The Pipeline · Illinois

Illinois Football Players at D-III Programs

1,124 Illinois kids are on D-III football rosters right now. The high schools feeding them, the programs recruiting them, and the seven-step playbook to put your kid on next year's list.

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1,124

Illinois Athletes On D-III Rosters

67

D-III Programs Recruiting Illinois

558

Illinois High Schools Feeding D-III

How many Illinois high school football players actually land on D-III college rosters? Real numbers, not guesses. Right now, 1,124 Illinois kids play D-III football across 67 programs, coming out of 558 Illinois high schools. Kyle Monangai went from Don Bosco Prep, overlooked by Power-4 programs, to Rutgers Big Ten captain to the 2025 Chicago Bears. His older brother Kevin walked the same kind of road first, Villanova to the Eagles and Vikings as a player, then the Giants as a coach. Kevin coached his own brother through that road; that is why we built RawRecruit. These counts come from current 2025 D-III football rosters. Below: the Illinois high schools sending the most kids, the D-III programs recruiting hardest here, the methodology, and the questions parents ask us most.

“The kids whose phones aren't ringing yet. The kids and parents nobody is calling first, who still want their kid on a roster like the ones above.

Kevin Monangai, Founder, RawRecruit

Former NFL running back (Eagles, Vikings)

Former NFL coach (Giants)

01

The Feeders

Top Illinois High Schools Feeding D-III Football

  1. 01Loyola Academy
    10Players
  2. 02Wheaton Academy
    10Players
  3. 03Batavia
    9Players
  4. 04Evanston Township
    9Players
  5. 05Byron
    8Players

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02

The Destinations

Top D-III Programs Recruiting Illinois Football

01

Augustana (IL)

116

Illinois Players

DR

Dave Ragone

Associate Head Coach - Offensive Line

Verified

02

Monmouth (IL)

87

Illinois Players

BF

Bob Foster

Head Athletic Trainer

Verified

03

Aurora (IL)

74

Illinois Players

DB

Don Beebe

Head Coach (Offensive Coordinator)

Verified

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03

Real Outcome

One Brother, The Same Road

The 1124 number above is not theoretical. Kevin's younger brother Kyle ran the same road out of Illinois, walked into Rutgers, captained a Big Ten roster, and got drafted in the seventh round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

  1. 01

    Don Bosco Prep

    Overlooked by Power-4

  2. 02

    Rutgers

    Big Ten captain

  3. 03

    2025 NFL Draft

    Round 7, Pick #233

  4. 04

    Chicago Bears

    Active roster

04

The Methodology

How We Count

Numbers come from publicly available 2025 D-III football rosters. We count any current player whose listed home state is Illinois, school by school, season by season. The decision a family makes here is too big to plan around guesses, so we put the rosters in front of you.

05

The Conversation

Parents Ask Us

Q.01
How many Illinois high school football players are currently on D-III rosters?
Right now, 1,124 Illinois kids play D-III football, spread across 67 programs and sourced from 558 Illinois high schools. Counts come from current 2025 rosters.
Q.02
Which D-III programs recruit the most from Illinois?
Augustana (IL) leads with 116 Illinois players on the current roster, followed by Monmouth (IL) (87) and Aurora (IL) (74). The top three are listed above with the head coach for each program when verified. A free account opens the rest of the top ten.
Q.03
Which Illinois high schools send the most players to D-III football?
Loyola Academy and Wheaton Academy lead with 10 current D-III football players each, followed by Batavia (9), Evanston Township (9), Byron (8). The full top 25 is on the page above.
Q.04
Is D-III football a realistic path for a Illinois high school player?
Yes. With 1,124 Illinois kids currently on D-III rosters across 67 programs, the path is busy and well worn. Scholarships at D-III are partial in football, so families plan around stacking academic aid on top of athletic aid.
Q.05
How does RawRecruit count Illinois to D-III pipeline numbers?
We pull current 2025 D-III football rosters from public school athletics sites and count any player whose listed home state is Illinois. Coach names show up only when verified inside our 35-day freshness window.
Q.06
What does my kid actually do with this list of high schools and programs?
The list is the input. The seven-step playbook is the action. Profile your kid's real numbers, build a target list off the programs above, send the email coaches actually read, and run the visit on full information. The full playbook lives at /guides/football/diy-recruiting and was written by Kevin from the same road he walked his brother Kyle through.
Q.07
We are not in Illinois. Does the same playbook still apply for our state?
Yes. The seven-step playbook is sport-specific, not state-specific. The cohort and program list above are the Illinois cut; the work a kid and parent do to reach D-III coaches is the same in every state. State pipeline pages for the rest of the country roll out next.
Q.08
What happens when a coach leaves a D-III program mid-cycle?
Coach names on this page only show up when our pipeline has verified them inside the last 35 days. When a head coach leaves, the slot reads as a transition note instead of a stale name; the program count and player numbers stay intact because those come from the roster, not the staff page. The list refreshes monthly.
Q.09
Why is RawRecruit giving away the rosters and coach contacts for free?
Because the data is the easy part. The hard part is keeping a school list current, filtering programs by your kid's real fit, and tracking coach records as staffs turn over every cycle. The free profile saves the work; the paid tiers exist for families who want deeper fit analytics. The free profile is enough for most.

For The Athlete Reading This

1,124 kids from your state already locked in a D-III spot. Names. Schools. Real rosters. You think you can't be one of them?

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06

What The Free Profile Adds

The List On Autopilot

The data above is free to read. The free profile keeps the work organized so you do not start from scratch every Tuesday.

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