Story byJohn GarciaTue, December 30, 2025 at 11:47 PM UTC·2 min readIt has become an annual event at North Central College: This will be the sixth year in a row the football team has played in the Division III National Championship game. They have won three of them, and they are planning on coming home with a fourth this weekend. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watchIt may be chilly in late December. But, North Central Cardinals ran through one of their final practices before Sunday's championship game Tuesday, and playing this late into the season has become routine."It was one of the reasons I came here: the culture, what this program teaches us as far as being a great man outside of football," said Cortez Jones, a North Central All-American player. Junior offensive lineman Jones will play in his third national championship game this weekend. He and other North Central players have come to expect this sort of success. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHead coach Brad Spencer grew up in Naperville, played at North Central and has coached there for more than two decades, the last four as head coach."Winning cultivates winning.