The Midwest Conference released its 2016 Football Coaches Poll on Wednesday and Lake Forest College was listed fifth in the rankings.
Voting is done by the MWC head football coaches. Each coach votes for the other 10 schools in the league in order of predicted finish. Points are assigned in reverse order of voting (10 points for first, nine for second, etc.). Coaches may not vote for their own teams.
The Foresters will face nine of the other 10 teams in the league, although the season opener against Beloit College on September 3 is a non-conference game and will not count toward the teams' MWC records. Lake Forest's first league game will be played at Cornell College on September 17. The only conference member the Foresters will not face is Illinois College.
The MWC was broken up into two divisions in 2015 and Lake Forest placed third in the South standings with a 3-2 mark in league play.
Senior wide receiver Willie McIntyre is the Foresters' only returning First Team All-MWC South player. The team will also welcome back five Second Team All-MWC South selections in senior running back Charlie Quinn, senior defensive lineman Brendan Power, junior running back Joey Valdivia, and junior offensive linemen Andrew Johnson and Tom Steen. The Foresters will return a total of 52 letter winners from last year's squad, including nine starters on offense and five on defense. It will be the eighth season as Lake Forest's head coach for Jim Catanzaro.
| PLACE | TEAM (First Place Votes) | POINTS |
| 1 | St. Norbert College (6) | 96 |
| 2 | Monmouth College (4) | 94 |
| 3 | Illinois College (1) | 75 |
| 4 | Ripon College | 68 |
| 5 | Lake Forest College | 67 |
| 6 | Macalester College | 56 |
| 7 | Cornell College | 55 |
| 8 | Beloit College | 36 |
| 9 | Knox College | 27 |
| 10 | Lawrence University | 17 |
| 11 | Grinnell College | 14 |