Yes, it’s Balladeer’s Blog’s preseason rankings for the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) football teams. The NAIA has so many potent football teams from top to bottom I’ll be doing an entire Top 25 for them every week instead of my usual Top 12.
The football season in the NAIA kicks off on August 24th, and as always Balladeer’s Blog will be there covering the action all season long.
The reigning national champions, the Saint Xavier University Cougars will begin defending their title soon with Dianne “The Cougar” Zajdel cheering them on. Coach Mike Feminis’ boys are fresh off their first national football crown but they are not the top team in my rankings here in the preseason.
Based on overall performance over the past several years the C.C. Fighting Saints, last year’s runners- up, are at number 1. The Hellions from Helena, as I call them, have earned a name for football excellence season after season and have won six of the last ten national championships and played in eight of those ten title games. Teams named Cougars have been a hurdle for C.C., with the University of Sioux Falls Cougars and Chicago’s own SXU Cougars being the only two teams to defeat the Fighting Saints in Rome, GA, the home of the NAIA Championship Game.
Coach Fem’s boys are at number two, with the entire Top 25 looking like this:
1. C.C. Fighting Saints ### 2. SXU Cougars (defending champs) ### 3. Georgetown (KY) Tigers ### 4. Marian University Knights ### 5. MidAmerica Nazarene University Pioneers ### 6. Morningside Mustangs ### 7. Continue reading →
20. SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY MULERIDERS
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