NAPERVILLE, Ill. – Saturday’s football slate caused a three-way tie between Elmhurst, North Central and Wheaton atop the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) standings.

Next Saturday, Elmhurst hosts Illinois Wesleyan, North Central travels to Augustana and Wheaton hosts North Park. If all three teams win, the regular season will end in a three-way tie for first place as the Bluejays, Cardinals and Thunder will finish with identical 6-1 records.

If the season ends in a three-way tie, all three teams will be declared tri-champions. However, the tie will have to be broken to determine the CCIW’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Football Championship.

All three teams have composite records of 1-1 against each other during the regular season. In addition, Elmhurst, North Central and Wheaton will have defeated the other five CCIW teams.

To break the tie, the team with the best point differential amongst the tied teams will earn the CCIW’s automatic bid to the postseason. For example, North Central’s point differential vs. Elmhurst and Wheaton; Elmhurst’s point differential vs. North Central and Wheaton; Wheaton’s point differential vs. Elmhurst and North Central.

North Central currently has the highest point differential against the two other teams (+20), followed by Wheaton (+9) and Elmhurst (-29). Under this scenario, North Central would earn the automatic bid to the NCAA postseason. 


The College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) was founded in 1946 and currently services eight member institutions including Augustana College (Rock Island, IL), Carthage College (Kenosha, WI), Elmhurst College (Elmhurst, IL), Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, IL), Millikin University (Decatur, IL), North Central College (Naperville, IL), North Park University (Chicago, IL) and Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL). During the 2011-12 academic year, the CCIW honored 1,323 academic all-conference recipients, 16 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, 1 CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year, 89 all-Americans and three national championship teams.