It's not easy to decide which college to attend when there are so many options available for student athletes. College Factual has developed its Best Colleges for Division III Men's Football in Illinois ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.
Our analysis looked at 19 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for D3 Men's Football athletes in Illinois. Instead of depending on subjective information, we focus on objective factors to determine this ranking. These factors include such things as the athletic competitiveness of the school and the school's overall quality. This means that a school must provide students with a great education in addition to having a good sports team if it wants to rank well.
Since one ranking on its own is not enough to give you a complete understanding of your educational options, you can refine this list by location. We've also developed a number of other tools and rankings based on other factors. These other rankings highlight colleges that excel in other factors such as value or diversity as well as schools that excel in serving different groups of students such as online students or returnings adults.
We've created a tool called College Combat that lets you create your own customized comparisons based on the factors that matter the most to you. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don't have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.
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Top Colleges in Illinois for D3 Men's Football athletes in Illinois
Our analysis found University of Chicago to be the best school for D3 Men’s Football athletes in Illinois in this year’s ranking. This fairly large private not-for-profit school is located in Chicago, Illinois, and it awarded 2,425 bachelor’s degrees in .
Speaking financially, the D3 Men’s Football team at UChicago took home $676,204 in revenue.
Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 99%. UChicago did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our overall quality list.
Read full sports report on University of Chicago
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Wheaton College Illinois. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Colleges for D3 Men’s Football athletes in Illinois list. Wheaton College Illinois is a small private not-for-profit school situated in Wheaton, Illinois. It awarded 648 bachelor’s degrees in .
Speaking financially, the D3 Men’s Football team at Wheaton College Illinois took home $724,343 in revenue.
Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 89%. Wheaton College Illinois did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #4 on our overall quality list.
Read full sports report on Wheaton College Illinois
You’ll join some of the best athletes around if you attend Illinois Wesleyan University. The school came in at #3 in this year’s ranking. Illinois Wesleyan University is a small private not-for-profit school located in Bloomington, Illinois that handed out 404 bachelor’s degrees in .
On the financial side of things, the D3 Men’s Football team at Illinois Wesleyan made $496,188 in revenue.
As a testament to the quality of education it offers, Illinois Wesleyan also is in the top 10% of our overall quality ranking.
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A rank of #4 on our list means Augustana College is a great place for D3 Men’s Football athletes in Illinois working on their bachelor’s degree. Augustana is a private not-for-profit institution located in Rock Island, Illinois. The school has a small population, and it awarded 755 bachelor’s degrees in .
Speaking financially, the D3 Men’s Football team at Augustana took home $606,591 in revenue.
Augustana excels when it comes to quality. It’s ranked in the top 20% of all schools on our overall quality list.
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You’ll join some of the best athletes around if you attend Knox College. The school came in at #5 in this year’s ranking. Knox is located in Galesburg, Illinois and, has a small student population. In , this school awarded 332 bachelor’s degrees to qualified undergraduates.
The D3 Men’s Football team at Knox brought home $435,300 in revenue in a single year.
On top of its placing in this ranking, Knox also did well on our overall quality list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.
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Lake Forest College came in at #6 in this year’s edition of the Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois ranking. Lake Forest College is a small private not-for-profit school located in Lake Forest, Illinois that handed out 466 bachelor’s degrees in .
The D3 Men’s Football team at Lake Forest brought home $457,183 in revenue in a single year.
With a freshman retention rate of 87%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.
Read full sports report on Lake Forest College
North Central College did quite well in the 2023 Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois ranking, coming in at #7. North Central is located in Naperville, Illinois and, has a small student population. In , this school awarded 653 bachelor’s degrees to qualified undergraduates.
North Central brought in $964,301 while tallying up $840,412 in expenses for its D3 Men’s Football team. Happily, this means that the team turned a profit of $123,889.
Full North Central College Sports Report
Elmhurst University came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois ranking. This small private not-for-profit school is located in Elmhurst, Illinois, and it awarded 831 bachelor’s degrees in .
Speaking financially, the D3 Men’s Football team at Elmhurst took home $572,879 in revenue.
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Illinois College ranked #9 on this year’s Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois list. Illinois College is located in Jacksonville, Illinois and, has a small student population. In , this school awarded 323 bachelor’s degrees to qualified undergraduates.
On the financial side of things, the D3 Men’s Football team at Illinois College made $438,125 in revenue.
Read full sports report on Illinois College
Monmouth College did quite well in the 2023 Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois ranking, coming in at #10. Monmouth is a private not-for-profit institution located in Monmouth, Illinois. The school has a small population, and it awarded 189 bachelor’s degrees in .
The D3 Men’s Football team at Monmouth brought home $336,660 in revenue in a single year.
With a student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed.
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Millikin University did quite well in the 2023 Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois ranking, coming in at #11. Millikin is located in Decatur, Illinois and, has a small student population. In , this school awarded 414 bachelor’s degrees to qualified undergraduates.
The D3 Men’s Football team at Millikin made $677,474 in revenue, while incurring $671,915 in expenses. That boils down to a yearly profit of $5,559 for the sports team.
Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1, those pursuing a bachelor’s degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.
Read full sports report on Millikin University
North Park University ranked #12 on this year’s Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois list. North Park is a small private not-for-profit school situated in Chicago, Illinois. It awarded 369 bachelor’s degrees in .
Speaking financially, the D3 Men’s Football team at North Park took home $548,083 in revenue.
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Benedictine University did quite well in the 2023 Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois ranking, coming in at #13. Located in Lisle, Illinois, the small private not-for-profit school handed out 686 bachelor’s degrees in .
The D3 Men’s Football team at Benedictine U made $468,535 in revenue, while incurring $444,961 in expenses. That boils down to a yearly profit of $23,574 for the sports team.
Read full sports report on Benedictine University
Aurora University landed the #14 spot on the 2023 Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois ranking. Aurora is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school situated in Aurora, Illinois. It awarded 1,249 bachelor’s degrees in .
The D3 Men’s Football team at Aurora brought home $595,317 in revenue in a single year.
Full Aurora University Sports Report
With a ranking of #15, Greenville University did quite well on the 2023 Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois ranking. Located in Greenville, Illinois, the small private not-for-profit school handed out 205 bachelor’s degrees in .
The D3 Men’s Football team at Greenville made $310,401 in revenue, while incurring $296,084 in expenses. Thus, the team actually made $14,317, which isn’t bad at all.
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Concordia University, Chicago landed the #16 spot on the 2023 Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois ranking. Concordia University, Chicago is a private not-for-profit institution located in River Forest, Illinois. The school has a medium-sized population, and it awarded 329 bachelor’s degrees in .
The D3 Men’s Football team at Concordia University, Chicago made $473,086 in revenue, while incurring $471,314 in expenses. That boils down to a yearly profit of $1,772 for the sports team.
Full Concordia University, Chicago Sports Report
With a ranking of #17, Eureka College did quite well on the 2023 Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois ranking. Located in Eureka, Illinois, the small private not-for-profit school handed out 143 bachelor’s degrees in .
On the financial side of things, the D3 Men’s Football team at Eureka College made $189,373 in revenue.
Read full sports report on Eureka College
Rockford University came in at #19 in this year’s edition of the Best Colleges for Division III Men’s Football in Illinois ranking. Located in Rockford, Illinois, the small private not-for-profit school handed out 254 bachelor’s degrees in .
The D3 Men’s Football team at Rockford brought home $360,302 in revenue in a single year.
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Best Colleges for D3 Men's Football in the Great Lakes Region
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Notes and References
Footnotes
*Avg Tuition and Fees and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top 19 schools only.
References
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of our data about colleges.
The academic progress rate (APR) of each team was made available by the NCAA.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.
