It's Labor Day Weekend and the beginning of a serious series of college rugby games in D1.

Now, this week and probably next we're mixing up D1A and D1AA / NCR D1 because they are mixing themselves up. Only once we get into strict conference play can we separate them (and maybe not even then).

Some thoughts, now, on what's happening this weekend:

The overarching theme is—let's see what we've got. Most teams are saying something along those lines. We spoke to the coaches for Tennessee and Ohio State and their responses were, in essence, "talk to me after the weekend." It's been 18 months at the very least since some of these teams played in anger, so, yes, there are many, many questions to answer.

Both Marian (D2) and Iowa Central (D1) have played some over the past year and should be in slightly better shape. Marian isn't favored against the Tritons (who we ranked #1 among D1 teams) but that means they really have nothing to lose.

Louisville comes back from a 42-0 loss to Indiana, but that was a preseason game where the Cardinals ran on a bunch of inexperienced players for the second half. Louisville Head Coach Emil Walton said he liked what he saw defensively from his team in the first half (which ended 11-0) and he noted that a couple of times IU opted for the kick at goal rather than taking a tap or a lineout, which can be an indication of how an attacking team thinks of its try-scoring chances.

Still, Louisville is young, and this weekend's test against Kentucky will be exactly that, a test.

Speaking of Indiana, they have had some changes in their coaching staff and despite the opening win are in a bit of—possibly short-lived—turmoil. As a result, they have had to cancel their game against Kansas, which kind of stinks for Kansas, who have managed to find a makeup opponent with a local club team.

St. Bonaventure won a couple of openers against Buffalo RFC and Colgate. Now they host Mount St. Mary's in an intriguing early clash. This is the Mount's first outing of the fall. Army hosts Queens University Charlotte in a game that can be seen live on Saturday at 1pm here>>. Another head0turner might well be Notre Dame, which plays an independent schedule, against a very handy Western Michigan team.

There are some alumni games also going on this weekend, and with some conferences and member teams keeping their schedules tight to the chest (ahem, Liberty), there might be a few more matchups, which we'll add. Check back for scores.