Nick Severson had one of Linfield's two takeaways in the 34-7 Northwest Conference title-clinching win at Whitworth. Photo by Kelly Bird, Linfield sports information

DePauw won its automatic bid in a rivalry, UW-Platteville won it in a shootout and Linfield won it going away. Plus, St. John's and Alfred State won conference championship games and Berry and Washington & Jefferson won automatic bids in tiebreakers in Division III football action on Saturday, Nov. 16.

• Teams winning automatic bids
• Final NPI ratings
• D3football.com's mock bracket
• NCAA bracket announcement, 5 p.m. ET on Sunday

Carnegie Mellon and Grove City stand as the top two at-large teams by the NCAA's new statistical algorithm for D-III, followed at this moment by Ursinus, Whitworth, Texas Lutheran, Bethel, Coe, Centre and UW-La Crosse. Trinity (Texas), Mary Hardin-Baylor and John Carroll slide into the bottom three spots, just ahead of Wheaton and UW-River Falls.

Linfield sent Whitworth into the at-large pool as its defense came up big on Saturday as the No. 17 Wildcats kept No. 16 Whitworth in check, winning 34-7. The Pirates scored on their first drive of the game, thanks to a big catch by Evan Liggett and another grab to get Whitworth into the end zone, but the Pirates never got back into the red zone the rest of the day. Linfield held Whitworth to 3-for-11 on third down and Blaze Holani had a big play defensively, as he picked off a Ryan Blair pass and returned it 62 yards for a game-clinching score in the fourth quarter.

Dylan Wheeler caught three touchdown passes, Marselio Mendez added two more and the current St. John's quarterback outdueled the former Johnnies quarterback as Aaron Syverson threw for 419 yards and five touchdowns to lift SJU past Bethel 41-33 in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title game. Bethel held SJU to minus-9 yards rushing, and the Royals defense sacked Syverson in the end zone for a safety, but it was not enough. Cooper Drews completed 32 of 49 passes for 274 yards and four scores.

DePauw pulled away in the second half to defeat Wabash in front of a crowd of 6,500 and retain the Monon Bell with a 42-21 win. The loss eliminated Wabash from playoff consideration. Caden Whitehead ran for 199 yards and two touchdowns and Nathan McCahill went 15-for-19 passing for 299 yards and four scores in the win. Wabash ran for just 30 yards on the afternoon on 29 carries. Zac Boyes threw for just 89 yards and a touchdown but he ran for 132 yards and a score, while Ethan Gallo ran for 183 yards and a touchdown and Jaden AlfanoStJohn caught a TD pass from fellow wide receiver Sam Cotton as Cortland dug into its bag of tricks and defeated Ithaca 28-17 on Saturday to retain the Cortaca Jug in front of a crowd of 9,542.

Teams hoping for help on Saturday didn't get much of it. Case Western Reserve led No. 13 Carnegie Mellon late but could not hold on as Tartans quarterback Ben Mills had a two-yard TD run and the Tartans completed the two-point conversion to take a 37-30 lead with 1:21 to play. Case failed on a fourth down conversion and CMU was able to kneel it out. John Carroll did beat Marietta to knock the Pioneers out of contention, but they snuck into the playoffs themselves, most likely, with the 49-35 win. 

UW-La Crosse kept itself in the at-large picture as the Eagles put up 21 second-quarter points and cruised past UW-Stevens Point, 56-14. UW-Oshkosh was not able to do the same, however. The Titans lost 28-14 at River Falls, falling to 6-4 overall and 6-3 vs. Division III opponents. The loss knocked Oshkosh out of the playoffs and the win was not enough to get River Falls (7-3) in.

Washington & Jefferson clinched the PAC's automatic bid, rolling to a 45-0 shutout win at Allegheny. It's their 27th PAC title but the first since 2018. Jacob Pugh recorded five touchdowns on the day with 295 yards through the air with an 86.4 completion percentage.

Ursinus made sure it would remain in at-large contention as the Bears rallied in the second half to defeat Dickinson 24-13. Ursinus is 9-1 overall for the first time since 1999, a year in which it also got an at-large bid to the playoffs in the first year under the automatic bid system. Ursinus forced a punt in the third quarter and put together a 13-play, 91-yard drive to extend its lead to 17-6 after Holden punched it in from a yard out at the 9:19-mark of the fourth quarter. Bradford ultimately put the game away on the Bears next drive when he raced 54 yards down the left sideline for a touchdown to make it a 24-6 game with 5:47 left in regulation. Dickinson scored a quick touchdown in less than two minutes to make it a 24-13 game with 3:34 left in the game, but the Bears recovered an onside kick attempt before running out the clock to preserve the win.

Springfield finished off its regular season with a win, as Arsen Shtefan ran wild to the tune of 25 carries for 231 yards and three touchdowns as the Pride defeated SUNY-Maritime 55-20, clinching the automatic bid from the NEWMAC. Blane Hart added 10 carries for 74 yards and three scores as well. 

Alfred State came away with the automatic bid in the final year of the ECFC, but it was not without drama, as Anna Maria scored two touchdowns in the final 4-plus minutes to cut a 39-22 lead to 39-27. Alfred State was able to cover the onside kick and run out the clock, however. Alfred State had led 19-0 before Anna Maria recovered a bad snap on a PAT attempt and returned it for a defensive two-point conversion, the one that left them in position to come back at the end.

Trailing 21-20 early in the fourth, King's scored 13 unanswered points as they defeated Stevenson 33-21 in their regular-season finale. That kept King's around 29 in the NPI rankings, probably not enough to ensure a first-round bye but in good position to get a home game in the first round. Randolph-Macon will enter the playoffs at 9-1 after the Yellow Jackets outscored Hampden-Sydney 27-0 in the second half to defeat their archrivals for the 11th consecutive season, winning 27-6 in the rivalry known simply as The Game. H-SC (5-5, 3-4 ODAC) scored on the opening possession of the game but was held off the scoreboard for the rest of the game.

Delaware Valley retained the Keystone Cup with a 49-26 victory at Widener, as Louis Barrios IV threw a school-record six touchdowns. After the Aggies went ahead 28-0 midway through the third quarter, Widener scored 20 points in the span of three minutes with two touchdown passes and a fumble recovery in the end zone. But the Aggies found their footing and Barrios threw two touchdowns to Alvaro Lora, who caught four scores.