BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins football team is ranked 18^th in the 2023 D3football.com Preseason Poll it was announced today.  The Blue Jays grabbed 182 points from the 25 voters in the poll to earn their number 18 ranking.
 
This is the ninth time in the last 10 seasons that Johns Hopkins has been ranked in the D3football.com Preseason Poll; in each of those nine instances, the Blue Jays have landed inside the top 20.
 
Defending national champion North Central (IL) tops the preseason poll as the Cardinals grabbed 22 of 25 first-place votes and totaled 622 points to edge Mount Union (3 first-place votes / 597 points) for the top spot.  Mary Hardin-Baylor, Trinity (TX) and Wartburg round out the top five.
 
The Blue Jays posted a 10-1 record and topped Stevenson (27-7) in the Centennial-MAC Bowl Series last season.  The 10-win season marked the 10^th time since 2009 that Johns Hopkins has won 10 or more games and the Blue Jays have now won eight or more games in each of the last 14 seasons.
 
A pair of Johns Hopkins' 2023 opponents appear in the D3football.com Preseason Top 25 as the Blue Jays will play ninth-ranked Ithaca in their season opener on September 2 at Homewood Field and will travel to 25^th ranked Salisbury two weeks later.
 
Johns Hopkins is the only Centennial Conference team to appear in the top 25; Muhlenberg, which will host the Blue Jays on October 28, is listed as receiving votes.
 
D3football.com Preseason Top 25
1-North Central, 2-Mount Union, 3-Mary Hardin Baylor, 4-Trinity (TX), 5-Wartburg, 6-St. John's (MN), 7-Linfield, 8-Hardin-Simmons, 9-Ithaca, 10-Delaware Valley, 11-Wisconsin-Whitewater, 12-Wisconsin-La Crosse, 13-Wheaton (IL), 14-Bethel, 15-Randolph-Macon, 16-Carnegie Mellon, 17-Cortland, 18-Johns Hopkins, 19-John Carroll, 20-Aurora, 21-Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 22-Susquehanna, 23-Wisconsin-River Falls, 24-Alma, 25-Salisbury.