Coast Guard, Worcester Poly and Kings Point join
Union, Rensselaer, Hobart, St. Lawrence and Rochester as participating members
of the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association's football conference giving the
league enough teams to qualify for an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. The idea for the football league began
during the 1996-97 academic year by Dick Sakala, Union's long-time director of
athletics who retired in 2000.
The 2004 schedule offers a couple of other
interesting twists. The Dutchmen will
play a nine-game schedule for the first time since 1998 season. Two of the games, the September 11
season-opener at Springfield and the September 18 home opener, are scheduled to
kickoff at 7:00 p.m.