BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins football team grabbed its third top-10 preseason ranking of the 2024 season as the Blue Jays earned the number eight spot in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division III Preseason Top 25, presented by HUDL, it was announced today.  The Blue Jays had previously been ranked number eight by D3football.com and also drew a number seven preseason nod from Lindy's.
 
Since 1999, when the AFCA began issuing a weekly Division III Poll, this is the first time the organization has issued a preseason poll.  Traditionally, the AFCA issued its first poll after the third weekend of games each season.
 
Johns Hopkins earned 836 points to secure its number eight spot in the poll. The Blue Jays will play two games this season against teams ranked in the preseason top 25 with a season-opening game at 19^th-ranked Ithaca on September 7 and an early November matchup against 21^st-ranked Muhlenberg.
 
North Central, which finished as the national runner-up last season, earned 26 first-place votes and totaled 1,225 points to grab the top spot in the poll.  Defending national champion Cortland grabbed the remaining 24 first-place votes and earned 1,195 points to rank second, while Wisconsin-Whitewater, Wartburg and Mount Union round out the top five.
 
The Blue Jays will play two non-conference games against teams that qualified for the NCAA Playoffs last season.  The season-opening game against Ithaca will come against a Bomber squad that advanced to the second round of the playoffs a year ago; the Hopkins-Ithaca game is one of just three week-one games (Sept. 5-7) that will feature two teams ranked in the top 25 in the preseason.
 
A week after the opener at Ithaca, the Blue Jays will travel to Christopher Newport, which won the New Jersey Athletic Conference title last season and dropped a narrow decision to eventual NCAA Semifinalist Randolph-Macon in the first round of the playoffs.  The Captains are receiving votes in the AFCA Preseason Poll.
 
Johns Hopkins posted a 12-1 record, including a perfect 6-0 mark in the Centennial Conference, and advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the third time in program history last season.  The 2024 season will be the first for Dan Wodicka '14 as the head coach of the Blue Jays.  He spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons as the Blue Jay defensive coordinator and spent a total of seven years on the coaching staff at his alma mater before being promoted to head coach in February 2024.
 
AFCA Preseason Top 25
1-North Central, 2- Cortland, 3-Wisconsin-Whitewater, 4-Wartburg, 5-Mount Union, 6-Wisconsin-La Crosse, 7-Alma, 8-Johns Hopkins, 9-Wheaton (IL), 10-Randolph-Macon, 11-Grove City, 12-Susquehanna, 13-Trinity (TX), 14-St. John's (MN), 15-Aurora, 16-Hardin-Simmons, 17-Wisconsin-River Falls, 18-Endicott, 19-Ithaca, 20-John Carroll, 21-Muhlenberg, 22-Linfield, 23-Carnegie Mellon, 24-Berry, 25-Whitworth.