Valdosta State football left in limbo as GSC falls to just three teams

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - When it comes to Division II football, the Gulf South has been the conference to play in. Six of the last nine national title games have featured a team from the GSC.

“That’s a main part of why we were a part of the GSC for such a long time,” said athletic director Troy Katen in a recent interview he did with WCTV.

The conference now has just three teams, and they’ve lost their automatic qualifier into the playoffs. So what does that mean for Valdosta State?

The Blazers have played football in the GSC since 1982, and since then, they’ve have won four football national titles, but as they say all good things must come to an end.

“That departure was a little premature with it. We were expecting another year or two years with them,” said Katen of the departure of West Florida, the latest Gulf South football program to leave, and the seventh since 2024. The Argos move to Division I leaves just three teams in the storied conference, West Alabama, Delta State, and the Blazers. That’s a challenge Katen didn’t anticipate having to deal with this summer.

“Our success has been great for us but it’s also been a curse for us.”

Quickly approaching August, the Blazers are still looking for one game to round out their 2026 slate. They’re also trying to find games for future seasons.

“You have teams and institutions that don’t want to play us or don’t call us back and that’s very frustrating.”

It’s a problem not just limited to the Blazers. Katen notes other Division II powers struggle with scheduling.

“You have other schools that we consider as elite as us with the Grand Valleys, Ferris States, the Pitt States, a lot of them that are still searching for games because no one wants to play them because of their success. That’s where we’re falling into now as pretty much an independent for the next few years.”

The 2026 season is also the first season Division II will use the NCAA Power Index. The NPI is formula driven, and evaluates several different things to determine who will make the postseason, including strength of schedule, game location, and opponent quality, all things that make scheduling even more important.

So what does that mean for the Blazers?

“We’re open to everything right now.”

Katen notes that includes scheduling agreements with other conferences, becoming an affiliate member for football, and playing the Grand Valleys or the Ferris States.

“We’re trying to be strategic about how we do it,” he said. “If it’s one time a year that we fly or if we can get somebody here and pay a guarantee, we’re starting to do more of that. Those are the ways we’re looking at it, the Notre Dame independent type schedule.”

As Katen and the Blazers look towards the future, they have to weigh a future that may not include the Gulf South Conference - for all sports.

“Ideally, in 3-4 years we want to solidify our home, whether that’s still in the GSC, whether that’s a combination of an affiliate for football or whether we look at it and do the math and figure out if Division I is a fit for us. We like winning. It’s Title Town for a reason and we want to keep it that way.”

Part two of our interview with Katen will air on Wednesday July 22nd, where he’ll talk more about that potential move to Division I, the benefits and drawbacks of staying in the Gulf South, or moving to another conference entirely.

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