The Ferris State Bulldogs are headed back to the NCAA Division II national semifinals after dominating defending national champion Harding at Top Taggart Field in Big Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday, 41-7.

After a week off, the Ferris State Bulldogs will be back in action, this time for a visit from Central Oklahoma for the second round of the 2024 NCAA Division II Football Championship.

Grand Valley State will have an opportunity to get redemption and make a huge statement to the 15 other teams remaining in the 2024 NCAA Division II Football Championship.

The first playoff meeting between Grand Valley State and the University of Indianapolis ended like most of their previous encounters have finished, though this time, it took a second-half rally for GVSU to escape with a the 24-7 victory.

For most of the last five decades, the Ferris State Bulldogs have been plying their trade on the gridiron as members of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, but the program’s history traces back to a five-game season in 1900.

Grand Valley State and Ferris State have become the faces of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, battling annually for control of the might GLIAC, while also helping to catapult the conference into the national spotlight.

Though it may not have the history (in years) of some of America’s great college football rivalries, the Anchor-Bone Classic is among the most noteworthy games on the Division II slate each season, and it has served as an unofficial Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship game in recent years.

For two and a half quarters Saturday at Harvey Randall Wickes Memorial Stadium in University Center, Michigan, it looked like host Saginaw Valley State was poised to pull off perhaps the biggest upset in recent Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference history.

Haters are going to hate. It’s lonely at the top. Only the strong survive.