By Valdosta State Athletics

VALDOSTA — The top-ranked Valdosta State football team (9-0, 5-0 GSC) hosts No. 16/21 West Florida (7-2, 5-1 GSC) for Senior Night tonight at 7 p.m. at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium. 

This game is technically for all the marbles as they say. With a win, VSU would win the outright Gulf South Conference title marking its 11th in program history and first outright since winning it back-to-back in 2018 and 2019. 

Currently the 10 conference titles by the Blazers are the most among current GSC schools, while former member North Alabama leads the way with 13 titles. It also would mark the Blazers’ fifth undefeated regular season in program history (1994, 2002, 2018, 2019). 

If West Florida were to win Saturday, the Argos would be crowned league champions based on league percentage points since the game between VSU and West Alabama was cancelled due to Hurricane Helene, while UWF was able to play all of its league games. If UWF wins and West Alabama beats Erskine, the Blazers, Argos and Tigers all would have one loss in league play and VSU/UWA would finish tied for second based on percentage points each at 5-1, while UWF would be 6-1.  

Following the 49-20 win at Delta State, the Blazers took over the top spot in the NCAA Super Region Two Poll, which was released Monday by the NCAA.This was the third and final publicly released ranking before the NCAA Division II Football Championship Selection Show which is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 17 at 6 p.m. ET and broadcast on NCAA.com.  

Saturday evening prior to the game, VSU will honor 32 seniors playing their final regular season home game for the red and black.  The class has helped lead the Blazers to a 38-10 record overall and a 20-7 mark in GSC play, while winning two Gulf South Conference titles,

The Argos come in with a 7-2 record overall and a 5-1 mark in GSC play.  Their only losses are a 31-7 loss at No. 2 Grand Valley State and a 35-33 overtime loss to West Alabama. UWF head coach Kaleb Nobles is in his second season at the helm of the Argos.  Nobles graduated from Valdosta State in 2015 and played football for the Blazers as a quarterback and then used a graduate transfer year at West Florida where he earned his master’s degree in 2017. 

This season, the Argos have been prolific defensively as they lead the nation in sacks at 4.0 per contest, while they lead the nation in tackles for loss at 12.0 per game.  UWF allows just 205.9 yards per game for second nationally, while the Argos are seventh nationally in passing yards allowed (201.4) and fifth nationally in rushing defense at just 70.3 yards on the ground per game.