WACO, Texas – The highly anticipated 2021 football season is less than three weeks away and the Valdosta State Blazer football team learned Monday it is tied for sixth in the initial American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Preseason Top 25. VSU is tied with Lenoir-Rhyne (N.C.) in the poll with 540 points.
 
Gulf South Conference rival West Florida, who won the national title in 2019, leads the poll with 698 points and 26 of 29 first-place votes.  Minnesota State, the 2019 national runner-up is second with 673 points and two first-place nods, while Ferris State (Mich.) is third.  Northwest Missouri State garnered the final first-place vote and is fourth in the poll, while Slippery Rock (Pa.) rounds out the top five.  
 
Following the Blazers and Bears, Texas A&M-Commerce, Notre Dame (Ohio) and Colorado School of Mines rounds out the top ten.  UWF, LC and VSU all are in Super Region Two and in the top ten of the poll.  Bowie State (Md.) is 18^th, while Carson-Newman (Tenn.) and Wingate (N.C.) are tied for 24^th.  
 
Among others receiving votes from Super Region Two are Fort Valley State, who is the first team just outside the top 25, along with Delta State, West Alabama, Miles, Virginia Union and West Georgia.  
 
The Blazers, who are scheduled to play their first meaningful football game in 644 days on Sept. 4, 2021, at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium at 7 p.m., versus Savannah State, finished the 2019 season with at 10-1 record overall and an 8-0 mark in GSC play to win their second-straight league title.  The 2019 season ended in heartbreaking fashion as UWF upset the Blazers 38-35 in Valdosta in the second round of the NCAA postseason in 2019, snapping a GSC-record 25-game winning streak dating back to the 2017 season.  
 
Head coach Gary Goff returns for his third season in 2021, after the GSC didn't compete in football as a league in 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.  The Blazers are scheduled to face five teams ranked or receiving votes in the preseason poll.  Earlier this month, the Preseason All-GSC Team was announced and VSU had eight players named to it.
 
This season the Blazers have six outstanding home games this season.  Fan can purchase tickets by calling 229-333-SEAT (7328).  
 
The GSC has entered into a four-year agreement with FloSports that will move all GSC member schools' football livestream broadcasts to a subscription delivery starting in the fall of 2021.  The agreement also includes all Gulf South Conference postseason championship tournament games.  
 
With this new GSC package, all VSU football livestream broadcasts will be available exclusively through FloSports. Fans can purchase a monthly membership for $19.99 or an annual subscription for $150 ($12.50/month).  The yearly membership is a saving of nearly $90.  The membership will include:

Click here to subscribe to FloSports and on the attachment for a one-page information sheet on FloSports and the initial announcement of the GSC partnership with FloSports from April, 2020.  
 
In this partnership, the Gulf South Conference and the FloSports team will collaborate on a new weekly studio show dedicated to news, interviews, features on student-athletes and analysis on the conference's football programs throughout the season.  
 
Through the support of FloSports, the conference's sports outside of football will have amplified coverage.  In 2020-21, the GSC Cross Country, Indoor Track & Field, Outdoor Track & Field were live streamed for the first time in league history.