Mount Union has won 13 DIII national championships — more than any program at any level of college football. Vince Kehres succeeded his father Larry and maintained the standard without a single losing season in program history. Their Alliance, Ohio campus recruits Ohio high school players who want to win national championships and develop for NFL combines. They are not just the OAC's dominant program. They are DIII football's defining institution.

Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio has competed for the OAC title and made the DIII bracket consistently. Their program draws from northwest Ohio — the same region that produces Big Ten linemen and skill players — and competes with the physical style that the OAC demands. They are Mount Union's most consistent challenger within the conference and the program most likely to hand the Raiders their only OAC loss in any given season.

Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio — adjacent to Cleveland — draws from the northeast Ohio pipeline that produces some of the country's best DII and DIII players. Their program has won OAC titles and appeared in the DIII bracket, and their proximity to Cleveland gives them recruiting access to a market that generates football players at a rate that most DIII programs cannot reach.