KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Benedictine Football returns to action on Saturday with a road trip to Sioux City, Iowa, and will do so as the No. 3 team in the NAIA.

The Ravens earned the ranking in the 2026 Netting Professional-NAIA Top 25 Coaches' Poll that was released on Monday afternoon. 

Two-time defending NAIA National Champion, Grand View University, earned the preseason No. 1 spot with all 13 first-place votes. Keiser (Fla.) University, who fell to Grand View in last year's title game, checked in at No. 2 while College of Idaho and Montana Tech rounded out the top five.

Benedictine's week zero opponent, Morningside University, will start its season against the Ravens at No. 7 in the preseason poll.

Outside of Benedictine and Grand View, the Heart of America Athletic Conference placed one other program inside the preseason poll. William Penn, Benedictine's opponent for their home opener on Sept. 12, is ranked No. 13 in the poll out of the Heart North. Baker University and MNU were listed in the other's receiving votes category, with Baker just outside of the poll as the first team listed. MNU followed seven spots behind.

The poll also included capsules on each of the top five programs. Those can be found at https://www.naia.org/news/football/two-time-defending-champs-remain-no-1-for-13th-consecutive-naia-coaches-top-25/ by clicking on the "+" to the right of the gray bar above the preseason poll.

Benedictine and Morningside kickoff on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Sioux City. Morningside has gone cashless and fans are encouraged to purchase tickets ahead of the trip at https://events.hometownticketing.com/boxoffice/msidemustangs/L2VtYmVkL2V2ZW50LzMzMA%3D%3D. Live links to the Morningside video stream, live stats and the KAIR Radio stream will be available on the Football Schedule Page at https://ravenathletics.com/sports/football/schedule.

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