Wisconsin and Iowa aren't exactly where you picture football powerhouses residing, but when that's exactly what the two states are at the small college level with Wisconsin-Whitewater (D-III) and Morningside (NAIA - IA) residing within state lines. Whitewater brought the nation's longest win streak into their match up with Morningside, and the Mustangs are coming off a 2014 campaign where they made it to the NAIA national semifinals.
Both teams opened up their first few games of the season with little competition. In their first three wins, Morningside outscored their opponents 212-27, allowing just 17 points in their "worst" defensive outing of the season, while scoring 86 in game two during their best offensive performance.
Whitewater, the back-t0-back defending D-III national champions, found themselves in a similar boat, pitching back to back shutouts against Bethany (WV) and Muskingum, while scoring 103 points in the two contests (47 in week 1 and 56 in week 2).
Last night the two programs faced off against each other in a downpour to answer the age old question of how the levels stack up against each other. Many D-III coaches quietly whisper about the NAIA being a lower level of football top to bottom while voicing the frustrations on the recruiting trail that they can offer athletic scholarship money, while D-III coaches can not. All the while NAIA programs have been looking for an opportunity to prove that they play the same caliber of football as the elite D-III programs.
Down at Elwood Olsen Stadium in Sioux City, IA last night, Morningside gave Whitewater all they could handle, and then some, at one point scoring 16 unanswered points to take a nice lead. With just over 4 minutes left to play, The Mustangs (who fumbled six times on the night, losing just one) held a 30-26 lead when Whitewater, lead by first-year head coach Kevin Bullis, engineered an eight-play 75 yard drive that ended with a six yard touchdown scamper with 38 seconds left. The Whitewater defense held strong on the last drive of the game to preserve the win.
Taking a look at the box score, pretty much everything was neck and neck, all the way down to the time of possession.
Props to these two teams for setting this game up and showing coaches of all levels how elite football at the NAIA and D-III level compare head-to-head.