ATN Podcast 330: What you need to know before Week 1

D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast

Teams are in training camps, and if you’re new to Division III football, or awaking from a long slumber, this is a good time to get caught up.

Because if you’re coming to Division III for the first time, as a Division I FBS fan, just know that this is not the same. D-III is expert level, with 28 automatic bids (yes, now there are 28!) and just a handful of at-large bids to go around. Making the Top 25 or an All-America team is almost twice as hard as Division I FBS because D-III is so large.

It’s really large.

So, welcome back! We get you caught up on the biggest news of the offseason, answer fan questions about the preseason Top 25, and more, such as:

• How is the free COVID year still affecting d3football?
• SCIAC teams have been scheduling conference opponents for non-conference games for a few years now, and NWC teams are beginning to do the same starting this year. Are we approaching the days when the island conferences out here play zero games against other conferences?
• What’s a team in the top 25 that you think is the most likely to have a down year this season?
• DePauw continues to strongly build their program. Predicted to win NCAC for third straight year but keep hitting juggernauts in the playoffs. What’s the likelihood they make it past the first round this year?

We tackle all that and more. Listen in, and welcome back!

Mentioned in the podcast: Rivals so close they share a campus, by Greg Thomas

The D3football.com podcast is a weekly in-season podcast by Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas, which was started in 2007.

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Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
DePauw’s Brevon Gude by Linda Striggo, DePauw athletics; Delaware Valley’s Nick Chapman by Delaware Valley athletics; Bethel’s Joey Kidder by Caleb Williams, d3photography.com