The 2018 NCAA Division III football season is the component of the 2018

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 level in the United States. The regular season began on August 30 and culminated on November 17. The season's playoffs ended with the NCAA Division III Football Championship, also known as the Stagg Bowl, at

Woodforest Bank Stadium The Woodforest Bank Stadium is an outdoor Football stadium and natatorium located in Shenandoah, Texas. The stadium is the home to the Oak Ridge High School War Eagles, Grand Oaks High School Grizzlies, The Woodlands High School Highlanders, an ...

Shenandoah, Texas Shenandoah is a city in Montgomery County, Texas, Montgomery County, Texas, United States. Its population was 3,499 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the hometown of David Vetter, the famous "boy in the plastic bubble". In ...

. Hosted by the

University of Mary Hardin–Baylor The University of Mary Hardin–Baylor (UMHB) is a private Baptist university in Belton, Texas. UMHB was chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845 as Baylor Female College, the female department of what is now Baylor University. It has since be ...

, this was the first Stagg Bowl since

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

to be played away from the

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 ...

News

* July 5 –

Frostburg State University Frostburg State University (FSU) is a public university in Frostburg, Maryland. The university is the only four-year institution of the University System of Maryland west of the Baltimore-Washington passageway in the state's Appalachian highlan ...

announced that it had accepted an offer to become an all-sports member of the Division II

Mountain East Conference The Mountain East Conference (MEC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level and officially began competition on September 1, 2013. It consists of 11 schools, m ...

. Pending NCAA approval, the Bobcats will join the MEC for the 2019 season. Frostburg State is currently a football-only affiliate of the

New Jersey Athletic Conference The New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC), formerly the New Jersey State Athletic Conference, is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. All of its current full members are public universities in New Jers ...

. * August 9 – The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which had added its first member outside the state of Iowa (Nebraska Wesleyan) in 2016, announced a name change to

American Rivers Conference The American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III. From 1927 until August 9, 2018, it was known officially as the Iowa Intercollegia ...

. * September 22 – After previously announcing that they would be joining the Division II

Great Lakes Valley Conference The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Its fifteen member institutions are located in the U.S. states of Illinois, ...

for the 2019 season,

Benedictine University Benedictine University is a Private university, private Catholic Colleges in the United States, Catholic university with campuses in Lisle, Illinois, and Mesa, Arizona, United States. It was founded in 1887 by the Benedictine monks of St. Proco ...

reversed course and will instead remain at the Division III level. The Eagles are currently all-sports members of the

Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference The Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), formerly the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC), is an intercollegiate athletic conference. It participates in the NCAA's Division III and began its first season in the fall of 2006. The N ...

Conference changes and new programs

Conference standings

Postseason

Twenty-six conferences met the requirements for an automatic ("Pool A") bid to the playoffs. Other than the NESCAC, which does not participate in the playoffs, the NEWMAC was the only conference with no Pool A bid, being in the second year of the two-year waiting period after beginning football sponsorship in 2017. With the loss of Mount Ida, the ECFC fell one below the required seven members – not counting second-year provisional member Dean – and entered the first year of the two-year grace period, while the Liberty League was in the second year of the grace period. The American Southwest, which had fallen below seven members in 2013 and lost its Pool A bid after the grace period, regained it, having attained seven members in 2016 and passed through the waiting period. 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 26 Pool A conferences contained 228 schools, an average of 8.8 teams per conference. Nine schools were in Pool B, enough for one bid. The remaining five playoff spots were at-large ("Pool C") teams.

Playoff bracket

References