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Wayne State University Athletics

2026 GLIAC FB Preseason Coaches Poll

Football Jeff Weiss, Senior Associate Director of Athletics/Media Relations

Football Selected Eighth By GLIAC Coaches

DETROIT -- The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) has announced the 2026 GLIAC Football Coaches Preseason Poll and Wayne State was ranked eighth.

With head coaches not being allowed to vote for their own school, Ferris State garnered all seven possible first-place votes and 49 points.  Grand Valley State received one first-place vote and finished second with 43 points.  Michigan Tech (34 points), Davenport (31 points) and Saginaw Valley State (28 points) round out the No. 3 through the No. 5 ranked teams.  Northern Michigan was sixth (18 points) and were followed by Roosevelt (11 points) and Wayne State (10 points).

The 2025 Warriors played the 16th-toughest schedule in NCAA Division 2, including post-season match-ups, as WSU's opponents had a .580 winning percentage (65-47).

The GLIAC will look very familiar this fall as all league institutions will play seven GLIAC games for the third consecutive year.  Wayne State will play its league rivals at the opposite location from last fall and in a new order as 2026 begins a two-year cycle of games. 

The first four games on the slate will be non-conference against some familiar foes.  

The season and home opener will take place on Thursday, Sept. 3rd against Northwood.  The Warriors and Timberwolves have met 41 times before with WSU holding a 21-20 advantage.  The schools met 36 times as GLIAC/MIFC foes from 1975-2021, along with five non-conference affairs (1987-88-89-92-2010).

In week two, Wayne State renews an old rivalry with Hillsdale College by visiting the Chargers.  The schools have met 58 times before with HC holding a 39-18-1 advantage.  The last 42 meetings (1975-2016) were as GLIAC rivals.  The first 16 battles came between 1926 and 1974.  Wayne State has won five of the last seven meetings, with two of those contests going into overtime (WSU 27-24 at Hilldale on Oct. 22, 2011; and HC prevailing 31-24 on Nov. 14, 2015).  The squads have not met since a 41-30 Warrior triumph on Oct. 1, 2016, in Detroit.

The week three contest has WSU hosting Wisconsin-La Crosse for a 1 p.m. kick-off.  The schools have met just twice before with the Division 3 powerhouse Eagles recording a 28-21 win at Tom Adams Field in 2022, and then UWL upending Wayne State 31-22 last fall in Wisconsin.

The Warriors conclude the first month of the season and its non-conference slate with a return game at Quincy on Sept. 26th.  WSU and the Hawks have met just twice previously with Wayne State notching a 33-7 road win at Quincy in 2019, and QU claiming a 31-14 win in Detroit in 2025.

Wayne State begins fall practice on Monday, August 10th with the players reporting the weekend prior.  

Football season and individual game tickets for the 2026 campaign are on sale by clicking here.

 
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