KANSAS CITY, Mo. - With a full slate of games taking place this week to open the 2025 season, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has announced the results of its 2025 Preseason Football Coaches' Poll. Carroll College appears at No. 25 in the initial poll of the year.

The Fighting Saints saw a pair of late-season losses derail their postseason aspirations in the 2024 season, finishing with a 7-3 record and a place in the receiving votes portion of the final NAIA Poll.

In 2025, they will once again start inside the nation's Top-25, holding the final spot in the Poll with 83 votes.

One of, if not the, most recognizable names in NAIA Football, Carroll still holds the nation's most No. 1 rankings in the poll's history (57 weeks), and will look to ascend the weekly rankings with a good start this Fall.

The Saints are one of five Frontier Conference teams appearing inside of the Top-25 (No. 5 Montana Western, No. 11 Montana Tech, No. 13 Dickinson State, No. 22 Southern Oregon).

The Frontier Conference released its Preseason Coaches' Poll earlier this month, with Carroll landing at No. 4 in the West Division. The nation's coaches didn't agree with the results, as Carroll received 63 more points in the NAIA poll than (RV) College of Idaho, picked ahead of them in the Frontier Poll.

Last season, the Saints began in the receiving votes portion of the Preseason Poll, peaking at No. 14 in the rankings (November 4, 2024).

This is the second time since the NAIA began tracking week-by-week ratings that Carroll has begun the season at No. 25 in the Preseason Coaches Poll. In 2000, the Saints started at No. 25, rattled-off seven-straight Frontier Conference wins to secure the first Conference Championship for former coach Mike Van Diest, and advanced to the NAIA Semifinals for the first time in program history, finishing the year at No. 3 in the postseason poll.

Two of Carroll's first three opponents of the 2025 season are ranked inside the Top-15 (Montana Tech, Dickinson State).

The full NAIA Football Preseason Poll results are as follows:

Poll Methodology:

• The rating is rated by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences. Each conference is given one rater for every four schools in the league or division.
• The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each rater rates the best teams. A team receives 25 points for each first-place vote, 24 for second-place, 23 for third-place and so on through the list.
• The highest and lowest ratings for each team (a non-rating is considered a low rating) are removed. The team's rating will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the team appears on.
• Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered "receiving votes."

RANK	SCHOOL	2024	PTS
1	Grand View (Iowa)	14-0	420
2	Keiser (Fla.)	12-1	406
3	Morningside (Iowa)	12-2	385
4	Benedictine (Kan.)	11-3	382
5	Montana Western	10-2	363
6	Indiana Wesleyan	11-2	343
7	Northwestern (Iowa)	9-3	327
8	St. Thomas (Fla.)	9-2	307
9	Georgetown (Ky.)	9-3	299
10	Texas Wesleyan	9-3	291
11	Montana Tech	9-3	283
12	Friends (Kan.)	11-2	273
13	Dickinson State (N.D.)	10-2	215
14	Southwestern (Kan.)	11-2	213
15	MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.)	9-2	212
16	Baker (Kan.)	9-2	204
17	Southeastern (Fla.)	7-2	199
18	OUAZ (Ariz.)	8-2	171
19	Dordt (Iowa)	8-2	158
20	Campbellsville (Ky.)	9-2	134
21	Concordia (Neb.)	8-2	132
22	Southern Oregon	8-3	129
23	Marian (Ind.)	8-2	118
24	Saint Francis (Ind.)	8-4	106
25	Carroll (Mont.)	7-3	83
Receiving Votes: Taylor (Ind.) 67, Pikeville (Ky.) 65, Evangel (Mo.) 35, Reinhardt (Ga.) 20, College of Idaho 20, Cumberland (Tenn.) 15, Kansas Wesleyan 12, Bethel (Tenn.) 7, St. Francis (Ill.) 4, Cumberlands (Ky.) 2.