The Great West Conference will begin play next fall and the participants are excited about the opportunity to play for a conference championship. Here is a sampling of the players' comments in regard to the formation of the Great West Football Conference.

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
Chris Coauette - LB
SDSU football players are also looking forward to the challenge. "I am very excited to have a conference to play in," Coauette said. "As seniors, we could play for each other, but now we have something to look forward to and focus our efforts on."

Brian Janecek - WR
"As football players, we will always play every game as hard as we can, but now being in a conference we have goals to achieve and we have a common focus," Janecek said. "I think that it will make us work harder as a team in the off season, and make all the effort worthwhile."

CAL POLY
Darrell Jones - WR/KR
"The Great West Football Conference is going to be a great addition to college football," Jones said. "It will give future Cal Poly football athletes a championship game/playoffs and other goals to strive for, besides just a good record."

Jordan Beck - LB (2003 Buck Buchanan Award Finalist)
"I think it's awesome," Beck said. "The new conference will be beneficial to the team in the long and short run. It will give us a better opportunity to make the playoffs. The conference should be pretty competitive and it will be fun."

NORTH DAKOTA STATE

Rob Hunt, NDSU

Jared Essler - FS
"It's good just to have a conference affiliation right off the bat," Essler said. "Moving up to Division I, we will be able to establish some rivalries with some new teams, see some new faces, and certainly some better athletes and better competition up and down the road. It certainly will be fun."

Rob Hunt - OL
"It's exciting going Division I," Hunt said. "It is going to be fun getting our own conference and playing some schools that we have traditionally played in the past. It's going to be a good time for us."

SOUTHERN UTAH

Andy Hadfield - WR
"We're excited about being able to play for a championship next year," Hadfield said. "It gives us a goal to work toward and over the long run it will be great for the program since it will help to develop rivalries and competition."

Casey Rehrer - QB
"This is great!" Rehrer said. "It gives us a chance to win an outright conference championship. I see it helping to develop some quality rivalries and our level of competition will definitely increase."

NORTHERN COLORADO

Tony Christensen, UNC

Tony Christensen - QB
"It's going to be cool to be in a conference," Christensen said. "We will be able to go for a conference title, and have something to play for besides pride. It will be great to play North Dakota State and South Dakota State again. We can keep some of the old rivalries, along with building and adding new ones."

UC DAVIS

Marc Manfredda - OL
"We're looking forward to having a conference championship," Manfredda said. "It'll give us another team goal without us having to search for one. Knowing we already have rivalries with some of the teams gives more meaning to those games since we're all going to be going after the same thing (conference championship.)"