BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins football team has earned its third top-10 preseason ranking ahead of the 2026 season as the Blue Jays are ranked fourth in the AFCA Preseason Top 25, which was announced today.  Earlier this summer the Blue Jays had drawn a number six preseason nod from Lindy's and slotted in at number four in the D3football.com Preseason Poll.
 
Johns Hopkins earned 1,162 points in the AFCA poll to comfortably grab its number four ranking.  This is just the second time since the AFCA debuted its Division III Poll in 1999 that the organization has issued a preseason poll; the Blue Jays were ranked third in the AFCA's inaugural Preseason Poll in 2025.  The Blue Jays' 1,162 points left them 40 points behind third-ranked Mount Union, but 132 points ahead of fifth-ranked Wheaton (IL).
 
Johns Hopkins is the only Centennial Conference team in the AFCA Preseason top 25, but three other CC teams - Franklin & Marshall, Muhlenberg and Carnegie Mellon - are among the teams listed as receiving votes in the poll.
 
In addition to the Blue Jays' three games against Centennial teams receiving votes, head coach Dan Wodicka's team also counts non-conference games against two teams - Randolph-Macon (#23) and Susquehanna (#21) - that appear in the AFCA Preseason Top 25 on its 2026 schedule.
 
Johns Hopkins will open the 2026 season on Saturday, September 5 when Ithaca visits Homewood Field.  The Blue Jays' home schedule this season also features Susquehanna (Sept. 19), Gettysburg (Oct. 25), Muhlenberg (Oct. 31) and Franklin & Marshall (Nov. 13), which means four of the five teams slated to visit Baltimore this season appear in the AFCA Preseason Poll.
 
Johns Hopkins posted a 12-2 record and advanced to the NCAA Semifinals for the second consecutive year and the third time in program history last season.
 
AFCA Preseason Top 25
1-North Central, 2-Bethel, 3-Mount Union, 4-Johns Hopkins, 5-Wheaton (IL), 6-Wisconsin-Platteville, 7-Wisconsin-River Falls, 8-John Carroll, 9-Wartburg, 10-Wisconsin-La Crosse, 11-St. John's (MN), 12-Wisconsin-Whitewater, 13-DePauw, 14-Trinity (TX), 15-Berry, 16-Hardin-Simmons, 17-Salisbury, 18-Christopher Newport, 19-Hope, 20-Mary Hardin-Baylor, 21-Susquehanna, 22-Coe, 23-Randolph-Macon 24-Endicott, 25-Cortland.