Depending on who you're talking to, this weekend's final slate of games may be a bit anti-climactic. For many, it's huge as the GNAC title will be decided with the winner of Humboldt State and Western Oregon declared the GNAC champion. However, if Humboldt State takes that crown, a victory probably won't be enough to push the Lumberjacks into the coveted top six in the SR4's regional rankings when released on Nov. 14th. And if WOU takes the crown, it'll give them much validity for a season that saw the Wolves travel to Grand Valley, Abilene Christian and Montana on top of their GNAC travels.

First however, a recap of Saturday's contests.

What was more eye-opening? The way the MIAA's and LSC's games played out to probably cement Humboldt's playoff scenario, or the fact that Central Washington watched Simon Fraser score 29 fourth quarter points to get the 35-24 upset victory?

Let's tackle that one first.

Central Washington wasn't playing lights-out offense, but at the 12:51 mark of the fourth quarter, had just scored to add to its lead, 17-6 over the host Clan. Simon Fraser then decided to go off.

Quarterback Trey Wheeler completed the first four passes of the ensuing possesion and was 5-for-6 (plus a 15-yard pass interference penalty going SFU's way) for 34 yards. SFU would score.

CWU responded with a 3-and-out.

Simon Fraser then marched 73 yards on just seven plays to take the Clan's first lead of the game, 21-17. Immediately following that, Jose Mohler and the CWU offense suffered a pick-6 at the hands of Adam Berger, extending the Clan's lead to 11, 28-17. Mohler then threw four straight incompletions to turn the ball over on downs with 4:28 left to play.

Each team would score once more, but CWU (3-4 GNAC, 3-6 overall) suffered its first defeat to Simon Fraser since Oct. 19, 1996 which was back in the NAIA days. Even worse for CWU was the loss guaranteed its first losing season since the 4-7 campaign in 2001. Of course, CWU history buffs will remember the following season resulted in an 11-0 regular season campaign and the program's first NCAA Division II postseason (which resulted in a first round loss to UC-Davis). Will something similar happen for the 'Cats in 2012? Doesn't matter right now as 2011 hasn't finished.

The win for Simon Fraser was huge for a program that improved from one win in 2010 to three wins this year (2-6 GNAC, 3-7 overall). Even more important for SFU was the fact that two of those wins were the Clan's first to GNAC wins in school history.

Montana 32, Western Oregon 7
The good thing for Western Oregon was that the Wolves were keeping the Grizzlies out of the end zone, forcing the FCS power to settle for field goals. Unfortunately for WOU, the Griz were keeping the Wolves from scoring anything for much of the first three quarters.

UM's Brody Knight split the uprights for six field goals and the Grizzlies scored two second half touchdowns in both teams' final non-league contest of the season. Both teams move onto rivalry games to end the regular season as WOU takes on Humboldt State and Montana travels to Montana State.

WOU tallied just 133 yards until its 75-yard touchdown drive in the third. WOU's offense simply wasn't on the field long enough to threaten more than once, getting past the Grizzly 38 yard line just once (on its scoring drive). UM held the time of possession advantage as well, holding the ball nearly 11 minutes more than WOU.

Still, the Wolves (6-1 GNAC, 6-4 overall) go into next week's game at Humboldt with plenty to play for: the GNAC title. Even though its three out of conference games resulted in losses, the fact remains the Wolves have played in three big time environments in front of huge crowds (15,004 at Grand Valley, 5,233 at Abilene Christian, 24,984 at Montana) when compared to the seating capacity of McArthur Field (2,500). Humboldt State and its potential 7,000 fans at the Redwood Bowl will be another big time environment for the Wolves.

Humboldt State 45, Dixie State 30
The score might indicate a closer game that expected, however, HSU jumped out to a 24-0 halftime lead and 31-0 advantage midway through the third before going on cruise control in the victory at Dixie State.

The win sets up a huge home finale against WOU with the GNAC title going to the victor.

Lyndon Rowells totaled 184 yards rushing with one touchdown and Mike Proulx threw for 328 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions (Dirk Dallas led the receivers with six receptions, 97 yards and two scores).

For his part, Dixie's Stefan Cantwell performed well, too, netting 302 yards in the air, but he suffered an interception at the goal line late in the second quarter and was sacked four times (five total sacks for Humboldt on the day).

Humboldt (6-1, 8-1) sputtered coming out of the gate, with two punts and losing the possession on downs sandwiching a field goal. But starting at the end of the first, Humboldt rattled off three straight touchdowns to build a lead that Dixie would never challenge.

Dixie (1-6, 1-9) had four straight touchdown drives beginning in the late third quarter, but by then the hole was too big to get out of by the end of the game.

At this point of the season, fans and teams start really dissecting not only the GNAC, but the entire super region. There were a handful of things Humboldt needed to have happen in order to get to the playoffs. One of them was defeating Dixie. Check. Another was for Midwestern (the SR4's No. 2 team) to beat West Texas (SR4 No. 6). Check. But the Lumberjacks needed a few other things, most notably SR4 No. 7 Missouri Western to lose to SR4 No. 3 Northwest Missouri (MoWest pulled off the upset) and the SR4's No. 8 team Ouachita Baptist to lose to Southeastern Oklahoma (OBU won, 21-18). Abilene Christian (SR4 No. 5) and Washburn (SR4 No. 4) winning didn't help either.

We'll take a harder look at things after tomorrow's release of the rankings.

Jon Guddat covers the GNAC for D2football.