No. 22 Football Cracks AFCA Top 25 Poll
SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Nov. 12, 2002 – Springfield College is ranked No. 22 in the latest American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division III National Football Poll.
The Pride, which was ranked as high as 10th in the 2000 season, is the only New England team ranked in the national poll.
SC is fifth in the ECAC Division III Lambert Poll, which ranks the 74 Division III schools in the East. Rowan (N.J.), Widener (Pa.), McDaniel (Md.) and King’s (Pa.) rounds out the top five in the ECAC Lambert Poll.
In the Division III New England Poll, the Pride is second for the fifth consecutive week. UMass-Dartmouth (10-0) is in the top spot.
The Pride (7-1) captured its fourth Freedom Football Conference (FFC) championship since 1996 outright with a 41-24 win at Norwich (Nov. 11). As FFC champion, SC earned a berth in the NCAA Division III Championship, which begins Nov. 23. The Pride finished with a 6-0 record in FFC play for the third time in five seasons.
SC hosts Union (N.Y) in its regular-season finale at Benedum Field at 12 p.m.
American Football Coaches Association Division III Coaches’ Poll (Nov. 12)
1. Mount Union (Ohio) (47 1st place votes)-9-0 overall/1,199 points
2. Bridgewater (Va.) (2)-9-0 /1,151
3. Rowan (N.J.)-9-0/1,127
4. Trinity (Texas)-9-0/1,058
5. Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas)-9-0/972
6. St. John’s (Minn.)-9-1/940
7. Linfield (Ore.)-8-0/930
8. Hanover (Ind.)-9-0/883
9. Wabash (Ind.)-9-0/831
10. Augustana (Ill.)-7-0/743
11. Wittenberg (Ohio)-8-1/706
12. John Carroll (Ohio)-8-1/686
13. Widener (Pa.)-8-1/612
14. Salisbury (Md.)-9-0/548
15. MacDaniel (Md.)-8-1/492
16. Wheaton (Ill.)-8-1/482
17. MacMurray (Ill.)-9-0/380
18. Howard Payne (Tex.)-8-1/370
19. Wartburg (Iowa)-8-1/332
20. Coe (Iowa)-8-1/296
21. Alma (Mich.)-9-1/228
22. SPRINGFIELD -7-1/143
23. St. Nobert (Wis.)-9-1/124
24. Wisc.-Stout-7-2/104
25. Wisc.-LaCrosse-6-3/79
Team Links
Head Coach Mike DeLong
Michael C. “Mike” DeLong ’74 enters his 32nd season as a head football coach in the fall of 2013. He enters his 30th year at Springfield College alone. For the past 28 years, he has been the head coach at Springfield, his alma mater. Mike had also been the head coach at Maine Maritime in Castine, Maine in 1979 and 1980.
Read more.
Contact Head Coach Mike Delong
E-Mail | Phone: 413.748.3156
