FOOTBALL: Grand Valley Is The King Of The Hill

BIG RAPIDS - Face it, Grand Valley State University has become a beast in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in sports - most notably in football.

Lets keep it real, the Lakers have no true rival in the GLIAC in terms of being truly competitive as far as football is concerned. Ferris State University is a traditional rival and Saginaw Valley State University, in recent years, has become a bit of an adopted rival (as there were a few years when the Cardinals played the Lakers tough). But, the competitive aspects of those rivalries now seem like a distant memory as Grand Valley continues to flex its bulging muscles against mostly overmatched GLIAC (football) competition as it leaves a trail of bodies behind it.

Consider this from a blog/column published by Greg Johnson of the Grand Rapids Press:

Ferris has a good football program for a hockey school. Kidding aside, it remains a program in the top half of the league, and with the right combination of players could finish second most years.

Second, of course, to Grand Valley, which has pounded all of its league opponents into submission in recent years.

Saginaw Valley State, which the Lakers set aside last week 38-7 before a record 16,467 fans, has become perhaps the biggest GLIAC rival, and even the Cardinals have to bank on three wins in the past 13 meetings and go back five years to 2004 to find the most recent.

In reality, Grand Valley's rivals now are teams met on the playoff trail, as in Northwest Missouri State.

The Lakers, who have four national titles since 2002, have won four consecutive GLIAC titles, 42 consecutive GLIAC games and have been ranked No. 1 in Division II in 76 of the past 100 polls taken by the American Football Coaches Association.

Such facts will set off the nonsense notion that GVSU should move up from Division II. It's a losers' lament. Get rid of the best to lift yourselves up.

That's absurd -- like telling the king to change countries, or telling the New York Yankees to move on to another sport.

It's good to be king. Grand Valley works to be No. 1, and continues to work to stay at that level.

Interesting joke about the hockey/football thing here at Ferris (maybe even a bit funny for those who get it).

Yes, indeed it is good to be king as the Lakers stand atop the mountain watching as others try to climb up the top of the world. It's hard to totally buy into Johnson's theory about the Yankees (as they already play at the highest level of competition possible). So, based on that, his analogy falls a bit flat. For fans expecting (or hoping) for Grand Valley to move up to Division I - forget it. It's not going to happen folks. The Lakers seem pretty comfortable at the Division II level as the undisputed king of the hill in the GLIAC and the clear-cut leader in Division II as an athletics program.

Now, back to the article.

Johnson speaks of a "losers' lament" and that is certainly an opinion he is entitled to (even if it is a bit snobbish).

The other side, of course, argues Grand Valley should test itself against more comparable and more competitive opposition with similar facilities and circumstances.

Again, that is a matter of opinion.

Personally, I hate the implication that other schools are supposedly not working hard to be competitive, aren't as smart or simply aren't as well coached.

It's not an easy side and each side feels strongly about its position.

Johnson adds this little nugget:

And spare the nonsense about larger student enrollment, etc. College teams don't recruit from the student body. Get over that, please. They simply run a better football program.

Grand Valley does run a great program and clearly is well coached, but there is more to it than that. Each school has its unique advantages and unique challenges.

Publicly, many will agree with Johnson, but quietly, many people would challenge a bit Johnson's contention the Lakers "simply run a better football program."