This ranking is full of good teams.
Sometimes in some divisions, especially when we are ranking only teams that are playing right now (as we are with this fall-only group), we have to really look carefully for rankable teams.
But this group is more about having to find teams to keep out. And we’re moving good programs down, even, sometimes, when they win.
Some major notes:
Kansas comes back. After a loss to Kansas State, KU hits hard at an admittedly injury-slammed Arkansas team. After this result the question became whether we throw out the win over Arkansas or the loss to K-State. (Just to make it even more interesting, K-State lost 47-10 to the Razorbacks in September,) We opted to toss out the close loss … for now … in favor of the emphatic victory.
The big mover has to be Wheeling. The Cardinals have produced a series of interesting results this season, including a close loss to Notre Dame College, a close loss to Queens, and wins over Iowa Central and, this week, Adrian.
The only blip on this particular radar screen is a 23-21 loss to Marian. So while Marian can feel good about that win, it was a close one, and other common results skew Wheeling’s way (against common opponents, (Wheeling 2-2, PF136 PA118; Marian 1-3 PF100 PA137). Add in those close losses to teams we rank highly for other reasons, and Wheeling moves up 11 spots, while Marian, mostly because of WWU, Clemson, and Wheeling moving up, moves down a few spots.
Brown and Dartmouth were relatively close and Brown drops down a few spots but after publishing this we're thinking we might give this a second look next week.
Notre Dame College we said was pretty good and got win to prove it. Yes, by the slimmest of margins, but also, notably, on the road.
Queens? Might be a good time to get on that Queens bandwagon. They could well win NCR’s D1 playoff, as could Bonnies, Indiana (don’t forget them … they haven’t), NDC, Kutztown or Thomas More. And guess what? Queens and NDC play each other this weekend.
Western Washington is finally getting results we need to see so the Vikes move up. We anticipate they will continue to move up.
