About 11 conferences take the field in men's D2 college action this week.
It seems like we have a fairly wide open Great Midwest, which remains one of the most robust D2 conferences.
We've got Northern Iowa at Wisconsin-Whirewater this weekend, and that could easily be the conference final when the dust settles.
"Our team is looking very exciting this year," said UWW's Connor Hulme. "We have acquired a lot more freshmen and some upperclassmen. It looks like we will have a lot more numbers this year compared to last year. With the help of some new experienced guys and many returners, I believe we have an opportunity to take back the great Midwest."
It's kind of the same story from UNI, where Head Coach Zeus Ramirez said "the new recruits are getting their feet under them."
So what this means is a) this is indeed a marquee game for the weekend and b) you might see major changes in these teams later in the fall.
A couple of other team notes: Yes, sorry Virginia, we at GRR have overlooked you a bit. This weekend at D3 Christendom is a big game for them, but they should, in the rankings, get credit for some earlier wins.
Central Michigan at Ferris State is an important Great Lakes game, while, as usual, the NACR is a lot of fun to watch. New Hampshire at Coast Guard is a game of two teams that won big.
Coast Guard beat Maine 41-14 last season. "For the first match of the season, we looked pretty good across the board," said CGA Head Coach Shannon Heap. "We certainly have areas that need to be improved upon. Like every other season and team, we need to stay healthy through the conclusion of the season."
We asked Heap about the conference week; this week is UNH at CGA, UMass Lowell at BU, and Maine at Norwich.
"As far as the conference goes, there are plenty of good teams to contend with and we are focused on a big game up at UNH this Friday and we’ll see how it goes from there. The optimist in me thinks we always have a chance until we are mathematically eliminated," said Heap.
Keep an eye also on Georgetown at Towson in the MARC and UMS&T at SIU in the Gateway.
