FOOTBALL: Debate About Pre-Conference Games

BIG RAPIDS - I was wondering when someone was going to step up and question the season-opening contest between Ferris State University and Hillsdale College.

I ventured over to D2football.com (an excellent resource for Division II football) and read up on an interesting issue regarding the game between the Bulldogs and the Chargers.

One person wondered the following in print on the D2football.com message board:

Nothing like a super-boring one-sided shlacking to start off a season. I really cannot get behind all GLIAC non-conference games. I would have loved to see ferris go up against a central state or a quincy to free up hillsdale for an opponent who didnt go winless in conference play (unless you count that 'non-conference' game against tiffin).

Clearly, this person assumes that Ferris will come relatively close to duplicating last season's 1-10 record. And, I suppose, this person is entitled to an opinion. It will be up to the Bulldogs to prove this opinion wrong as the season starts.

There is no guarantee that Central State or Quincy would want to play Ferris (or vice versa ... if they could get a lot of details to work) or could make it work with their schedules.

This is Division II and not the BCS. Teams can't just fly all over the country on a whim to play a game. There are many factors that go into scheduling a non-conference football game for GLIAC schools, not the least of which is money.

Such a game has to make sense for both teams.

Ferris and Hillsdale playing each other makes sense on a lot of levels (traveling, cutting down on expenses, keeping a rivalry going, etc.).

To pull off a non-conference game it has to work for both schedules, both teams generally want a home game, both schools want a certain amount of home games each season, etc.

To make a long story short, it takes a lot to put together a non-conference game.