Jim Harbaugh won't be the only coach in Michigan not able to accompany his team this weekend

Jim Harbaugh won't be the only college head coach in the state of Michigan not allowed to be with his team on game day this weekend.

Barring the news of a temporary restraining order, Jim won't be on the Wolverines sideline when they travel to take on Maryland, and just hours away from Ann Arbor, Ferris State head coach Tony Annese won't be with his Ferris State Bulldogs as they begin their quest for a historic three-peat this weekend.

A few months after the national title game that saw Annese and Ferris State capture their second straight national title, the NCAA decided to levy an unprecedented punishment directed at Annese.

After capturing their second straight national title, two Ferris State players (despite warnings from the staff to not do so) opted to do their best Joe Burrow impression and lit up cigars to celebrate their win.

The issue at hand is the site of the D-II national title game is at McKinney ISD (TX), a Texas high school facility, where - like most high schools across the country - there is a strict no tobacco policy.

A "small number" of student-athletes attempting to remove Ferris State branded wall stickers to take home as souvenirs was also cited by the NCAA as well.

The NCAA didn't decide to punish Annese for their next regular season game, or even two. They also could have required him to sit their first conference game or two and no one would have said more than a word.

Nope. Their unique discipline required him to sit for Ferris' first future playoff game. It's a move that was, and still is, absolutely unprecedented. At the time, I recall using the term unprecedented to be nice, but "incredibly unique," or "strangely specific," seem to be more fitting.

Ferris tried to appeal the punishment, but the appeal was denied.

That brings us to the Division II playoff bracket that was revealed last night.

Ferris State put together an 8-2 season, and one of those losses came on the road to an FCS top-five Montana squad in a hard-fought 17-10 game. 

That other other loss? That came against fierce GLIAC rival, and fellow D-II national power Grand Valley State. For the second straight season (and their first under first-year head coach Scott Wooster), the Lakers beat the Bulldogs in the regular season to capture the GLIAC title. This year, GVSU built up a 35-0 lead in the matchup before Ferris stormed back to make it a one-score game at 35-28, but ultimately the Lakers pulled a way for a 49-28 victory.

As the Division II playoff bracket unfolded, there was speculation about who would get the first-round bye in the Super Region. That honor went to undefeated Harding (D-II - AR) squad. 

As soon as that Harding selection went live I, like a lot of other folks, wondered if that meant a Grand Valley vs Ferris first round match up.

Turns out, it did.

The teams that finished #2 (GVSU) and #3 (Ferris State) respectively in the final D2Football.com rankings will now meet in the first round of the Division II playoffs at Grand Valley State's iconic Lubbers Stadium - a venue that recently announced plans to use $6 million to expand in an effort to accommodate more fans.

All biases aside as a born and bred west Michigan guy, and high school football coach in the area, it's a match up that feels a lot like a national championship caliber game taking place in the opening round of action - with all due respect to the rest of the playoff field.

The NCAA discipline means Ferris State now faces a monumental task in their quest to three-peat. Not only will Annese, who is an incredible 123-19 since taking over a rebuilding project in 2012, be absent from the sidelines as the leader of the Bulldogs, but he also serves as the team's offensive play caller as well for a team that has had one of the most explosive offenses in the country since he took the reigns of the program.

So the same governing body that handed out a very unique punishment, then sets the stage for this epic first round game. Coincidence? Maybe.

Last year, Ferris State had to beat GLIAC at-large bid Davenport in the opening round, and then Pittsburg State in the second round before avenging their 2022 regular season loss to GVSU in the quarterfinals.

Winning one national title is hard. Winning them back-to-back is even harder. A three peats gets you in the conversations for a dynasty. 

To enter that elite three-peat territory now, Ferris will have to find a way to beat a very tough Grand Valley squad that played lights out football against them a few weeks ago, and do it without their head coach, in what should absolutely be one of the biggest (non-FBS) storylines of the postseason.

Will it be too much to overcome? Or - like Michigan has seemed to use Jim Harbaugh's absence so far - fuel for an absolutely epic run?

Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.