UNI football has been tabbed third in the Missouri Valley Football Conference pre-season poll.
Last year, UNI was ranked fourth in the preseason poll and finished second in the leagued, tied with South Dakota State.
North Dakota State has been tabbed as the conference favorite in a poll conducted by league coaches, media and sports information directors. NDSU has earned the league title for seven-straight years, four times sharing it with another league school. This year, NDSU was a unanimous choice, receiving all 39 first-place tallies and a total of 390 points. It marks just the second time in league history that a team received all of the first-place votes in the MVFC pre-season poll. NDSU also did it in 2013.
The league is coming off a season in which five teams represented the conference in the playoffs. The MVFC has had four or more playoff teams in four-straight seasons.