RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas - With the beginning of the 2022 football season less than a month away, Henderson State was tabbed to finish fourth in the Great American Conference after finishing in a tie for second place last season with a 9-2 campaign. This selection comes one day after coming in at No. 24 in the College Football America's 2022 Division II Preseason Top-30 Poll. 

Harding was picked to defend its GAC crown by the league's coaches, accumulating 115 total votes and six first-place votes, followed by Ouachita Baptist, who picked up 114 total votes and five first-place nods. Southeastern earned the final first-place vote, coming in at third with 104 total votes before Henderson St. compiled 87 votes for fourth.

This is the second time in three years HSU has been picked to finish fourth in the GAC Preseason Poll. Each of the last two seasons, the Reddies have outperformed their preseason position, finishing third in 2019 when they were picked to finish fourth before seeing a tie for second place last year when they were tabbed to finish third.

Henderson will have the luxury of playing some of its biggest games of the year this season inside Carpenter-Haygood Stadium and GeoSurfaces Field as three of the four matchups against Top-5 GAC preseason teams will take place on the Reddies' home turf.

Two marquee matchups in front of the home crowd will feature the Savage Storm of Southeastern Oklahoma State Saturday, Oct. 1 at 2 p.m. at Carpenter-Haygood before finishing the year with the 95th edition of the Battle of the Ravine against Ouachita Baptist in front of the Reddie faithful Saturday, Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. 

HSU will get it all started under the lights Thursday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. when Southwestern Oklahoma State comes to town as Henderson begins its trek for a third consecutive nine-win season.


2022 GAC PRESEASON FOOTBALL POLL
 

Team	Total Votes	First-Place Votes
Harding	115	6
Ouachita Baptist	114	5
Southeastern Oklahoma State	104	1
Henderson State	87
Oklahoma Baptist	77
East Central	73
Arkansas-Monticello	57
Southern Arkansas	49
Arkansas Tech	42
Northwestern Oklahoma State	31
Southwestern Oklahoma State	28
Southern Nazarene	15