Florida opens up their league season with one team on a massive high.

We talked quite a bit about St. Thomas out of Miami and the expectation is that this will be STU's final season in D1AA. They won Florida's D1AA league in 2023-24 and capped off that spring with a Bowl Game win against Air Force. 

Will St Thomas Upset the D1AA Apple Cart?

Thrilling Day at CRAA Fall Classic

St. Thomas and Air Force Produce Classic Bowl Game

Certainly STU is a different team from the others in Florida. But it's also true that they have one of their toughest games, potentially, in this opening weekend.

Meanwhile, Western Washington keeps on facing Canadian opposition, as the Vikings host some other Vikings, this time from UVic. WWU is coming off a 26-13 loss to a UBC XV in which they felt a bit hard-done by because they were held up in-goal twice. Two local kids, Saul Hickner from Kitsap and Eli Ashmann from Chuckanut, scored their two tries. 

The California Conference starts in earnest, with San Jose State looking to repeat their 7-0 run, but also looking to take down American River in the playoffs, which is something they didn't do last time.

Captain Zach Tabangcura told GRR that the loss to American River in the conference final last year has stuck with them for a while. They feel they can do damage on a national level, but need to get past their rivals. With a good influx of recruits, Head Coach Nick Schlobom has some work to do to bring the newer players into the fold. But club president Victor Baird said it's improtant for everyone within the club to keep everyone together, and that, he added, is why they feel confident going forward.