WACO, Texas – The West Liberty University football team received the highest rating in school history on Monday when the American Football Coaches Association moved the Hilltoppers up to No. 7 in the first weekly poll of the 2010 regular season.
Coach Roger Waialae’s defending West Virginia Conference champions had been ranked No. 8 in the AFCA preseason poll. That had been the highest ranking ever for a West Liberty team which finished the 2009 season at No. 9 in the national polls after advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II playoffs.
Defending NCAA Division II champion Northwest Missouri State and last year’s national runner-up, Grand Valley State (Mich.), were idle last weekend and held onto the top two spots in the coaches’ poll.
Minnesota-Duluth moved up from No. 4 to No. 3 with an impressive 35-10 rout of Central Washington, which plummeted from No. 5 to No. 13. North Alabama and California (Pa.) round out this week’s top five, followed by Abilene Christian (Texas), West Liberty, West Texas A&M, Washburn (Kan.) and West Alabama.
Shepherd was the only other West Virginia Conference team receiving votes. The Rams got 14 votes this week after knocking off defending Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference champion Shippensburg, 35-27, on Saturday.
There could be quite a bit of movement in next week’s poll as the season swings into high gear with four games matching Top 25 teams.
No. 2 Grand Valley State hosts No. 8 West Texas A&M on Thursday while No. 6 Abilene Christian travels to No. 9 Washburn on Saturday. Also on Saturday, No. 1 Northwest Missouri State opens defense of its national championship by hosting No. 14 Texas A&M-Kingsville while No. 5 California (Pa.) travels to No. 11 Saginaw Valley State (Mich.).
The Hilltoppers, who return 15 starters and more than 20 seniors from the team which led the nation in scoring and total offense a year ago, kick off the 2010 season at home Saturday when they host Edinboro (Pa.).
The Fighting Scots, who split a pair of high-scoring games with West Liberty a year ago, received 16 votes in this week’s poll but fell short of cracking the Top 25.
Kickoff is set for 1:30 p.m. at Russek Field.
