Macalester and St. John’s meet again, and four more things about Minnesota college football

Last weekend, Macalester and Hamline met for the 123rd time since their football rivalry began in 1887.

Macalester’s opponent this week is another familiar foe. On Saturday, the Scots will travel to Collegeville for their 77th meeting with St. John’s. The teams, which first met on the football field in 1909, will meet Saturday for the first time since 2001.

The Scots are looking for their first victory over St. John’s since 1968. In 33 meetings between 1968 and 2001, the Johnnies went 32-0-1 against the Scots, the lone tie at 21-21 coming in 1986. In that meeting, the host Johnnies led 13-0 going into the fourth quarter, but the Scots scored 21 unanswered points. St. John’s scored a touchdown with 83 seconds to play and then made a two-point conversion to salvage a tie.

Macalester (2-2, 1-2 MIAC), which was 0-10 in 2024, is coming off a 29-0 victory over Hamline — its first shutout since a 27-0 victory over Beloit College in 2019.

The Johnnies (3-1, 2-1), who lead the all-time series with the Scots 55-17-4, are coming off a 17-10 loss at Bethel. The loss dropped the Johnnies from No. 4 to No. 13 in the D3football.com poll.

St. Thomas (2-3, 0-2 Pioneer League) will try to end a two-game losing streak when it travels to North Carolina to play at Davidson on Saturday.

The teams have met two other times. The Tommies beat the Wildcats 27-16 in 2022 in St. Paul. In 2021, St. Thomas’ first year in the Pioneer League, Davidson won at home 42-15. Davidson went to the FCS playoffs that season as the Pioneer League champion.

Carleton (3-1, 3-0 MIAC), which is tied with Bethel for the MIAC lead, travels to Duluth on Saturday to take on St. Scholastica (2-2, 1-2).

Last week, Carleton defeated Gustavus Adolphus 45-28 in St. Peter.

St. Scholastica is coming off a 49-21 loss at Concordia (Moorhead). In that game, Cobbers receiver Davion Henderson caught nine passes for a team-record 211 yards and two touchdowns.

Going into Week 7, two NSIC teams remain unbeaten: Minnesota Duluth in the North Division and Augustana in the South.

UMD (6-0, 1-0 NSIC), No. 8 in the D2football.com poll, plays at Northern State (3-2, 1-1) on Saturday. Last week, the Bulldogs defeated Southwest Minnesota State 63-28 at home and Northern State lost at Bemidji State 24-21.

The Vikings play host to Concordia (St. Paul) (1-5, 0-1) on Saturday.

Crown (2-2, 1-0 UMAC), which was 2-17 in the previous two seasons, has a two-game winning streak going into Saturday’s game at Martin Luther (2-2, 0-1).

Last week, Crown beat Northwestern (St. Paul) 22-3 to end a 14-game losing streak to the Eagles. The victory gave the Polars back-to-back wins for the first time since 2019.