We're very close in filling the NCR D2 playoff bracket.

As a reminder, here are the seed spots:

Eleven spots for teams going directly to the Round of 16.

Ten teams in a play-in weekend November 11.

Round of 16

Great Midwest Champion and Great Midwest Runner-Up

Northern Iowa slammed Northwester 89-10 over the weekend to make the final. As we discussed earlier this fall, UNI played a preseason tournament with some D1 teams and while they didn't blow anyone away in those games, it set them up brilliantly for the season. That would be a season in which UNI has outscored opponents by an average of 85-5. Yikes. In fact, the 10 points Northwestern put up this past weekend was the most UNI has allowed to any Great Midwest opponent. 

"I think we have continued to grow and stay strong as a team," said UNI's Jentry Staack. "I won't take away from any other team but I do think we have been able to dominate because of our strength and skills as a unit."

Elliott Sinwell had been have a huge season so far for UNI and the experienced head of David Randall at scrumhalf has the attack moving nicely. Staack is no slouch in the backline himself. Up front Tyler Kelderman has been working enormously hard. 

But there is a final to play this coming weekend, and they play Wisconsin Whitewater. Those two have already met, a back UNI won 72-3. So make your predictions accordingly.

NEWCRC Winner and Runner-Up

We know these teams will be Maine vs Norwich. Maine was idle this past weekend, but the Black Bears, new to the NEWCRC after bumping up from Small College, has made the transition without trouble. Norwich won 41-12 over Boston University to move to 6-0. Maine is also 6-0. They haven't played each other because their matchup back in September was called off due to the weather. And that has turned out to be a good thing, because who knows how that would have panned out at the beginning of the season? Now we end up with a final league game that turns out to be a grand final. Both teams will be in the Round of 16 anyway, and we also predict this game will be close.

Allegheny Winner

IUP plays Miami this coming weekend but we have to say that IUP is heavily favored here.

Gateway Winner

This past weekend Drury University beat St Louis 23-0 in the conference final. However, Drury is a school-supported team. Never mind they made it through the season with only 16 or 17 players. Drury is technically a D1 team playing a D2 schedule. So St. Louis University will be your Gateway team in the national playoffs.

High Peaks Winner

It looks like this will be Montana State or Colorado Mesa. With Montana State's league game this coming weekend being canceled, it really looks like Montana State will finish up undefeated.

Liberty Winner

Marist and Albany won semifinals to make it to next week's final. Albany had lost to RPI earlier in the season 21-17. Well they turned the tables on the Engineers this week with a 21-17 victory. So three tries apiece in both games ... 

Marist pressured Oswego defensively and forced them into errors. Marist scored off a scrum within two minutes and had three tries before 10 minutes were up. Oswego battled but Marist was the stronger. Fullback Benji Hanneman scored two tries and added three conversions while prop Christian Gregor scored two. Ryker Wierdsma scored a try and four conversions, and the Red Foxes are nicely set up to win this conference.

MARC Winner

Georgetown and Villanova won their semifinals—Georgetown 50-22 over Scranton and 'Nova in a closer one 27-14 over UMBC behind what has been a very good forward effort all season.

SCRC Winner

Memphis dispatched Auburn this past weekend (although Auburn wouldn't have been playing in the NCR D2 playoffs anyway) and the Tigers are now supposed to play the winner of Tennessee Tech vs Louisiana Tech. But that game is now listed as a forfeit to Tennessee Tech, which pits them against Memphis November 11 in a winner-take-all game. Memphis has been putting in a new attack structure and a new defense structure, and those pieces have all fallen into place nicely.

Southern Conference Winner

This conference still hangs in the balance. At 3-0, UNC-Wilmington is favored to take the conference but they are yet to play Appalachian State (2-1). If Appalachian State wins that game, that will make a three-way tie with Coastal Carolina. However, while the Southern Conference doesn't use bonus points, it does track those bonus points for tiebreakers. If Coastal, Wilmington, and Appalachian all end up 3-1, wins against each other cancel out. So then we look at bonus points versus each other—that would eliminate Appalachian State. But if UNC-W loses but gets one bonus point (four tries in the game or a loss within 7 points), then they would stay tied with Coastal. If that happens, Appalachian State would be eliminated and we'd go with the two-team tiebreaker, which Wilmington would win on head-to-head. If UNW-W gets two bonus points in a loss to Appalachian State, then they would win the three-way tiebreaker without any additional step.

All of that is to say that UNC-Wilmington wins the Southern Conference even if they lose as long as they get a bonus point.