Alfred and Fisher ranked in D3football.com preseason poll
The Alfred University and St. John Fisher College football teams are ranked 21st and 23rd in
D3football.com's Top 25 Preseason Poll, released Monday, July 10.
The Saxons are coming off one of the best seasons in program history, as they posted a 12-1 record and finished the year ranked 12
th in D3football.com's final Top 25 national poll. AU had a 10-0 regular season mark, winning the Empire 8 Conference title with a perfect 8-0 league record and becoming the first team in E8 history to go through a regular season unbeaten.
Alfred was the top seed in its region of the NCAA Division III championship tournament and hosted three games at Yunevich Stadium. The Saxons topped Bridgewater State and Western New England in the opening two rounds before falling in a shootout to Mount Union in national quarterfinals.
The Cardinals closed out the 2016 campaign with an 8-3 overall record and reached the postseason for the 14th consecutive season. Alfred and Fisher played for the conference title last season with the Saxons coming away with the win and an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Fisher played in an ECAC Bowl Game.
The Saxons open the 2017 season with a Sept. 2 road game at 1 p.m. at Ithaca. Alfred opens its Empire 8 slate the following weekend, Sept. 9, at 1 p.m. at home against Utica.
Fisher begins 2017 on the road at Washington and Jefferson College at 1 p.m. on September 2 in Washington, Pa.
Fisher will play its first home and conference game of the season at 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 16 against The College at Brockport in Courage Bowl XIII. The game, which has become one of Division III's most anticipated contests, directly benefits Camp Good Days, which is a not-for-profit organization that provides thousands of children with cancer the opportunity to come together in a residential camping experience to be with the only ones who could truly understand what they were going through – other children with cancer.