MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- The Wartburg College football team enters the 2026 campaign ranked No. 9 in the D3football.com Preseason Top 25 Poll, the organization announced Monday.

The Knights return after a dominant 2025 season that saw them post a 10-1 overall record and a perfect 8-0 mark in American Rivers Conference play. Wartburg claimed its fourth consecutive A-R-C championship and enters the new season riding a 34-game conference winning streak.

Head coach Chris Winter's squad will face one of the nation's most challenging early-season schedules, taking on three teams receiving national recognition in the first three weeks. Wartburg opens the season on the road against (RV) Monmouth College on Sept. 5 in Monmouth, Illinois, before hosting preseason No. 1 North Central College on Sept. 12. The Knights will then welcome defending national champion No. 7 UW-River Falls to Walston-Hoover Stadium on Sept. 19.

The preseason ranking marks the fourth consecutive season Wartburg has opened the year among the top 10 in the D3football.com preseason poll. 
 

Rank	School (No. 1 votes)	W-L	Points
1	North Central (Ill.) (25)	14-1	625
2	Bethel	12-1	576
3	Mount Union	11-1	565
4	Johns Hopkins	12-2	515
5	Wheaton (Ill.)	11-3	447
6	UW-Platteville	9-3	446
7	UW-River Falls	14-1	444
8	John Carroll	12-2	430
9	Wartburg	10-1	413
10	UW-La Crosse	8-3	402
11	St. John's	10-2	372
12	UW-Whitewater	8-3	370
13	DePauw	10-2	288
14	Trinity (Texas)	10-2	263
15	Hardin-Simmons	9-2	247
16	Berry	11-2	238
17	Salisbury	10-2	237
18	Christopher Newport	10-1	182
19	Hope	9-2	173
20	Susquehanna	11-3	160
21	Mary Hardin-Baylor	7-3	113
22	Coe	9-3	89
23	Cortland	8-3	56
24	Endicott	9-2	49
25	Randolph-Macon	9-2	48

Others receiving votes: Franklin & Marshall 47; UW-Oshkosh 39; Alma 34; Linfield 33; Eastern 28; Washington and Jefferson 26; Muhlenberg 24; Springfield 23; Utica 17; Wabash 14; Chapman 13; Rowan 11; Washington U. 10; Central 9; Whitworth 7; Aurora 6; Monmouth 6; Ithaca 5; Ohio Northern 5; Wesleyan 5; UW-Stout 4; Adrian 3; Hanover 3; Carnegie Mellon 2; Baldwin Wallace 1; Calvin 1; Grove City 1.

The D3football.com Top 25 is voted on by a panel of 25 coaches, Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country, and is published weekly. Points are awarded on a 25-24-23-22-etc. basis. The D3football.com Top 25 started in the 2003 season.