The Monmouth College Fighting Scots football team heads down the road to Galesburg this weekend for the 133rd Turkey Bowl against rivals Knox College. With 22 straight wins in the series, Monmouth leads the all-time Turkey Bowl series 72-50-10 heading into Saturday's Noon kickoff.

Last season the Scots (7-2, 7-1) won at home 38-7 and they won in Galesburg 31-3 in 2019. The teams did not meet in 2020 with the season canceled during the Pandemic. Under coach Chad Braun, the Scots are 6-0 against Knox with the average win being 44.5 to 7.2. The Prairie Fire enter the game at 5-4 overall, 4-4 in conference play. 

Monmouth enters the game with two players ranked in the top 25 of all Division III players for individual categories. Wideout Nate Thornton (Peoria, Illinois) ranks 6th in the nation with 11 touchdowns and also ranks 16th with 869 receiving yards. Both totals lead the MWC heading into Saturday. Meanwhile, Korbyn Personett (Pittsfield, Illinois) ranks 18th in the nation with 16.5 tackles for loss and ranks 24th with 8.5 sacks. The Scots defense ranks 8th in 3rd down defense, allowing just 25% conversions (32 of 128).

The Saturday game not only is big for the rivalry, but also has Midwest Conference Championship and NCAA Playoff implications. The Scots are 7-1 in MWC play, tied for first place with Lake Forest and Ripon. Those three teams are 1-1 against each other, with Lake Forest beating Monmouth, the Scots beating Ripon and Ripon beating Lake Forest.

Should all three teams win this weekend, the automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Playoffs will be determined by tiebreaker. Since the teams are 1-1 head-to-head, the tiebreaker falls to quarters led in MWC games. Heading into Saturday's games, Monmouth and Lake Forest have both led at the end of 28 quarters while Ripon has led 24. 

Monmouth needs to win against Knox, and lead at the end of more quarters than Lake Forest does. The Foresters also kick off at Noon on Saturday, playing on the road at the University of Chicago (7-2, 6-2). The Maroons won a quarter against the Scots in October and their two losses were 19-16 at Ripon and 23-20 against Monmouth. 

If Lake Forest and Monmouth end in a tie for quarters led at any number above 28, Ripon would be out. The tiebreaker then goes to head-to-head and Lake Forest beat Monmouth to take the AQ. That's why the Scots need to lead more quarters on Saturday than the Foresters do. 

Ripon's path to the AQ is to beat 0-8 Lawrence at home, and have the Scots lose. They would beat Lake Forest on the head-to-head tiebreaker with both teams at 8-1 and Monmouth at 7-2.  

If Monmouth and Ripon win, but Lake Forest loses, then the Scots head to the playoffs via last week's win over Ripon. If Lake Forest and Monmouth win, but Ripon is upset by Lawrence, then Lake Forest gets the AQ with the head-to-head tiebreaker over Monmouth. 

All five games in the conference start at Noon on Saturday, leaving fans from all teams scoreboard watching. The NCAA Division III Playoffs Selection Show is scheduled for 5 pm ET/4 pm CT on Sunday, airing on NCAA.com. 

Fans can follow the Scots by listening to the game on WRAM 1440 AM or by following @MonmouthGameday on twitter. The twitter account will also have updates Saturday from the NCAA Cross Country Regionals in Aurora, the home swim meet against Grinnell and Illinois College and the road basketball games for both the Scots men's and women's teams. In addition we will provide the pertinent information from the Lake Forest and Ripon football games.