TexasTerror
August 18th, 2006, 06:31 PM
Didn't see this posted yet. GWFC, a small conference that in it's infancy has already made great strides in respectability, especially in the GPI and by pulling off some of the bigger marquee wins that we've seen at the I-AA level recently...
Great West - Already at the crossroads
By Matt Dougherty, I-AA Football Editor
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - The first two seasons of the Great West Conference have produced one I-AA quarterfinalist, two Buck Buchanan Award winners, three teams in the final top 25 rankings and a win at Stanford.
That success is impressive for a league with only six teams, four of which were still in the re-classification process.
While the performance on the field has met or exceeded expectations, off the field issues loom large for the future of the conference. Northern Colorado exits for the Big Sky this year, leaving the football-only Great West with just five participants. With only four conference games, league members were forced to find seven non-conference opponents, and every team in the conference was left with more road games than home dates and at least one road stretch of three straight games or more. With expansion leading to more league games in the Big Sky and the Southland, scheduling non-conference opponents is only going to get tougher for Great West teams.
In the bigger picture, a league that only has five teams, two of which are playoff-eligible, has no chance to earn an automatic berth to the postseason anytime soon. While Cal Poly earned an at-large spot last year, the league will have a tough time getting more than one bid to the playoffs even when everybody is eligible for postseason play in 2008.
http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=/cfoot2/news/AGN4036500.htm
Great West - Already at the crossroads
By Matt Dougherty, I-AA Football Editor
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - The first two seasons of the Great West Conference have produced one I-AA quarterfinalist, two Buck Buchanan Award winners, three teams in the final top 25 rankings and a win at Stanford.
That success is impressive for a league with only six teams, four of which were still in the re-classification process.
While the performance on the field has met or exceeded expectations, off the field issues loom large for the future of the conference. Northern Colorado exits for the Big Sky this year, leaving the football-only Great West with just five participants. With only four conference games, league members were forced to find seven non-conference opponents, and every team in the conference was left with more road games than home dates and at least one road stretch of three straight games or more. With expansion leading to more league games in the Big Sky and the Southland, scheduling non-conference opponents is only going to get tougher for Great West teams.
In the bigger picture, a league that only has five teams, two of which are playoff-eligible, has no chance to earn an automatic berth to the postseason anytime soon. While Cal Poly earned an at-large spot last year, the league will have a tough time getting more than one bid to the playoffs even when everybody is eligible for postseason play in 2008.
http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=/cfoot2/news/AGN4036500.htm