D3football.com started hearing rumblings about Pacific starting football more than three years ago, saw an action plan shortly thereafter and a start date of 2007 was suggested.

But 2007, not to mention 2005, has come and gone, and the Boxers are still on the sidelines. Meanwhile, the Northwest Conference has found itself an affiliate member and will get an automatic bid in 2008, though Pacific, in Forest Grove, Ore., would have given it an automatic bid the moment it took the field.

As you recall, the NWC was not invited to the 2007 playoffs.

So where is Pacific? Catdomealumni.com, the Linfield fan site run by Ryan Carlson, decided to find out. Read their interview with Pacific athletic director Ken Schumann.

And who will be starting football? St. Scholastica, in Duluth, Minn., takes the field this fall, with Castleton State, in Castleton, Vt., in 2009. Lake Erie and Lincoln are also starting football but are leaving Division III for Division II.