Schools of all sizes are gearing up to kick off the 2025 college football season at the end of the month, and now many football programs from small colleges across Nebraska have learned where others expect them to stack up in their conference races.

The GPAC unveiled its 2025 preseason poll Tuesday afternoon ahead of the season's kickoff in two weeks. Concordia, which just missed out on a berth in the NAIA playoffs last fall, is the highest ranked school from the state, coming in at fourth on the list, just ahead of Midland in fifth. Hastings was picked to finish seventh, just ahead of Doane at eighth - those two schools will renew a rivalry that extends more than 120 years when face off to start the season on August 30 in Crete. You can watch that game on News Channel Nebraska and listen on olred995.com. The top three spots were all held by the annual conference favorites: Morningside, Northwestern, and Dordt.

Last week, the Heart of America conference released its own preseason poll. That league is divided into two divisions, and Peru State was picked to finish second in the North Division behind perennial powerhouse Grand View from Iowa. Coaches aren't allowed to vote for their own schools, so it's notable that Grand View's vote went to Graceland, which ranks third overall, and not the Bobcats. Benedictine was picked to finish first in the South Division, with Baker and MidAmerica Nazarene tied for second.

Independent media organization Victory Sports Network released "The NAIA 99" this week, the site's watchlist of their top-rated returning players in the classification ahead of the 2025 season. Representing Nebraska schools on that list are Concordia DB Daylon Henson and DL Carson Fehlhafer; Midland RB Tyson Denkert; and Peru State DB Ashley Thompson.

Stay tuned, we'll have season previews of all of Nebraska's NAIA football teams releasing over the course of next week here on NCN.