A year after going 4-5, Butler County Community College of El Dorado, Kan., is one victory away from winning its second National Junior College Athletic Association football title.
The Grizzlies, 11-0 and ranked No. 2 in the NJCAA, meet No. 1 Ricks College of Rexburg, Idaho, on Friday in the Real Dairy Bowl at Holt Arena in Pocatello, Idaho. Ricks is 10-0.Two other Kansas schools will make bowl appearances on Saturday.
Garden City (8-3) will travel to Mesa, Ariz., (7-3) for the Valley of the Sun Bowl, and Coffeyville (6-3) will play Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (8-3) in the Red River Bowl in Bedford, Texas.
Butler County also won the NJCAA championship -- which does not include two-year schools from California -- in 1981.
"We're doing the same things we did last year, only we have more experienced players," said coach James Shibest, voted the Jayhawk Conference's Coach of the Year in two of his three seasons at Butler County. "We know what this last game means and we know that we have our work cut out for us. We're going to play a big and physical team and we're doing it at their place."
Garden City bid for a national championship last season but lost to Trinity Valley, Texas, in the Red River Bowl.
"We fell short of what we wanted to accomplish this season, but I feel good about the way the players rallied back when they were faced with adversity," coach Jim Gush said.
Coffeyville has been to more bowls than any other Kansas junior college team, running up an 11-9-2 record.
"We feel like the bowls are a reward for what we do during the season, but we also know what we've done doesn't mean a lot now," Ravens coach Skip Foster said. "You're starting all over, and it's a one-game season."