Sunday’s announcement for the 2023 NCAA Division III football playoffs field was not kind to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

MIAC champion Bethel (8-2) drew as tough a first-round opponent as there is in Wisconsin-Whitewater (9-1), a perennial powerhouse program that won six national championships over an eight-year span from 2007 to 2014 and has reached the championship game nine times since 2005 — the last time in 2019.

The Royals and Warhawks play at noon Saturday in Whitewater, Wis.

Perhaps most disappointing for the MIAC was the exclusion of St. John’s (8-2) from the playoff field. A deciding factor might have been the Johnnies’ 56-28 loss at Whitewater on Sept. 9. Whitewater ended up claiming one of just five at-large bids into the 32-team field. St. John’s spent the bulk of the regular season ranked among the top Division III teams in the nation.

Two other area teams made the field and will face off in the first round when Minnesota-Morris (7-3) plays at Wisconsin-La Crosse (9-1) at noon Saturday. La Crosse edged Whitewater 37-34 on Oct. 7 to finish atop the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Three teams from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference made the 28-team Division II field. Minnesota State Mankato (9-2) plays at Augustana, S.D., (10-1), and Bemidji State (8-2) travels to Texas Permian Basin (10-1) in first-round games. Both games kick off at 1 p.m. Saturday.

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