The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association football coaches anticipate a season where any of four teams could hoist the championship trophy in November.
The result of the coaches preseason poll, released Monday by league Director of Media Relations Sheila Blackman, reports defending champion Albion College will face challenges from Adrian College, Olivet College and Trine University this fall.
Adrian, 4-2 against league rivals to finish in a tie with Trine for third place last year, was installed as the league favorite after receiving one vote to finish first, four to finish second and one to finish third for a total of 12 points.
Albion and Olivet, which shared the league title last year with 5-1 records, collected 13 points apiece. Albion received more votes to finish as the champion – three – than any other team. Olivet was tabbed as the favorite by one of its league rivals.
Trine, picked as the league favorite by two coaches, rounds out the top four with 17 points.
Alma College (27 points), Hope College (30) and Kalamazoo College (35) came in at fifth through seventh, respectively.
Albion’s schedule is favorable, playing two of the anticipated top teams at home. The Britons kickoff league play Oct. 1 with a home date against Adrian. Olivet is the rival for Homecoming on Oct. 15.
Craig Rundle, ’74, in his 20th season as head coach at Albion, says the Britons feature a group of student-athletes who have been working hard while waiting for their turn in the spotlight after the program graduated 28 seniors from last year’s squad.
“I think the Albion College football team is going to be an exciting group to work with,” Rundle said. “I think we’ll surprise a lot of people. A lot of the seniors were productive players for us, but we have a good guys to work with and it will be interesting to see how far we can go.”
Albion has three non-conference games lined up before the games against MIAA rivals start in October. The Britons host Wabash (Ind.) College, champions of the North Coast Athletic Conference, for a Sept. 3 home game under the lights at Schmidt-Fraser Field inside Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium.
Albion will travel to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Lakeland (Wis.) College to complete its September slate.
