Right now, on the front page of d3football.com, the poll question is, "Which surprise 3-0 or 4-0 team are you most sold on as a national contender?" And, right there in the middle, is Lebanon Valley, right above fellow MAC team Wilkes, which is also out to a 3-0 start. If you're reading this, take a second to go vote for the Dutchmen, who are lagging behind in last place. Then come back and read the rest of this post. We'll wait.

OK, thanks.

The d3football.com guys also mentioned LVC in their weekly podcast, doing a "sold/not sold" segment on surprise undefeated teams. Both Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan were not sold on LVC yet, reserving judgement for after this week's game with Delaware Valley, but as McMillan said, after a couple of 6-4 seasons and now a 3-0 start, "you have to start to wonder - is this the year?"

Of course, LVC is 3-0 for the first time since 1979 and looks like, after decades of almost-there and never-were teams, a program that can challenge for the MAC title. It's no accident, of course - Jim Monos and his staff have spent their second go-around in Annville building the program up from a team that went 1-9 as recently as 2003 into a program that contended for a share of the MAC title until the very end last year.

Now, in 2009, LVC faces a two-game stretch that could make or break its season. This Saturday, arguably one of the most important early-season games the program has ever played will take place against Delaware Valley at Arnold Field. The Aggies (2-1) are receiving votes in this week's d3football.com top 25, as is Wilkes, which is actually getting more votes than Del Val, which was named the MAC's preseason favorite.

But one interesting thing jumps out from this week's Top 25 poll. Right there, the first team out of the top 25, is Dickinson, which was three votes short of cracking the poll. LVC doesn't play Dickinson in the regular season, of course, but did scrimmage the Red Devils back in late August. The result of that was an absolute manhandling in favor of the Dutchmen; it's against NCAA rules to publicize the score of a football scrimmage, but let's just say it wasn't close. A scrimmage is a scrimmage, so take it for what it's worth, but going into a very tough two-week stretch, it's an interesting comparison of where LVC sits after four weeks of football.