Men DI College Rankings Week 9

The 9th installment of the Goff Rugby Report Men's DI rankings sees the top eight stay as they are. Lindenwood moves back up the Top 10, though, as they jump from #12 to #9 after beating Penn State soundly.

The reason for Lindenwood's previous drop was a 73 loss to Davenport, but that was a cruel loss coming a week after one of their players died in an accident. It's reasonable to assume things weren't quite right with the Lions, and they have rebounded, showing, once again, their fortitude. It seems fair to move them up ahead of Davenport despite the loss to the Panthers.

Ohio State is another team that has extenuating circumstances. The Buckeyes started the fall under the kosh of a respiratory illiness that swept through the squad. They lost a couple of close games then, and we dropped them out of the rankings until they could produce a result that said they should be back. That was this weekend, when OSU downed Michigan 34-22.

Western Michigan moves up after beating Dayton and a close loss to Bowling Green. Wisconsin moves back into the Top 50 after finishing 5-1 in the Big Ten. NC State capped off a good season with a big win over North Carolina and having beaten prevuously-ranked Virginia Tech. We think they deserve a look.

Oklahoma moves up a bit just because we continue to be impressed by their results, and Arkansas comes in thanks to a couple of good early results.

Now, this all could undergo massive shifts after the ACRC Bowl Weekend. Teams are not only representing themselves, but their conferences. If AIC crushes Bowling Green, then expect not only AIC to move up, but Boston College and Middlebury, as well. The Stony Brook v West Virginia result will also help us decide whether St. Joe's or Kings Point should be higher than they are.

In addition, Army v Life could give us a new #1. If one of those teams wins convincingly, we could see our way to moving the winner to #1. The only reason Army hasn't moved higher is that their victories have been very close. A few more blowouts and they could have been #4 or #3.

Oh, and watch out for Central Washington, as they start league 15s games soon.