FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OzJohnnie]

Huh, Bethel lost a vote compared to last week's top 25, but still moved up to 4th because Salisbury lost even more votes and dropped to 5th. I believe that 4th in the nation is as high as BU has ever been - others can chime in to correct me if I'm wrong.

I had Grok go off and do a detailed search of all the d3football.com records and it says,

The highest ranking Bethel University (Minnesota) has ever achieved in the d3football.com Top 25 is #4.  Here are the three highest distinct rankings they have held, with specific examples:

#4 in the 2007 final poll and #4 in the 2025 Week 8 poll (current as of October 27, 2025)
#5 in the 2025 Week 7 poll
#6 in the 2010 final poll and the 2013 final poll

Someone may double check if that is correct, but it seems that this is the second time BU has been ranked #4 and that is the highest ranking.

[GoldandBlueBU]

Huh, Bethel lost a vote compared to last week's top 25, but still moved up to 4th because Salisbury lost even more votes and dropped to 5th. I believe that 4th in the nation is as high as BU has ever been - others can chime in to correct me if I'm wrong.

It was a win over Mac, and as we've learned, those wins are not valued as highly, so BU lost a vote.   

[hazzben]

Trenches on both sides have improved enough to be in the second tier of the MIAC, but still haven't closed the gap SJU or BU. I believe the trajectory is still pointing up under Journell. Lot easier to recruit for a team that is consistently 7-3/8-2 than 2-8, which was more the norm under the previous staff

Agree. As I've said before, if JHU, Carnegie Mellon, Wash U, et al can put very competitive teams on the field at both the conference and national level, there's no reason Carleton can't get there. It's just a matter of program and institutional will.

For the longest time, it was almost like Carleton took being average / below average in football as a sign of academic bona fides. Hopefully that's changing, the MIAC needs all the competitive balance in the 2nd tier that we can get.