UW-Whitewater was knocked out of the postseason in the quarterfinals in the spring, but they gave eventual champ Lindenwood its toughest test last season from a DII opponent. Lindenwood has moved to DI-AA, so the Warhawks reassume their position atop the rankings.

Several teams moved to DI-AA over the offseason, with conference realignment majorly impacting the competitive landscape. But a couple of teams moved down, like Northern Iowa and UW-Stout. Both were competitive a season ago in the Midwest, and both could compete for a national title this year in DII.

While several conferences are ratified, have schedules and are online to kick off the season this weekend, much of DII is still in flux. There are still waivers for teams from FBS schools to remain in DII, and there are still some teams who never found themselves a conference home and appear to be stuck in the TU/LAU system, so the DII field is not yet finalized.

Therefore, you may see teams on this list that end up in NSCRO by the end of the season or out of DII.  But this ranking and others will be made with the information available to us at the time of publication.

Our first ranking is free, but subsequent rankings will first be posted for our premier subscribers only and released to the general public a week later.

1. UW-Whitewater
2.  Salisbury
3. Utah Valley
4. Towson
5. Boston University
6. Sierra College
7. UW-Milwaukee
8. Santa Rosa JC
9. Central Missouri
10. UNC-Wilmington
11. Northern Iowa
12. UW-Stout
13. Colgate
14. Rhode Island
15. Bentley
16. Coast Guard
17. Radford
18. VMI
19. Idaho State
20. Appalachian State
21. Mary Washington
22. Georgetown
23. Providence
24. SLU
25. E. Stroudsburg