The Southern DII Men’s College Conference starts up this weekend in what is a hugely competitive competition.

For the last few years, Furman, UNC-Wilmington, Appalachian State, East Carolina, and Coastal Carolina have all pushed for a conference title, and this year those teams will face off with some different opponents. Wake Forest and North Carolina-Chapel Hill, previously in the DIAA ACRL, have moved down to DII and if they can build their depth they will be a handful. Also joining the conference is UNC-Pembroke, a complete unknown.

The conference has split off into East and West divisions, rather than North and South from last year. That has served to change the team mix slightly - The West is basically the North without East Carolina and with Furman and Wake Forest. The East is like the South from last year, but without Furman and Lander (which has left the conference entirely) and with UNC-Pembroke and Chapel Hill.

Furman started off nicely last week with a 43-12 win over VMI in a scrimmage.

The game was played with three 30-minute periods and the weather was very hot. All three periods were close and Head Coach John Roberts got 28 players on the field.

Roberts told on-campus press that he was thrilled with the work of freshmen Dylan Bostock and Nick Koumandrarakis, who both scored in their debut.

“For the most part we played well,” said Roberts, “but there are some shortcomings to address as well.”

Watch out also for The Citadel, which won the conference 7s championships last spring.

This weekend, 12 teams will open the South weekend, including Furman, which hosts UNC-Greensboro. Wake Forest is on the road against Appalachian State, which will be a stern test, while Elon visits UNC-Charlotte and East Carolina is at College of Charleston. 

The biggest clash of the opening weekend has to be Coastal Carolina at UNC-Wilmington. Last year those two teams tied with 4-1 records in the regular season.  Heading up UNC-W is the big, hard-running Tom McCrimmon, who is back for another season and could be a key performer for them. 

This week's games: