Movin' up in the polls

The Augsburg football team moved up in the D3Football.com Division III national poll, receiving 27 votes from the national panel to stand just four spots away from getting into the top 25. That's 17 more votes than last week ... and Augsburg didn't even have to play a game this past Saturday!

Augsburg gained more votes after a wild and wacky weekend in MIAC football, which featured both conference title favorites falling at home -- St. John's losing 9-6 to Concordia-Moorhead and Bethel losing 17-14 against Carleton. Meanwhile, St. Olaf (Augsburg's Homecoming opponent this Saturday) and St. Thomas took part in the longest football game in Division III history -- a 29-23 Ole victory in SIX overtimes!

In this week's national poll, St. John's dropped from No. 6 to No. 18 and Bethel, which had been ranked No. 5 in the preseason rankings and No. 13 last week, dropped out of the top 25 altogether, receiving just nine votes from the ranking panel this week. Meanwhile, Concordia now has 36 votes (the first team outside the top 25 in the "Others receiving votes" category), St. Olaf has 29 votes and Augsburg has 27. And Wartburg (Iowa), which Augsburg beat 30-24 (2OT) last Saturday, put itself back into the top 25 following a 19-17 win over Iowa Conference foe Central.