NCAA Division II Football: And Then There Were Two...Again

The final NCAA Division II Football National Championship game of this decade will feature two well known programs.  Both Grand Valley State University and Northwest Missouri State University are very familiar with the championship game in Florence, AL.

No one can argue that this game pits the two best teams of the current decade of against one another.  GVSU is making its sixth championship game appearance this decade, and NWMSU is making its fifth-straight trip to Florence.  And if familiarity breeds contempt, there should be plenty of contempt to go around this Saturday in Florence. 

These two teams met in Florence in 2005 and 2006, with GVSU winning both contests.  Grand Valley and Northwest Missouri tangled again in 2007 in the national semifinal game in Missouri.  NWMSU lost that year's championship to Valdosta State. 

In 2008, GVSU was ousted from the playoffs by Minnesota-Duluth, who went on to beat, you guessed it, Northwest Missouri in the championship.

Both teams enter Saturday's contest with a record of 13-1.  Both teams were the second seed in their respective playoff regions, and Northwest Missouri finished the year ranked second in the polls with Grand Valley ranked third. 

The similarities don't stop there.  The two coaches' meeting in this game are unquestionably the two top coaches of the decade.  Grand Valley's Chuck Martin is an impressive 74-6 (.925) with two National Championships (2005 & 2006) as coach of the Lakers since taking over the reigns from Brian Kelly (now of Cincinnati Bearcats fame) in 2004.

Northwest's Mel Tjeerdsma is 112-21 (.842) since 2000 but is lacking a national title, despite a Division II record five-straight trips to the championship game in Florence.

"We're very excited to have the opportunity to be one of two [teams left]," Martin said in the post-game press conference after the Lakers' semi-final victory of Carson-Newman (TN).  "We're going to approach it like we've approached every other week this year.  We've got an opportunity and we're going to see how good of a football team we can be next Saturday."

"Well, we still know how to win semi-final games," Bearcat head coach Tjeerdsma said after routing California (PA) in the other semi-final game on Saturday.  "We're not done.  It's really kind of an empty feeling right now to be real truthful," he said about the Bearcats' 0-4 record in the title game in recent years. 

"It makes it even more special to play in a championship game against Grand Valley.  We feel like we've both earned the reputation as the top two programs of the past ten to twelve years."

While NWMSU enters the title game nearly intact, GVSU is faced with the prospect of having one-third of their season-opening starters not dressing for the game.  The Lakers have suffered injuries throughout the 2009 campaign, and the woes continued last week when four players, including GVSU's all-time leading rusher and starting RB James Berezik, were suspended for violation of team rules. 

Berezik was suspended during the 2008 playoffs shortly before GVSU's quarterfinal loss to eventual champion Minnesota-Duluth after a run-in with police.  All four players remain suspended for the National Championship game, and will not travel with the team to Alabama. 

Berezik's future is uncertain, although many believe he is likely to be dismissed from the team, missing his senior season with the Lakers.

"We've had a lot of holes to fill this year," Martin said.  Nowhere is this more obvious than with GVSU's special teams.  The Lakers have yielded a kickoff return for a touchdown in two consecutive games - keeping their opponents in otherwise one-sided contests.  Such errors could spell disaster against a team as complete and talented as Northwest Missouri.

Regardless of Saturday's outcome, the nation will be able to see the top two programs in Division II battle it out of the ultimate goal.  the game is set for a 1 PM (EST) kickoff, and will be televised live of ESPN2.