Oh look, Oshkosh and Whitewater are clashing again in a WIAC battle (and it's on TV)

It has become an annual football rite in which UW-Whitewater and UW-Oshkosh battle for supremacy in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

The two teams meet at Titans Stadium in Oshkosh with an automatic NCAA postseason bid on the line at 6 p.m. Saturday in a game that will be broadcast on My24 in the Milwaukee market (WVTV channel 24).

The Warhawks are ranked No. 3 in NCAA Division III (both the D3football.com and American Football Coaches Association polls) and standing at 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the WIAC after a 37-17 win over UW-Stout on Nov. 9. They've already guaranteed a share of the league title and find themselves behind only No. 1 Mount Union and No. 2 Mary Hardin-Baylor for the top spots.

While Whitewater already has been guaranteed a share of the league title, the winner of the regular-season finale will take the WIAC's automatic bid to the D3 playoffs. Oshkosh (7-2, 5-1) kept their postseason hopes alive by toppling UW-River Falls last week, 41-21, and the Titans will look to secure a share of the league crown. 

It's been 15 years since either Oshkosh or Whitewater was absent from the NCAA Division III national semifinals 

Oshkosh has landed three conference titles in the past seven years, while the six-time national champion Warhawks have the most recent title, in 2018, and 10 since 2005. The two programs are responsible for each of the past 10 league titles. Whitewater has won five of the last eight meetings between the two teams, and four of the past seven have been decided by three points or fewer. 

Whitewater has been prolific through the air, with Zach Oles completing 55% of his passes for 1,337 yards and 11 touchdowns. Ryan Wisniewski has 35 catches for 415 yards and Derek Kumerow — yes, the brother of Packers wideout and UWW alumnus Jake — has 29 catches for 343 yards. Alex Peete leads the team with 708 yards rushing and 10 scores. On defense, Mackenzie Balanganayi has nine sacks and 12 tackles for loss.

Oshkosh, a team that took its lone league loss Oct. 26 in a 31-3 setback against UW-La Crosse, centers its offense around quarterback Kobe Berghammer, who has completed 49% of his passes for 1,443 yards and 11 touchdowns. He's also the team's leading rusher with 558 yards and seven scores. Former Waukesha West standout Peter MacCudden has 443 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

Top receivers include Mitchell Gerend (27 catches, 380 yards) and Riley Kallas (22, 317).

Whitewater fell in the 2018 NCAA semifinals against eventual champion Mary Hardin-Baylor, and Oshkosh fell in the 2017 semifinals against eventual champion Mount Union by a 43-40 count. Before that, Oshkosh appeared in the 2016 Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl for the championship, and Whitewater reached the semifinals in 2015 after a 10-year run that featured nine appearances in the Stagg Bowl, with six victories. The last time neither Oshkosh nor Whitewater made the national semifinals: 2004.

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.