CEDAR CITY — Southern Utah University football coach Wes Meier lives by the philosophy that to be the best, you have to play the best.
By looking at their 2007 schedule, the T-birds are definitely playing the creme de la creme of the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly Division I-AA.
"I would rather play the toughest teams rather than the easiest," Meier said. "Our expectations are high, even though we lost some key players from last year and we're still working toward becoming fully funded at this level."
Beginning with their season-opener at Montana on Sept. 1, the T-birds will play nine teams that finished ranked in the Div. I-AA top 25, while their lone Div. II opponent was ranked seventh in its division poll.
"Never in the school's history have we had this kind of opportunity, and it's exciting for us to be here," Meier said. "We just need to believe in ourselves, work hard and go get the job done."
The combined records of the 11 teams the T-birds will play is 95-39. Each team had a record above .500 in 2006.
"I see a great opportunity," Meier said. "We have a lot of talent coming back this year, and we've got some real talent coming in. What better way to prove we belong than to play well against the toughest schedule in the country?"
Montana (12-2), after losing to Iowa to open the season last year, reeled off 12 straight wins before losing to UMass in the Div. I-AA playoffs.
North Dakota (11-2), the first of three straight home games for Southern Utah, won the North Central Conference and finished the year winning five of its last six games.
Southern Illinois (9-4) pummeled Southern Utah 59-0 in the T-birds' season finale last year. The Salukis tied for fourth in the Gateway Conference. The T-birds also face Gateway champion Youngstown State (11-3) and runner-up Northern Iowa (7-4).
North Dakota State (10-1), the Great West Football champion, beat SUU 31-7 last year. The T-birds also take on McNesse State (7-5), which won the Southland Conference title.
Montana State (8-5), which beat Colorado last year, UC Davis (6-5), Cal Poly (7-4) and South Dakota State (7-4) are also on the schedule.
"Sure, this is a tough schedule, but we want a tough schedule," Meier said.
The T-birds won three of their first four games last year before dropping their last seven. "What happened last year really doesn't have a lot of bearing on what we do this year," Meier said. "In fact, I'd like to take last year all over again if we could change just a couple of things."
E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com