LEBANON, Ill. – For the third season in a row, the UIndy football team topped the Great Lakes Valley Conference Preseason Coaches Poll.  The announcement was made in conjunction with the annual GLVC Football Kickoff, held on the campus of McKendree University in Lebanon, Ill.
 
The poll featured the league's nine football-playing schools, with UIndy receiving the maximum eight first-place votes and 64 points (no team could vote for itself).  The Greyhounds return 15 starters – nine offensive, six defensive – from a 2013 squad won 10 games on the way to a second straight GLVC championship.
 
Truman State collected 56 points to secure second place in the preseason poll, while third-place Saint Joseph's garnered 50 points as well as the lone remained first-place nod.
 
Following Missouri S&T (38 points) and McKendree (32), GLVC-newcomers and associate-members Southwest Baptist University (28) and Lincoln University (27) landed in sixth and seventh in the poll, respectively. The two squads moved to the GLVC this season after several years in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA).  Southwest Baptist recorded a 1-10 record (1-9 MIAA) in 2013, while Lincoln was 3-8 (2-8).
 
Quincy (15) and William Jewell (14) rounded out the nine-team list.  Meanwhile, former-GLVC-member Kentucky Wesleyan moved on to compete as an independent.
 
Led by head coach Bob Bartolomeo, UIndy is coming off consecutive GLVC championships and NCAA postseason appearances.  Last season, the Greyhounds swept through their conference slate, capped by  a final-minute 21-14 win versus Truman State in the regular-season finale.  UIndy then hosted an NCAA Division II playoff game for the second year in a row, dropping a 27-14 final to 19th-ranked West Texas A&M in the first round.
 
UIndy opens its 2014 schedule on the road with a key in-region game versus Saginaw Valley State Sep. 6.


2014 GLVC PRESEASON COACHES POLL

RK	SCHOOL (1st-place votes)*	PTS
1.	UIndy (8)	64
2.	Truman State	56
3.	Saint Joseph's (1)	50
4.	Missouri S&T	38
5.	McKendree	32
6.	Southwest Baptist	28
7.	Lincoln	27
8.	Quincy	15
9.	William Jewell	14

_{* Conference bylaws do not permit a school to vote for itself}