The 2005 NCAA Division III football season, part of the

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

season organized by the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

at the

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

level in the United States, began in August 2005, and concluded with the NCAA Division III Football Championship, also known as the Stagg Bowl, in December 2005 at

Salem Football Stadium Salem Stadium is a stadium in Salem, Virginia, United States. It is primarily used for American football and hosts the home football games of the Salem High School (Salem, Virginia), Salem High School Spartans. It was built in 1985 and seats 7,1 ...

Salem, Virginia Salem is an independent city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,346. It is the county seat of Roanoke County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combine ...

. The

Mount Union Purple Raiders The University of Mount Union is a private university, private Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Alliance, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1846, the university was affiliated with the Methodist Church until 2019. It had an enrollme ...

won their eighth Division III championship by defeating the

Wisconsin–Whitewater Warhawks The Wisconsin–Whitewater Warhawks (or UW–Whitewater Warhawks) are the athletic teams of the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. Twenty Warhawk athletic teams compete in NCAA Division III. The Warhawks often rank among the top of NCAA Divisio ...

, 35−28. This was the first of eight subsequent championship games between Mount Union (3 wins) and Wisconsin–Whitewater (5 wins); only the 2012 Stagg Bowl featured a different team. The Gagliardi Trophy, given to the most outstanding player in Division III football, was awarded to Brett Elliott, quarterback from Linfield.

Conference changes and new programs

Conference standings

Conference champions

Postseason

The 2005 NCAA Division III Football Championship playoffs were the 33rd annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...

college football. The championship Stagg Bowl game was held at

, for the 13th time. The bracket for this field expanded from 28 to 32 teams, where it has remained.

Qualification

Twenty-one conferences met the requirements for an automatic ("Pool A") bid to the playoffs. Besides the NESCAC, which does not participate in the playoffs, five conferences had no Pool A bid. The PAC was in the first year of the two-year waiting period, while the ACFC, NWC, UAA, and UMAC failed to meet the seven-member requirement. Schools not in Pool A conferences were eligible for Pool B. The number of Pool B bids was determined by calculating the ratio of Pool A conferences to schools in those conferences and applying that ratio to the number of Pool B schools. The 21 Pool A conferences contained 179 schools, an average of 8.5 teams per conference. Thirty-seven schools were in Pool B, enough for four bids. The remaining seven playoff spots were at-large ("Pool C") teams.

Playoff bracket

* ''Overtime''

References

{{NCAA football season navbox