Crossover Chances as D1AA Teams Open September

09.03.2026College Men

Kentucky vs Texas A&M 2025 Playoffs Ph Will Fagan

Author: Alex Goff

Conference games aren't really happening yet in D1AA but teams are in action.

In the Lonestar, the Dust the Rust Tournament is a nice annual kickoff event among college teams in Texas. This year, they have split the event into a North event in Denton, Texas, and a South event in San Marcos, Texas.

The Dust the Rust events are a good way for every team in every division in the conference to get some game time, work combinations, and dust off that rust.

Just about everyone is involved in this, but for the purposes of D1AA, we're looking at Texas A&M, Texas, Baylor, North Texas (who hosts the North tournament), Texas State (who hosts the South tournament), Houston, UT San Antonio, Sam Houston State, and Texas Tech.

The new Great Plains conference has Oklahoma State at Missouri and we're see how that conference goes. That is wide open at the moment.

The rest of the slate is mostly D1AA teams testing themselves against NCR D1 or CRAA D1A opposition.

Michigan (NCR D1) at Western Michigan; Drury (NCR D1) at Arkansas; Indiana (expected to target a NCR D1 and CRAA D1A playoff situation) at Trine; Kentucky at (NCR D1) Marian; Illinois (CRAA D1A) hosts University of Iowa.

Iowa State has switched a fixture and will be facing off with the Omaha GOATS team that generally looks like ... not Greater Omaha Area Touring Side but Graduates Of (heart of) America Top Selections. So they are players some of the older Iowa State players (of which there are few) will know.

Iowa State is indeed young, but experienced. If you look at their forward pack from the 2025-26 CRAA D1AA final, which lost to Western Washington, four were sophomores. Their backline had two sophomores and two freshmen. Overall, 12 of that starting lineup return.

Some really intriguing games between D1AA teams are: Louisville vs Tennessee in Nashville will be a meeting of a very strong MAC team in the Louisville Cardinals and the defending NCR D1AA champion Volunteers. Eighteen players on the UT playoff 23 return.

UNC Charlotte at Clemson is a clash of teams who are working hard to get better. Clemson is coming off a somewhat humbling (but not unexpected) loss to Belmont Abbey. UNC-C made the NCR playoffs but were summarily dumped out in the first round by Kentucky.

Iona has moved to D1AA from NCR D1 and will take on Delaware in a good test for both teams. Where do these teams fit in the broader scheme of NCR's D1AA fall? We don't know.

The MARC has been represented in the top levels of the NCR playoffs a bit more than the Liberty, six total semifinal places compared to three for Liberty.