.— Linfield College capped an unbeaten season with its first NCAA Division III championship on Saturday and is the unanimous selection for No. 1 in the final American Football Coaches Association Division III Coaches’ Poll released today.
Linfield spent all but one week of the regular season ranked No. 2 and entered the playoffs as a No. 1 seed. The Wildcats rolled through the early rounds of the playoffs to advance to their first Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl where they downed Mary Hardin-Baylor, 28-21, for the national title. Linfield received all 40 first place votes in the final poll to take the top spot. The national runners-up Crusaders finished in the No. 2 spot while regular season No. 1 Mount Union finished at No. 3 after being eliminated by UMHB in the semifinals. Rowan and Washington & Jefferson round out the top five.
Carthage checks in at No. 6 after advancing to the quarterfinals before bowing out at Mount Union. Hardin-Simmons falls to No. 7 after ending the regular season at No. 3. The Cowboys were ousted in the second round by Mary Hardin-Baylor. Occidental makes the biggest leap in the final poll, jumping up from No. 24 to No. 8 after advancing to the quarterfinals this year. No. 9 Concordia-Moorhead finished 11-1 this season and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Wheaton rounds out the top 10, up one spot from the final regular season poll.
No. 11 Wooster finished 11-1, won the North Coast Conference and advanced to the second round before falling to No. 6 Carthage. No. 12 Delaware Valley reached the quarterfinals before being eliminated by Rowan. No. 13 Trinity (Texas) won another SCAC title and advanced to the playoffs. Christopher Newport moves up to No. 14 from No. 23 after making an appearance in the second round this year. No. 15 St. John Fisher won 10 games for the first time in the program’s history in 2004.
No. 16 Wisconsin-La Crosse won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and advanced to the second round this year. Bridgewater (Va.) finishes the season at No. 17. Salisbury drops from No. 5 to No. 18 after falling to Christopher Newport in the first round. Hobart remains at No. 19 in the final poll while St. Norbert rounds out the top 20.
No. 21 Ohio Northern is one of only two non-playoff teams in the final poll. Mount St. Joseph finishes at No. 22 after posting a 10-1 season. No. 23 Ithaca ended its season with a victory in one of the ECAC playoff games. Wartburg moves into the Top 25 at No. 24 this week while No. 25 Trinity (Conn.) posted another perfect 8-0 regular season.
Conference Breakdown: The conferences represented in this week’s AFCA Division III Coaches’ Poll are: America Southwest (Hardin-Simmons, Mary Hardin-Baylor), Atlantic Central (Salisbury), Empire 8 (St. John Fisher, Ithaca), Heartland (Mount St. Joseph), Illinois-Wisconsin (Wheaton, Carthage), Iowa (Wartburg), Liberty (Hobart), Middle Atlantic (Delaware Valley), Midwest (St. Norbert), Minnesota (Concordia-Moorhead), NESCAC (Trinity ), New Jersey (Rowan), North Coast (Wooster), Northwest (Linfield), Ohio (Mount Union, Ohio Northern), Old Dominion (Bridgewater), Presidents (Washington & Jefferson), SCIAC (Occidental), Southern Collegiate (Trinity ), USA South (Christopher Newport), Wisconsin (Wis.-La Crosse).
Poll Points
Linfield quarterback Brett Elliott threw for a Division III-record 4,695 yards and an NCAA all-division record 61 touchdown passes this season ... Linfield has posted 49 consecutive winning seasons, the longest streak in college football history ... Mary Hardin-Baylor’s appearance in the Stagg Bowl comes just seven years after the school played its first football game ... Mount Union has won 121 of its last 124 games, including 104 consecutive regular season games ... Rowan won its 14th New Jersey Athletic Conference title and made its ninth NCAA playoff appearance in 2004 ... Washington & Jefferson’s 12 wins in 2004 are the most in the program’s 112-year history ... Carthage’s 11 wins are the most in school history and 2004 marks the first time the Redmen have posted a double-digit victory total ... Hardin-Simmons’ 2004 American Southwest Conference title was the 10th conference crown for the Cowboys in 15 seasons under Head Coach Jimmie Keeling ... Occidental’s quarterfinals appearance in 2004 was the first for a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team in the history of the Division III playoffs ... Concordia-Moorhead won 11 games for just the third time in school history in 2004 ... Wheaton’s Brad Musso ended his career with the fifth-best receiving yardage total in Division III history at 4,287 yards ... Wooster’s Tony Sutton led Division III in rushing (186.7 ypg), scoring (16.5 ppg) and all-purpose yards (219.5 ypg) for the second consecutive season in 2004 ... Delaware Valley is 21-3 over the last two seasons under G.A. Mangus.
American Football Coaches Association Division III Coaches’ Poll
December 21, 2004
| Rank | School (1st votes) | Rec. | Pts. | Prv. | Postseason | Head Coach |
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| 1. | Linfield (Ore.) (40) | 13-0 | 1,000 | 2 | D. Mary Hardin-Baylor, 28-21 in Stagg Bowl | Jay Locey | | 2. | Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas) | 13-2 | 960 | 10 | Lost to Linfield (Ore.), 28-21 in Stagg Bowl | Pete Fredenburg | | 3. | Mount Union (Ohio) | 12-1 | 920 | 1 | Lost to Mary Hardin-Baylor, (Texas) 38-35 in semifinals | Larry Kehres | | 4. | Rowan (N.J.) | 10-3 | 799 | 13 | Lost to Linfield (Ore.), 52-0 in semifinals | Jay Accorsi | | 5. | Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) | 12-1 | 762 | 4 | Lost to Mary Hardin-Baylor, 52-16 in quarterfinals | Mike Sirianni | | 6. | Carthage (Wis.) | 11-2 | 755 | 15 | Lost to Mount Union (Ohio), 38-20 in quarterfinals | Tim Rucks | | 7. | Hardin-Simmons (Texas) | 10-1 | 728 | 3 | Lost to Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas), 42-28 in second round | Jimmie Keeling | | 8. | Occidental (Calif.) | 10-2 | 670 | 24 | Lost to Linfield (Ore.), 56-27 in quarterfinals | Dale Widolff | | 9. | Concordia-Moorhead (Minn.) | 11-1 | 623 | 6 | Lost to Occidental (Calif.), 42-40 in second round | Terry Horan | | 10. | Wheaton (Ill.) | 10-2 | 599 | 11 | Lost to Mount Union (Ohio), 23-0 in second round | Mike Swider | | 11. | Wooster (Ohio) | 11-1 | 571 | 7 | Lost to Carthage (Wis.), 14-7 in second round | Mike Schmitz | | 12. | Delaware Valley (Pa.) | 12-1 | 554 | 9 | Lost to Rowan (N.J.), 56-7 in quarterfinals | G.A. Mangus | | 13. | Trinity (Texas) | 9-2 | 545 | 8 | Lost to Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas), 32-13 in second round | Steve Mohr | | 14. | Christopher Newport (Va.) | 9-3 | 470 | 23 | Lost to Washington & Jefferson (Pa.), 24-14 in second round | Matt Kelchner | | 15. | St. John Fisher (N.Y.) | 10-2 | 383 | 12 | Lost to Delaware Valley, 26-20 in second round | Paul Vosburgh | | 16. | Wis.-La Crosse | 7-4 | 378 | 22 | Lost to Linfield (Ore.), 52-14 in second round | Larry Terry | | 17. | Bridgewater (Va.) | 8-3 | 355 | 18 | Lost to Washington & Jefferson (Pa.), 55-48 (2OT) in first round | Mike Clark | | 18. | Salisbury (Md.) | 10-1 | 349 | 5 | Lost to Christopher Newport (Va.), 35-24 in first round | Sherman Wood | | 19. | Hobart (N.Y.) | 9-2 | 270 | 19 | Lost to Rowan (N.J.), 45-14, in second round | Mike Cragg | | 20. | St. Norbert (Wis.) | 9-2 | 268 | 16 | Lost to Wis.-La Crosse, 37-23 in first round | Jim Purtill | | 21. | Ohio Northern | 8-2 | 205 | 17 | DNQ Playoffs | Dean Paul | | 22. | Mount St. Joseph (Ohio) | 10-1 | 187 | 14 | Lost to Wheaton (Ill.), 31-7 in first round | Rod Huber | | 23. | Ithaca (N.Y.) | 9-2 | 124 | 21 | D. Mass.-Dartmouth, 38-19 in ECAC playoff game | Mike Welch | | 24. | Wartburg (Iowa) | 8-3 | 102 | NR | Lost to Concordia-Moorhead (Minn.), 28-14 in first round | Rick Willis | | 25. | Trinity (Conn.) | 8-0 | 98 | 20 | DNQ Playoffs | Chuck Priore |
Dropped Out Previous ranking): Hampden-Sydney (Va.) (25).Others Receiving Votes: Hampden-Sydney (Va.), 68; Willamette (Ore.), 54; Alma (Mich.), 49; Johns Hopkins (Md.), 34; Augustana (Ill.), 21; Aurora (Ill.), 18; Muhlenberg (Pa.), 15; Wis.-Whitewater, 11; Curry (Mass.), 9; Springfield (Mass.), 8; Coe (Iowa), 7; Shenandoah (Va.), 6; Whitworth (Wash.), 5; Capital (Ohio), 5; Albright (Pa.), 4; Mass.-Dartmouth, 3; Monmouth (Ill.), 3.
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