Tartans Selected Second in 2025 Centennial Conference Football Coaches Preseason Poll

(LANCASTER, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University football team, who will be competing in its first season in the Centennial Conference (CC), was selected to finish second in the 2025 Centennial Conference Football Coaches Preseason Poll, announced Tuesday by a vote among CC head coaches.

The Tartans received 42 points and one first-place vote, while the two-time defending champion Blue Jays of Johns Hopkins University were chosen as the favorite, collecting six first-place nods and 48 points. Ursinus was picked third with 33 points, just ahead of Franklin & Marshall (32), which received the remaining first-place tally. Muhlenberg (30) was close behind in fifth, fol-lowed by Dickinson (18), Gettysburg (13) and McDaniel (8).

Carnegie Mellon, ranked 18th in the D3football.com preseason top 25 poll, will open its 2025 season on Saturday, September 6, at the University of Chicago. Kick is set for 12:00 p.m. CT in Chicago, Illinois. This is the first meeting against the Maroons under fourth-year Tartan head coach Ryan Larsen, as the Tartans hold a 22-7 advantage in the series. The last meeting against Chicago was in 2016 where the Tartans defeated the Maroons 37-24 in Chicago.

2025 Centennial Conference Football Preseason Poll
1. Johns Hopkins (6 first-place votes): 48
2. Carnegie Mellon (1): 42
3. Ursinus: 33
4. Franklin & Marshall (1): 32
5. Muhlenberg: 30
6. Dickinson: 18
7. Gettysburg: 13
8. McDaniel: 8