We have a split decision...again!

The 2025 season ended with a bang as Iowa Western captured the NJCAA championship with a 28-10 victory over Hutchinson College on Wednesday night in Texas.  The win pushed Iowa Western into a dead heat with College of San Mateo for the 2025 JCGridron.com Dirty 30 National Title.

The two championship games from the 3C2A and NJCAA ranks were pivotal in determining a champion in 2025.  San Mateo pushed past previously top-ranked Golden West College, 28-27, to capture the 3C2A state title on Saturday.  Iowa Western then capped off the season with a 28-10 win over No. 2 Hutchinson on Wednesday, a program that spent most of the season as the top-ranked team. 

San Mateo and Iowa Western have become dominating forces within their own organizations.  San Mateo has now won three of the last four state titles in the 3C2A ranks while Iowa Western has won three of the past four NJCAA titles. 

With the co-champions label, San Mateo has earned at least a share of three Dirty 30 National Titles while Iowa Western now jumps into a tie with East Mississippi College for the most JCGridiron.com Dirty 30 Titles with four overall. 

It is the third straight season with co-national champions and sixth overall in the 21 years of the Dirty 30 Rankings, which brings us to the annual million-dollar question: when will we have a true national championship game?

The NJCAA ranks have their version of a national championship. The problem is, over half the teams in the country are from the state of California and not involved in the selection process. Equally as silly is when the California ranks select an All-America Team, without ever including a player from outside the state. Neither is a perfect science, with a ton of room for improvement.

Only one game has been played between an NJCAA program and a California program in the past 45+ years, and that had College of the Sequoias defeating Eastern Arizona (26-16) to start the 2006 campaign. As somebody who was at the game, it was a solid contest between two good, but not great, programs. I would more than welcome the opportunity for a second helping between the elites.

Previous to that the Junior Rose Bowl (Pasadena Bowl) was played from 1946-1977, with the California ranks holding a 17-9-2 advantage before they stopped playing the game following the 1977 season. Admittedly, however, that was a very different era, and the two organizations have received a ton of facelifts in the five decades since.

People always ask me, which governing body has the best football teams? Who would win a real national championship game? It’s a challenging question with no short answers. The NJCAA ranks have more great athletes due to scholarship availability, but the California ranks have more depth due to no roster limits and population density.

At the end of the day, until the two organizations decide on a time and a place, we are left with guys like myself naming a national champion and I’m happy to take on that responsibility. It isn’t perfect, but neither is much in life. I’ve enjoyed all 21 years of it.

This season’s resume left both San Mateo and Iowa Western with strong cases. On one hand, Iowa Western had a better loss in falling to Hutchinson while San Mateo lost to a four-loss San Francisco squad. San Mateo, however, can argue that they defeated more teams throughout the season that appeared in either the Dirty 30 Rankings or on the bubble (11) than did Iowa Western (9). Both programs can claim to have elite talent on the field that will be heading to high-profile D1 programs.

At the end of the day, this one was too close for comfort and had me tossing and turning at night. So, without further ado, congrats to both programs on being named the JCGridiron.com Dirty 30 National Champions for 2025.

Congrats San Mateo and Iowa Western!

Here is the rest of the JCGridiron Dirty 30 Rankings.  Just a reminder, the Dirty 30 Rankings do not count games against unaffiliated programs or club programs in the rankings.

• JCGridiron.com Dirty 30 Rankings (Final 2025)

Rank	School	City	Record
T-1	Iowa Western	Council Bluffs, IA	12-1
T-1	San Mateo	San Mateo, CA	12-1
3	Golden West	Huntington Beach, CA	12-1
4	Hutchinson	Hutchinson, KS	11-1
5	Saddleback	Mission Viejo, CA	10-2
6	Tyler	Tyler, TX	11-1
7	Georgia Military	Milledgeville, GA	10-1
8	Northwest	Senatobia, MS	10-2
9	Gulf Coast	Perkinston, MS	9-2
10	Modesto	Modesto, CA	9-3
11	Diablo Valley	Pleasant Hill, CA	10-2
12	Mt. San Antonio	Walnut, CA	10-2
13	Ventura	Ventura, CA	10-2
14	Copiah-Lincoln	Wesson, MS	8-2
15	Coffeyville	Coffeyville, KS	7-3
16	Cerritos	Norwalk, CA	8-3
17	Fullerton	Fullerton, CA	8-3
18	East Mississippi	Scooba, MS	7-3
19	El Camino	Torrance, CA	8-3
20	Butler	El Dorado, KS	7-3
21	Hinds	Raymond, MS	6-3
22	Iowa Central	Fort Dodge, IA	8-4
23	Fresno City	Fresno, CA	7-5
24	San Francisco	San Francisco, CA	7-4
25	Trinity Valley	Athens, TX	7-3
26	Riverside City	Riverside, CA	7-4
27	Butte	Oroville, CA	8-3
28	Garden City	Garden City, KS	6-5
29	Feather River	Quincy, CA	10-1
30	Northeastern Oklahoma A&M	Miami, OK	6-5

Others on the Bubble: Northeast (MS) 5-4, Itawamba (MS) 5-4, Snow (UT) 4-4, De Anza (CA) 10-1, Los Medanos (CA) 10-1, Southwestern (CA) 8-3, Cisco (TX) 5-4, DuPage (IL) 7-2, Foothill (CA) 6-5, Monroe (NY) 5-4, Sequoias (CA) 7-4, Jones (MS) 5-4, Pasadena City (CA) 6-5, Victor Valley (CA) 10-1, North Dakota SCS 8-2

DIRTY 30 HISTORY

Year	Champion(s)
2025	(split) Iowa Western (IA) / San Mateo (CA)
2024	(split) Hutchinson (KS) / San Mateo (CA)
2023	(split) Iowa Western (IA) / Riverside City (CA)
2022	San Mateo (CA)
2021	San Francisco (CA)
2020-21 (C-19)	Hutchinson (KS)
2019	Riverside (CA)
2018	East Mississippi (MS)
2017	Iowa Western (IA) *
2016	(split) Garden City (KS) / Fullerton (CA)
2015	San Francisco (CA)
2014	East Mississippi (MS)
2013	(split) East Mississippi (MS) / Butte (CA)
2012	Iowa Western (IA)
2011	East Mississippi (MS)
2010	Mt. San Antonio (CA)
2009	Mt. San Antonio (CA)
2008	Butte (CA)
2007	(split) Gulf Coast (MS) / Butler (KS)
2006	Blinn (TX)
2005	Glendale (AZ)