This is the beginning of the Men's D2 college season.
Several of the teams in this division have played a couple of warmup games, but this week is when conference play gets going. Let's take a look.
Cardinals Conference
This is, as usual, a hybrid league with some teams going on to the Small College playoffs, and others pursuing a D2 championship. VMI, not that long removed from a D2 final, takes on an always-difficult Old Dominion, and Virginia plays Virginia Commonwealth. (Also in this conference is the defending Small College champions, Christendom. They remain in that division and play Christopher Newport this week.) UVA is a big college that plays D1 sports, but this is most definitely a club team and they fit in nicely in the Cardinals.
Gateway
Not all teams bounced back from the COVID shutdowns in the same way in the Gateway Conference. This is partly due to the fact that teams are from various different states but it was also due to the fact that many of the teams had small rosters, so if you lost some players, couldn't recruit, and, in some cases, lost your coach, it was tough. The conference took pity on that situation and worked hard to find coaches, and give smaller rosters a chance to play in some form. It worked, and we should expect more teams to compete (as in take the field) and compete (as in play well). This weekend we have 10 teams on the schedule.
This includes Southern Nazarene, a school-supported program just getting started, so they will play in a D2 conference but won't be eligible for the NCR playoffs. they get a tough runout for their first game as they play UMS&T, normally one of the strongest sides in the Gateway. S&T is looking solid as the season approaches and certainly is a contender. It's a very, very young SNU side and they will be easing into the competition. The other game that could tell us a lot is Southern Illinois at St. Louis University. Both teams are perennial contenders. Pricnipia, which is another team to watch, hosts Lindenwood's Development team a week after shutting out the St. Louis Royal Ramblers 69-0.
Great Lakes
This is another conference that struggled last year. This season they have a bit of a chance in teams with Trine University (another new school-supported team) joining. Trine was shut out 63-0 but Purdue last week, which was a tough opponent to face in their inaugural game. Head Coach Danny Breda said it was a good learning experience, and it's certainly a fair observation that these players hardly know how to play together yet. Trine is at Central Michigan, which made the NCR playoffs last year, finishing 2nd in the conference behind eventually runners-up Adrian. Of course Adrian is a school-supported team and now in D1. CMU has been very effective for a few years now. Toledo joining this conference boosts the Great Lakes, too, and they are at an improving Ferris State.
