The past three years the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) has put two teams in the DIII NCAA playoffs. The NCAA DIII Football has over 240 teams competing for 40 playoff spots (28 go to automatic qualifiers with only a precious 12 at-large bids). For the A-R-C the past three years it has been Wartburg Champ (automatic) qualifier and Coe as one of the coveted at-large bids.
The Rise of the A-R-C has been helped by Wartburg’s continued rise to one of the top 10 programs in the country in DIII. They have advanced to the semifinals very recently and become a close to DIII super power program. The A-R-C has improved across the board at all schools because of it, so much so that Luther left the A-R-C to get in a league that they could be more competitive in this year (P.S. we love Luther, Cornell, and Grinnell).
As they say a rising tide raises all boats – Wartburg has done that for the A-R-C. Coe has become a much stronger program Central is right there (barely missing the playoffs last year) and Dubuque, Simpson, Loras, and Buena Vista are all better and stronger programs. Dubuque 12 years ago was winning the A-R-C and has raised their program significantly, but those early 2010 teams that were winning the league back then would struggle to compete in the A-R-C today. The league is now a top 5 league in the US, and wants to stay there. They have worked so hard for the past 15 years to get to this point.
If you follow DIII Football for decades you will know that DIII is top heavy with super power teams that dominate the final national championship podium.
DIII Superpower Schools
Those teams are North Central (Naperville IL) who has played in the last 6 National Title games winning 3 of them. North Central is #1 again this year and just narrowly beat Wartburg this last Saturday in Waverly 26-20. How well respected is North Central? Wartburg lost the game and jumped 5 spots in the poll to #6.
WIAC Teams (always 4 to 5 every year). The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Association conference is the best, top to bottom in DIII. These public schools – UW Whitewater, Stevens Point, Oshkosh, Stout, LaCrosse, River Falls, Eau Claire and Platteville are all top-level DIII programs. These schools are large 10,000 plus students and have no D2 competition in the state for players. As public schools’ tuition is very affordable and the jr. college system in the state are all UW- Schools. So, you can very affordably go JUCO for a year or two, have all your credits transfer, and then go to a four-year UW School.
This system means a ton of great football players who could go play D2, NAIA and DIII anywhere choose instead to stay home and play football. This makes the WIAC loaded with talent on every team that you really only see in the top 25 -30 teams in the country elsewhere.
Mt. Union OH – Traditionally the superpower of DIII for two decades and still one of the best programs. Iowans know this the school that produced Matt Campbell.
The last 20 years of finals it has been a team from the WIAC, Mt. Union, and North Central with Mary Hardin Baylor being in the mix and a magical one year from Courtland out East (St. Thomas out of MN was in this crowd until going FCS in the last decade).
Wartburg, Bethel, St. John’s, John Hopkins, and a few others are right there knocking on the door of that exclusive club.
The At-large bids flow from that hierarchy. In 2025, 3 of the at-large bids went to WIAC schools and rightfully so. UW Stout finished 5th in the league and might have been legitimately a Top 20 team that, in my opinion, would have won the conference crown and automatic qualifier bid if they were in 20 other DIII conferences.
WIAC versus A-R-C this weekend
If the A-R-C is going to put two teams in the playoff this year Coe and Wartburg must do well against the WIAC this weekend. Period.
Coe cannot afford another loss to get an at-large bid (assuming they lose to Wartburg or another A-R-C Game). Wartburg has not lost an A-R-C Conference game in years, and they would have a great shot at getting a playoff bid with 3 losses and not winning the conference. Likely, but not for certain. Central having one loss already and not the level of Non-Con games that Wartburg and Coe have would be very iffy with 2 losses and likely not in unless Coe and Wartburg can win this weekend and help the Dutch.
Every Team in the A-R-C and fanbase needs to root for Wartburg and Coe
If both teams win over UW- River Falls and UW-Oshkosh the chances of getting two teams in increasing exponentially. Of course, it’s football and anything can happen after these games, but if they both lose the dream of two A-R-C teams this year is on life support.
#6 Wartburg vs #3 UW River Falls: Preview
Wartburg invites another strong out of conference opponent in UW River Falls (2026 DIII Defending National Champions) this week after a loss at home 20-26 against number one ranked NCC.
The Knights fought hard forcing turnovers and making the Cardinals work for all 135 rushing yards with
them only gaining 2.9 yards a carry on the day unfortunately the Knights themselves had trouble with turnovers in what felt like bigger moments in the game.
Senior RB Dawson Rud has had a fantastic season on the ground so far and will be a big part of Wartburg’s hope to establish the run early and often River Falls is coming off a huge road victory in CR last week against Coe where they dominated all stages of the game almost instantly,
The Falcons have incredibly big and physical front five that leads the way for a seemingly unstoppable offense with a stout run game and explosive passing scheme.
The one bump in the road is that starting QB Peter McDevitt came out of last week’s game with an injury but Cade Fitzgerald took over and threw 19-24 for 221 yards and 3 TDs to finish off Coe. Defensively UWRF is dominating up front and held Coe to 14 yards rushing on 30 carries. UWRF is one of the best defensive teams in DIII football.
Wartburg is not favored in this game (-13.5 Hansen Ratings) but NEVER count the Knights out in any game.
Coe vs UW-Oshkosh: Preview
UW-Oshkosh continues their road trip to Cedar Rapids under the leadership of redshirt Sophomore QB Demir Ashiru coming off an away victory 23-21 over the Alma College Scots.
Demir Ashiru has thrived in both games this season sense taking over the offense, helping his team to gain more than 450+ yards in the first two games and himself passing for 270+ yards in those tallies. He did play two years previously at North Central and did play in 14 games last season being used mostly as a running QB in certain packages)
Coe is looking to bounce back in a big way coming off a tough loss last week, it feels like a big game to lean on Junior RB Quincey Drummer and the Oline after a REALLY tough week for that unit only getting 14 rushing yards on River Falls , they had plenty of success week one on Cornell gashing them for 286.
The Kohawks have to get them back on track. Coes is going to have to slow this game down and keep it at their pace and keep it from a track meet with this run-and-gun offense of Oshkosh.
Coe is favored by 1.5 points by the Hansen Ratings, and size-wise matches up well with Oshkosh – who are preseason picked 6th in the WIAC. Coe should match up much more favorably on Saturday.
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