Arkansas Tech is among the teams that Great American Conference football coaches expect to finish in the top tier of the league’s football standings during the inaugural GAC season in 2011.
The Wonder Boys received 44 points in the preseason poll, which is tied for third with Ouachita Baptist.
Henderson State earned seven first-place votes and a total of 61 points to emerge as the favorite to win the first GAC football championship.
Harding is second in the preseason poll. The Bisons collected one first-place vote and 51 points in the balloting.
After Arkansas Tech and Ouachita Baptist, East Central University (5th, 38 points), Southwestern Oklahoma State (6th, 34 points), Southern Arkansas (7th, 19 points), Southeastern Oklahoma State (8th, 17 points) and Arkansas-Monticello (9th, 16 points) round out the first GAC preseason football poll.
GAC head football coaches voted in the poll. They were not allowed to vote for their own team.
The Great American Conference is a new NCAA Division II league. The nine schools mentioned above began formal discussions in July 2010 to create the conference as a means to limit missed class time for student-athletes and reduce travel costs.
Arkansas Tech is home to one of the most successful NCAA Division II football programs in America. The Wonder Boys have won 18 conference championships and they are one of only 10 NCAA Division II members to accumulate 520 or more all-time wins.
Tech was 4-7 overall during its final Gulf South Conference season in 2010. The Wonder Boys expect 41 returning lettermen from that team to report for the start of fall drills on Aug. 10.
Steve Mullins (photographed) will be in his 15th season as the head football coach at Arkansas Tech this fall. A three-time conference coach of the year, Mullins is 89-61 as the Wonder Boys’ head coach and he has won more football games as Tech head coach than any other person.
Click here to learn more about Arkansas Tech football.
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