Top Flight D 2 / D 3 Football Programs

[Boom_70]

A family friend asked me for some ideas for top D 2/D 3 football programs for his son. The kid is a good player with decent size ( 6'3" 230) and average student.

For those of you that cover that level what are some programs that you have come across where you are impressed by program / HC?

 

[Dick Whitman]

Mount Union and Wisconsin-Whitewater for D-III.

This may help:

http://www.d3football.com/landing/index

 

[micropolitan guy]

Northwest Missouri State has played in about 100 DII championship games. Carson-Newman is also a good program.

 

[Batman]

Just based on winning tradition, the Gulf South Conference has a bunch of strong programs. Valdosta State, North Alabama and Delta State are among the perennially strong teams. Valdosta State won the national title last season.
Carson-Newman and Northwest Missouri State have also won a bunch. Northwest Missouri State went to five straight championship games at one point.
No idea what most of their current coaching situations are. I know Delta State is on its third in three or four years, but it's still a solid program overall. Great baseball team, too, and the basketball program has had its moments. Good athletic program there and a decent academic reputation too.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

I can't believe I'm beating Apeman to this, but Pittsburg (Kan.) State is the winningest program in D-II history and has four national titles, the most recent in 2011. It's a big rivalry with Northwest Missouri. That game is at Arrowhead every year.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

St. John's of Minnesota has a long-storied program, but coach John Gagliardi just retired after 60-someodd years.

 

[Small Town Guy]

St. John's of Minnesota has a long-storied program, but coach John Gagliardi just retired after 60-someodd years.

Oh, don't worry, Boom would have never suggested St. John's for the kid.

St. Thomas in Minnesota has become a power (runner-up last year) and their coach Caruso definitely recruits nationally.

Linfield, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Wesley, Bethel, other longtime powers.

thing with D3 of course is that many times the schools are extremely expensive and sometimes have tougher academic standards, so could be an issue depending on his grades (although the cost is the big thing).

Some D2 ones: Minnesota-Duluth in Minnesota.

Here's final D3 top 25 and a lot of these teams are there year after year.

http://www.d3football.com/top25/2012/final

 

[Football_Bat]

West Texas A&M is a D-II program, but it's a bigger one and the game-day atmosphere is Division I. They play in a 20,000-seat stadium and fill it regularly (when Texas Tech is out of town) and a lot of their games are on local TV.

 

[Bodie_Broadus]

Pacific Lutheran has been a pretty solid program for a long time.

 

[Batman]

West Texas A&M is a D-II program, but it's a bigger one and the game-day atmosphere is Division I. They play in a 20,000-seat stadium and fill it regularly (when Texas Tech is out of town) and a lot of their games are on local TV.

The coaching staff also knows how to score some primo stuff.

 

[Boom_70]

Real good ideas folks. Appreciate it.

 

[Armchair_QB]

A family friend asked me for some ideas for top D 2/D 3 football programs for his son. The kid is a good player with decent size ( 6'3" 230) and average student.

For those of you that cover that level what are some programs that you have come across where you are impressed by program / HC?

What part of the country is your friend living in?

Here's the final D3 poll from 2012: http://www.d3football.com/top25/2012/final

Final D2 poll: http://www.d2football.com/top25poll/11/

 

[ColdCat]

DII- Grand Valley is consistently solid and much of the conference has been good at one time or another in the last 15 years (except my alma mater, natch)

DIII- Mt Union is the gold standard, but you could always go a different route and pick Wabash or DePauw and play in the oldest trophy rivalry game in the nation

 

[Tom Petty]

stay out of the PNW for D-III. values count at those schools.

 

[Boom_70]

A family friend asked me for some ideas for top D 2/D 3 football programs for his son. The kid is a good player with decent size ( 6'3" 230) and average student.

For those of you that cover that level what are some programs that you have come across where you are impressed by program / HC?

What part of the country is your friend living in?

Here's the final D3 poll from 2012: http://www.d3football.com/top25/2012/final

Final D2 poll: http://www.d2football.com/top25poll/11/

He's in the Northeast in top HS program but not an area that is overall a football hotbed. Not enough foundries or refineries.

 

[Vombatus]

What interests him and what might be his major?

 

[jr/shotglass]

A family friend asked me for some ideas for top D 2/D 3 football programs for his son. The kid is a good player with decent size ( 6'3" 230) and average student.

For those of you that cover that level what are some programs that you have come across where you are impressed by program / HC?

What part of the country is your friend living in?

Here's the final D3 poll from 2012: http://www.d3football.com/top25/2012/final

Final D2 poll: http://www.d2football.com/top25poll/11/

He's in the Northeast in top HS program but not an area that is overall a football hotbed. Not enough foundries or refineries.

The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) might be a good fit. Sixteen-team conference, and the football is getting better all the time. Shippensburg made the final eight last year, I believe; its offense looked unstoppable at times and its QB won the Harlon Hill Trophy, D-II's version of the Heisman.

Other upward-trending football schools in the PSAC: California (Pa.), Indiana (Pa.), Bloomsburg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_State_Athletic_Conference

 

[Azrael]

Close to home, University of New Haven went 9 - 0 last season.

If he's a better player than student, maybe he can leverage that to his advantage and get into a better academic setting than he might on the strength of his grades alone.

Johns Hopkins football is D-III, for example. www.hopkinssports.com/sports/m-footbl/jhop-m-footbl-body.html

Also Wheaton; Ohio Wesleyan; Lake Forest; Concordia - all great academic opportunities.

 

[Azrael]

Expanding on the idea of doing this in reverse - ie., using his football talent to leverage a better academic opportunity - here's the wiki of DIII football programs.

He's not likely to get into Amherst, but there's no reason to think he shouldn't shoot for Hamilton or Middlebury or Colby or Bowdoin or Macalaster, etc.


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_Division_III_football_programs

 

[Chef2]

West Texas A&M is a D-II program, but it's a bigger one and the game-day atmosphere is Division I. They play in a 20,000-seat stadium and fill it regularly (when Texas Tech is out of town) and a lot of their games are on local TV.

Ah Canyon. Where the men are men and the sheep are nervous.