BURNSVILLE, MINN. - Voted on by the league coaches, the Augustana football team is selected to finish sixth in the NSIC Football Preseason Coaches' poll, the conference announced Thursday morning. The Vikings received 148 points and are slated to finish fourth in the NSIC South Division.

Augustana returns the NSIC's leading tackler in senior linebacker Kirby Hora. The Sioux Falls, South Dakota native led the NSIC with 129 tackles, a number that ranked fifth nationally. In addition, the Roosevelt High School product was named First Team All-NSIC, First Team CoSIDA Academic-American, Academic All-NSIC, Daktronics/CCA All-Region First Team and First Team CoSIDA Academic All-District in 2017. Adding to his already impressive resume, Hora tallied a team-leading 11 tackles-for-loss and five sacks.

On the offensive side, Augustana returns sophomore quarterback Kyle Saddler, sophomore running back Ryan Bradberry and senior tight end Chet Peerenboom. Peerenboom, who caught 12 passes for 129 yards' despite being hampered by injury in 2017, was selected to last year's All-NSIC honorable mention team. The NSIC named Bradberry, a sophomore from Dallas, Texas, as Augustana's offensive player to watch in 2018. The Prestonwood Christian Academy product scampered for nearly 800 yards in 2017. In his true freshman season leading the offense, Saddler tossed 10 touchdown passes and threw for over 1,200 yards.

Minnesota State received 15 first place votes, earned 225 points and was voted to win the NSIC and the league's South Division. Minnesota Duluth, who received 194 points overall, has been picked to win the North Division. Following Minnesota State, Winona State and Sioux Falls - all from the South Division - have been tabbed as the league's top three teams.

The NSIC football schedule will be broken into two divisions (north/south). Each team will play 11 conference games that will count towards the NSIC Overall Championship as well as seven divisional games that will count towards the NSIC North/South Division Championships. In all, three league champions will be awarded (Overall Champion, North Division Champion, South Division Champion). Ties will not be broken for overall or division champions.

New for the 2018 season, the four non-division games will be moved to weeks five through eight and divisional games will be weeks one through four and nine through 11.

Single game tickets to Viking football games are on sale, and season tickets are still available. Fans interested in purchasing tickets can do so by calling 605-274-5420.   

Augustana reports to fall camp Sunday, August 5 and begins the 2018 regular season on the road at Upper Iowa on Saturday, Sep 1 at 6 p.m.