The 2016 Valdosta State Blazers football team represented

Valdosta State University Valdosta State University (VSU or Valdosta State) is a public university in Valdosta, Georgia. It is one of the four comprehensive universities in the University System of Georgia. , VSU had over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students. VSU ...

as a member of the

Gulf South Conference The Gulf South Conference (GSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the Southeastern United States. History Originally known as the Mi ...

(GSC) during the

2016 NCAA Division II football season The 2016 NCAA Division II football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, began on September 1, 2016 and ended with the NCAA Division II ...

. They were led by first-year head coach

Kerwin Bell Kerwin Douglas Bell (born June 15, 1965) is an American football coach and former player who has been the head coach of the Western Carolina Catamounts football team since 2021. Bell was born in the rural North Central Florida town of Live Oak ...

and played their home games at

Bazemore–Hyder Stadium Bazemore–Hyder Stadium at Cleveland Field is a stadium in Valdosta, Georgia. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of Valdosta High School. Valdosta State University, winner of the NCAA Division II National Football C ...

Valdosta, Georgia Valdosta is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia, United States. As of 2019, Valdosta had an estimated population of 56,457. Valdosta is the principal city of the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in 2021 had ...

. Valdosta State compiled an overall record of 8–3 with a mark of 6–2 in conference play, placing second in the GSC. They were invited to the

NCAA Division II Football Championship The NCAA Division II Football Championship is an American college football tournament played annually to determine a champion at the NCAA Division II level. It was first held in 1973, as a single-elimination tournament with eight teams. The tourna ...

playoffs, where they lost in the first round to .

Schedule

Valdosta State announced its 2016 football schedule on March 17, 2016. The schedule consisted of five home games, four away game, and one neutral site games in the regular season. The Blazers hosted GSC foes Delta State, Shorter,

West Florida West Florida ( es, Florida Occidental) was a region on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico that underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. As its name suggests, it was formed out of the western part of former S ...

, and West Georgia, and traveled to

Florida Tech The Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech or FIT) is a private research university in Melbourne, Florida. The university comprises four academic colleges: Engineering & Science, Aeronautics, Psychology & Liberal Arts, and Business. App ...

Mississippi College Mississippi College (MC) is a private Baptist university in Clinton, Mississippi. Founded in 1826, MC is the second-oldest Baptist-affiliated college or university in the United States and the oldest college or university in Mississippi. Histor ...

North Alabama North Alabama is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Several geographic definitions for the area exist, with all descriptions including the nine counties of Alabama's Tennessee Valley region. The North Alabama Industrial Development Associ ...

, and West Alabama. The Blazers hosted one non-conference game against Albany State of the

Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Formed in 1913, it consists mostly of historically black c ...

(SIAC) and traveled to one neutral site game against Kentucky State, also from the SIAC.

References

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