Men's D2 College Games this Weekend: Kicking Off
Men's D2 College Games this Weekend: Kicking Off
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.
Also ...
GRR's #1-ranked IUP plays Slippery Rock, and we already mentioned Principia's game. Middle Tennessee State has moved conferences and starts off with a clash at Tennessee Tech.
And in Minnesota there's the All-Minnesota tournament. This is an event that brings all teams in to compete regardless of division. (To be clear, Men and Women are separated, obviously, and Club and College are separated. But within the College bracket, it doesn't matter what division you're in.) It's so all-encompassing that we have men's college teams from four states!
In that tournament MSU Mankato, Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota State, UW Stout, St. John's, and Wayne State are all in action. St. John's and Wayne State (both Small College teams) are bringing two sides. Each team will play at least two shortened games, with some playing three. The Northern Lights conference was hit hard by COVID, too, and weirdly so in that the western teams (such as North Dakota State) that might have been able to play were stymied by more stringent restrictions in Minnesota. So North Dakota State's three games will be of key interest, and we're also keeping a close eye on Minnesota-Duluth vs Wisconsin-Stout. Yes, it's a short game, but we have Duluth ranked #9 on a bit of a guess and Stout not ranked at all but languishing in our "maybe" list, so this is a chance for either to show a hint of where they should be.
Check back for scores:
| 9/10 | Virginia | Fft W-L | Virginia Commonwealth | Cardinals |
| 9/10 | VMI | 55-17 | Emory & Henry | Cardinals |
| 9/10 | Christopher Newport | 22-100 | Christendom | Cardinals |
| 9/10 | Southern Illinois | 7-20 | SLU | Gateway |
| 9/10 | Washington University | 60-0 | Maryville | Gateway |
| 9/10 | Pitt State | 47-12 | John Brown | Gateway |
| 9/10 | UMS&T | 23-53 | Southern Nazarene | Gateway |
| 9/10 | Columbia Outlaws | 7-104 | Central Missouri | Gateway |
| 9/10 | Saginaw Valley State | at | Calvin College | Great Lakes |
| 9/10 | Trine | L-W | Central Michigan | Great Lakes |
| 9/10 | Toledo | at | Ferris State | Great Lakes |
| 9/10 | Mount St. Mary's C | at | UMBC | MARC Potomac |
| 9/10 | IUP | 32-0 | Slippery Rock | Non-Conference |
| 9/10 | Franciscan | 29-27 | West Virginia | Non-Conference |
| 9/10 | Lindenwood Dev | Ccld | Principia | Non-Conference |
| 9/10 | MTSU | at | Tennessee Tech | Non-Conference |
| 9/10 | Rowan | 14-28 | Villanova | Non-Conference |
| 9/10 | Houston | 22-52 | Southeastern Louisiana | Non-Conference |
| 9/10 | UW-Stout | vs | ND State | All-Minnesota |
| 9/10 | UM-Duluth | vs | MSU Mankato | All-Minnesota |
| 9/10 | Wayne State 1 | vs | St. John's | All-Minnesota |
| 9/10 | Wayne State 2 | vs | St. John's B | All-Minnesota |
| 9/10 | Wayne State 1 | vs | ND State | All-Minnesota |
| 9/10 | St. John's | vs | ND State | All-Minnesota |
| 9/10 | Wayne State 2 | vs | UM-Duluth | All-Minnesota |
| 9/10 | St. John''s B | vs | MSU Mankato | All-Minnesota |
| 9/10 | Wayne State 1 | vs | UW-Stout | All-Minnesota |
| 9/10 | UM-Duluth | vs | UW-Stout | All-Minnesota |
| 9/10 | Wayne State 2 | vs | MSU Mankato | All-Minnesota |