Playoffs Loom in Busy Men's DII College Weekend
The Men's DII playoffs loom and with as many as 12 conferences involved it's going to be a big chance to see who gets in.
Expect the conference champions, of course, to have a place, and we'll see some #2 teams from the strongest conferences—Great Midwest, NEWCRC, Southern—fight for a spot, too.
What will likely also happen is that there will be play-in games. NCR wants the best teams to be in the Round of 16 (which will run November 19-21 in Cherry Hill, NJ, Charleston, SC, Knoxville, Tenn., and St. Louis Mo.). That weekend will see the Round of 16 on the Friday and Quarterfinals on Sunday, and then Dec. 10-12 in Houston will be the semis and the final.
Week 8 Pick'Ems Powered by Silverback Elite Rugby
Another week, another slate of Pick’Em games! Congratulations to Scott Nies who has now been our top player on consecutive weeks and Kaleb Boleyn who leads our season standings.
Goff Rugby Report's picks were a little hit-and-miss last week, so let's see if the GRR brain trust can do better this time.
Week 8 College Power Ratings By Silverback Elite Rugby
This week’s prize is another $10 Gift Card to Rugby Imports! To play, submit your picks here before Saturday.
Here are the top pickers from the last two weeks:
An Intensity Like No Other: Army Prepares for Navy
Coming off a 39-13 win against Navy in October of 2020, Army might be heavily favored in this weekend against Navy at FedEx Field, but the West Point players are too smart to get caught up in all of that.
It is, after all, Army-Navy.
“I think I can speak for everyone on the team in saying that this rivalry truly is something special,” said prop Larry Williams. “This is one of the games that we look forward to the most because it is an indescribable experience. The game is played with lots of emotion and passion from both teams and it is always a great game.”
Week 8 College Power Ratings By Silverback Elite Rugby
This could be the Year of the Road Warrior.
Each week, we’re spotting interesting quirks in our model. This week, the quirk is away-team performance.
Based on the 361 matches we have logged this year, both teams have an equal match rating the away team has a 51.6% probability of winning. As number nerds, we are eager to find out why.
We currently handicap home field advantage with +3.0 Rating Points to the home team’s match rating. That number was based on analysis of D1A results between 2014 and 2019. In our new, bigger population that includes D1AA, NCR D1, & NCR D2, does home field advantage have a lesser impact?
Official DIA Rankings Get a Makeover
Wasn't there an official DIA ranking already released; well yes, but there was a bit of an issue and it's so totally a 2021-22 issue.
With questions surrounding NCR and CRAA and what teams can play what teams and what teams are members of both, it gets confusing as to where conferences, and even specific teams in conferences, sit. So confusing, in fact, that DIA had teams in the rankings who were committed to the NCR postseason and not the DIA postseason.
Those teams, the DIA leadership concluded, can't be ranked if they're not in the show. So it might be a bit of a shock to some teams to find out they can't find their names in these official DIA rankings. And that's because they're leaning an NCR direction.
All that means is a few more teams move into the picture.
Big College Meeting Set for DC
Representatives from National Collegiate Rugby and USA Rugby will be sitting down this weekend in Washington DC to discuss steps toward a sanctioning agreement.
This comes after USA Rugby has been telling USA Rugby-registered college teams that they can't play NCR teams, and referees have been caught up in the crossfire, too.
USA Rugby CEO told Goff Rugby Report that the meeting was initiated by both sides, which have been on phone calls throughout the fall.
"We need all parties and decision-makers in the room to see where it takes us," said Young.
That would include members of the College Council.
Young said this was the start of the process, so it's unlikely anything concrete will come out of the meeting.
D1A-Level Rankings For the Week of Oct 18
In the Goff Rugby Report rankings that includes some of the NCR teams, this has been a tough time. Several Liberty teams produced wins but ended up dropping down, mainly because they beat other Liberty teams in very close games. Meanwhile, a few teams outside of that competition made big strides (Baylor, Michigan State, Utah Valley) and thus just pushed everyone down a spot or two.
Utah Valley for sure makes the biggest jump despite losing, because it was a very close loss to a good team, Colorado State, that had beaten Colorado, who had, in turn, beaten Grand Canyon. (UCLA beat Colorado, and are now #10 based on that result.)
Boise State, WWU Start Strong in NCRC
Western Washington and Boise State both laid down markets in the split NCRC this week.
Boise State, led by a powerful performance from second row Bennett Mantz, and with scrumhalf Kyle Curry running the show and Andrew Bergey having a superb game defensively and scoring a spectacular try, beat Oregon State 39-5. OSU was ranked #32 in DIAA by Goff Rugby Report while Boise State wasn't ranked at all.
The key to the strong start from the Broncos, said Curry, was training time. Being only able to practice a little during the COVID shutdown, the team felt they needed to make up for lost time.
"We had a sort of boot camp at the beginning of the season," said Curry. "For the first two weeks of school we practiced Monday through Friday, from 6PM to 9PM. I think that put us ahead of the curve compared to other teams."
Gamebreakers DI College
A few upsets and some tight games feature in this week's list of DI college games, and the top performers.
Here are our Gamebreakers from the weekend of October 16.
Anthony Rigas, Texas A&M
The sophomore lock joined the Aggies rugby team last year but didn't really get to play until this season. But he has picked up the game quickly, gets around the field, makes tackles, and played a very smart game in Texas A&M's defeat of North Texas.
Josh Leidich, Ohio State
The captain of the Buckeyes, Leidich was a powerful present with the ball in hand and kept his team going forward in a win over Purdue.
Army-Navy Game Something Special for Midshipmen
The Army-Navy rivalry is one of the most intense in collegiate rugby, and fans who go see the USA-New Zealand test match will get to see this first-hand.
For the Navy Midshipmen, this is a special game in part because the venue—FedEx Field in Landover, Md.—is pretty much on their doorstep.
To play this in an NFL stadium as the precursor to the 1874 test match makes it even more special.
“I’m truly honored and humbled to have the opportunity to compete at FedEx Field,” said Navy’s Colin Brennan. We are just going to go out there and focus on what we have to do to win. I think the energy will be to our advantage.”
Get Tickets for the 1874 Cup and the Army-Navy Game both right here>>
Chesapeake Season Coming to a Head
The top teams keep winning in the Chesapeake, but there is a showdown coming.
Mary Washington hosted Virginia Tech Rugby Saturday and came away 76-12 winners. These two programs have a long and respect-filled rivalry but the COVID shutdown has been tough on the club teams in the Chesapeake.
Seb Schefermann led UMW with three tries while Aidan Gallagher slotted six conversions as UMW enjoyed the lion's share of possession. Wing Conn Foster scored on a 75-meter run, fullback Bill Tamani was dangerous, and the third member of the deep three, wing Lewis Naylor, scored twice.
Prop Cameron Giwa and flanker Tobey Barnfield-Lee also touched down as Mary Washington led 57-0 at the break.
A&M, Baylor Start Red River Play With Emphatic Wins
Texas A&M and Baylor won early Red River Conference games over the weekend and sent a message that the up-and-comers still have a way to go.
A&M beat North Texas, a team that had, pre COVID, showed strong signs of being a contender. UNT isn’t struggling by any means, but A&M’s 58-7 victory was a message that there’s more to do.
Meanwhile, Texas had shocked quite a few with a 29-5 win over Oklahoma a week ago. Well, this week the Longhorns met up with Baylor and it was the Bears coming away victorious 43-29. A competitive game for Texas, for sure, but also a message from Baylor.
DIAA-Level Men College Rankings Week 8
We have a very complicated situation to deal with, which we will in some detail, so let's dispense with the less complicated stuff.
Dartmouth beat one of the top teams in the Liberty Conference in convincing fashion, so the Big Green holds on to #1. Good thing they did that because Tennessee's win over Clemson would have been enough to take them to #1 had Dartmouth played poorly. We are loathe to drop Mary Washington down because they keep winning by large margins, but they haven't played the other two top teams in the Chesapeake, so UMW is like one of those gigantic rocks in the parks in Utah balancing on a single point. One nudge the wrong way and they could topple. On the other hand, if the Mothers beat Mount St. Mary's by a big score next week maybe they go to #1.
Gateway Conference Coming to a Head
The Gateway Men's DII Conference has its Eastern Division #1 seed decided as Principia has continued to roll through the opposition there.
Gateway East Results:
SLU 41-5 SIU
SIU 0-81 Principia
SLU 25-0 Maryville
Washington U. 45-0 SIU
SLU 17-12 Washington U.
Maryville 0-28 Principia
Principia 40-7 SLU
SIU 28-0 Maryville
Principia 82-0 Washington U.
Principia's impressive win over Washington University sealed first for the Thunder Chickens at 4-0. St. Louis University is 2nd at 3-1.
WIld Games in Rocky Mountain
Things got a little tight in the Rocky Mountain over the weekend with Colorado State and Colorado winning very close games.
Colorado State had to really fight for it against Utah Valley and won 30-24. This game was a Rocky Mountain Conference semifinal, and so, really, CSU has probably booked a date with BYU.
Meanwhile, Colorado and Air Force were in a wild game that resulted in 91 points between the two teams. The lead changed hands seven times. Air Force wing CJ Gabriel scored 16 points in the first half.
Air Force had a blood sub in the first five minutes. CSU No. 8 Blake Richards Smith scored the game-winner at 57 minutes and anther try at 71 minutes to seal it.
