The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) might prevent the Grand Valley State football team from making the playoffs. GVSU might find a way in, in which case the GLIAC will have prepared the Lakers for playoffs as good as any conference in the nation can.

One way or another, the GLIAC, an already-strong conference, is churning out one of its best seasons from top-to-bottom. The Lakers are noticing.

“I definitely think over the course of time, the GLIAC has improved. I think there’s more parity than there probably ever has been in the past,” said GVSU head coach Matt Mitchell. “In my opinion, in the early to mid-2000s, there were some teams that weren’t at the level of competition that some teams are right now.”

GVSU (7-2, 6-2 GLIAC) owned the GLIAC from 2001-2010, winning eight titles in that span, including six straight from 2005-2010. Since then, the Lakers have won none.

While Laker fans have been down on the football program in recent years, it doesn’t fall entirely on GVSU’s shoulders. The GLIAC is simply better than it was in the early 2000s.

“There was some dominance by some programs, Grand Valley being one of them, and I think some programs had to make some decisions which way there were going to go,” Mitchell said. “I know there are some GLIAC schools that have poured more resources into their football programs.”

The most blatant example is the Ferris State program. The Bulldogs finished 1-10 in 2009, but rolled to an 11-1 record in 2014 and currently stand undefeated at 8-0, ranked No. 3 in the American Football Coaches Association Division II poll.

For years, FSU didn’t give the Lakers an iota of trouble. In 2011, the Bulldogs brought in current head coach Tony Annese, and he flipped the program from a 5-6 finish in 2010, to a steadily improving unit, and finally to the Division II titan it has become in 2015.

“Although we’ve have our differences (with Ferris State) in the past, and I still dislike them, I feel like they’ve kind of set the tone for this year,” said senior running back Kirk Spencer. “Given that they’re ranked top in the nation just makes us feel the conference is so much stronger than any other conference out there and we can handle any other team in any other conference.”

With 9-0 Ashland ranked No. 5, the GLIAC is the only conference with two top-five teams in Division II. The Lakers are ranked No. 17, and GLIAC foe Michigan Tech (6-2, 6-2 GLIAC) stands at No. 22.

Schools such as Tiffin, Wayne State, Ashland and more have focused more effort into building football programs, and the result shakes through the conference.

“This league, more than other leagues, you’re more battle-tested,” Mitchell said. “My frame of reference on that is two years ago. Two years ago we lost to Ferris and Ohio Dominican and made the playoffs and were able to advance to the (NCAA) semifinal. We were pretty balanced and we knew the identity of our football program.”

Mitchell also noted the upgrade in facilities that have popped up across the GLIAC in recent years. GVSU, which has the Kelly Family Sports Center for indoor play, was ahead of the curve when the center opened in 2008. Now, Saginaw Valley State, Tiffin, Northwood and others have indoor options.

Weight rooms, coaching offices and general football facilities among lesser GLIAC programs have begun to outclass those at GVSU. The playing field, for the time being, has become more level.

“The Ohio schools, for a while, weren’t quite as strong in football, and they’ve really risen up and done a great job just recently,” Mitchell said. “We used to be ahead of the curve a little bit too when it came to scholarships and a lot of people have put more resources into scholarships, so the funding differential isn’t quite what it was before.”

While the GLIAC has glued together one if its most successful football seasons in history, to this point, this will be the last year the current cast of conference members competes as a whole.

Following the 2015-16 athletic season, Malone will leave the GLIAC for the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). Starting in 2017, Hillsdale, Findlay, Walsh, Lake Erie and Ohio Dominican will be members of the G-MAC too.

The GLIAC as GVSU now knows it will look drastically different come 2017. Davenport University is a potential candidate for GLIAC membership in the future, but many parts are still moving behind closed doors.

The Lakers are currently ranked No. 8 in Super Region Four. The top seven teams from each of the four Super Regions qualify for the 28-team Division II playoffs. FSU is ranked first in GVSU’s region, and Ashland is slated fourth.

The top seven teams are due for some shakeup, but, as it stands now, the Lakers are on the outside looking in at the Division II playoff picture. GVSU has two weeks to crack the top seven and make the playoffs, a probable scenario. The playoff rankings would have to admit three GLIAC teams for that to be the case, but right now, there may be no conference that deserves it more.