After a great victory against Saginaw Valley State on Saturday, it’s official that the Grand Valley State University football team has made the playoffs again.

This is a very exciting time for everybody.

For the team, it means another possible shot at the national championship. For the fans, it means the possibility of telling everyone that they were a student at the university during a year when the team won the national championship. For the cheerleaders and marching band, it means road trips.

This year, the marching band has been asked to travel to as many away games as possible to continue to support the team in its travels. This includes this Saturday’s game at Ashland. I’ve been told that the Pride of the Midwest hasn’t traveled out of state for a game for quite awhile, so this will be an adventure. There have been pep bands in the past, but never the full marching band for quite some time. With the band in Ashland contributing to the team’s pep, there will certainly be a major boost of confidence on the team’s part. The band may not travel to every away game, but there’s definitely the option of taking a pep band. Anything to support our great university and our national championship football team.

No doubt there will be fans who like to travel to support the team. There always are. Although not everyone can afford to travel to some of the away games, for the people who can, the team certainly appreciates it. I’ve been told countless times how much the fans and band mean to the team. It’s like when your family and close group of friends show up to cheer you on at a public event you’re participating in. That extra support, no matter how big or how small, can really make a difference.

Now that I’ve talked a lot about the excitement, there is the matter of losing. I already wrote about this in my previous column about the 2015 football team. I’ll try not to repeat myself too much, but I feel I should point out how the Lakers will have to go up against the teams that beat them to get to the top. Ashland beat GVSU 45-31 on Halloween, and we know what happened against Ferris State.

Is there a chance to be knocked out? Absolutely. GVSU will have to work hard to get past these teams. But if the Lakers don’t, we simply accept the effort and follow the old saying, “life goes on.” It would be nice to win, but it’s not as if our majors depend on it.

We can’t control how we do in the playoffs. The team can, and we can contribute, but we can only go so far. So let’s anchor up and get ready for our first playoff game down at Ashland University. Go Lakers!