Ferris State's Rise To Top Of GLIAC Tabbed One Of D2Football.com's Top Stories Of Past Decade
Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University football program's rise to the top of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) has been tabbed as one of NCAA Division II's top stories of the past decade by D2Football.com.
The announcement of the country's biggest surprises and stories of the past decade from 2010-19 was made by the online source that covers Division II football. Earlier this summer, the same source also tabbed Ferris State as one of the nation's top 10 programs of the past decade.
D2Football.com noted that Ferris State has supplanted rival Grand Valley State as the GLIAC Power.
"In 2010, no one could imagine a scenario in which Grand Valley was not contending for the national championship every season, much less imagine a scenario in which they weren't in complete control of the GLIAC. That decade saw GVSU go 122-13 (.903), win four national championships, play in six, and win seven GLIAC championships.
The Lakers still won four conference championships in the 2010's, but only two have come since Tony Annese arrived at Ferris State, who has led the Bulldogs to the top of the conference.
Ferris State has gone 87-16 (.844) under Annese, winning four conference championships in eight years and advancing to the national semifinals three times and to the national championship game once.
They have won four of the last six GLIAC championships and finished second the other two seasons. In those same four years, GVSU has finished first, second, third, and fourth."
Over the past 10 seasons, the Bulldogs posted a 98-27 overall record with six NCAA Division II Playoff appearances and three trips to the NCAA Division II National Semifinals, including a 2018 national championship game berth. The Bulldogs recorded a 12-6 mark in D2 Playoff action while also producing three Harlon Hill Trophy winners as the country's top Division II standout.
The Bulldogs have been particularly dominant since the arrival of head coach Tony Annese in 2012. All six of the Bulldogs' D2 playoff bids have come in the past six-straight years as FSU has owned the country's top mark in the run. In addition, the three semifinal berths have all been in the past four years.
Last fall, along with reaching the national semifinals yet again, FSU also claimed a second-straight GLIAC Championship with an unblemished league record. Last year marked the Bulldogs' fourth-straight trip to the national quarterfinals or beyond, which is the longest streak in the country. The national semifinal contest marked the first-ever semifinal played at home for the Bulldogs and the latest game ever played in a year at Top Taggart Field. Over the past two seasons, the Bulldogs have compiled a 27-2 mark.
Over the last six seasons at Ferris State, the Bulldogs have compiled a nation-best 72-9 overall record and claimed four conference championships, posted four unbeaten regular-seasons, captured three regional titles and reached the national quarterfinals four times. Ferris State has also accumulated three Harlon Hill National Player of the Year trophies, twice had a student-athlete tabbed as the nation's National Scholar-Athlete of the Year and won 12 postseason games in addition to an appearance in the 2018 National Championship game.
The Bulldogs are one of only four teams in all of college football at any NCAA level to win 11 games each of the previous six years along with Alabama, Ohio State and North Dakota State. FSU is also the only D2 team in the country to reach the national quarterfinals for four consecutive years and the Bulldogs' six-straight playoff appearances is the second-longest longest streak in the nation.
Ferris State also holds the GLIAC's best mark and the best overall record of all 21 collegiate programs in Michigan at 87-16 overall since the arrival of Tony Annese as head coach in 2012.
The announcement can be found at this link:
https://www.d2football.com/biggest-surprises-of-2010-decade/