Big games this weekend.
We finalize the Big 10 semifinal matchups after this weekend. Wisconsin plays Indiana. Both teams are 2-0 in the Big 10 West and the winner will be the #1 seed and play Ohio State in the semis, and the losing team will play Notre Dame. That's nice to know, but really we're not sure there's much of a difference; Notre Dame beat Ohio State 40-39 so there doesn't seem to be a gap between those two. But we'll know.
Brown is the #1 team in the Liberty and will probably still be after this weekend. But they do host 3rd-place Dartmouth, and this is a game that could mix up the standings a bit.
It's early days in the Midwest D1A Conference, Lindenwood plays their first conference match after playing and defeating Kansas, Indiana, Iowa Central, and Southern Nazarene to the tune of, on average, 60-7. They take on McKendree, which lost to Adrian 39-29 two weeks ago. Adrian, for their part, are following up a tie with Arkansas State by hosting Ohio State in a non-conference game. A-State looks to rebound from that tie with a game against Davenport in Jonesboro.
In the Rugby East we spoke with Queens Head Coach Frank McKinney last week about how he can't afford to look past the supposedly lesser teams and on to later games with Life and Navy, not to mention the NCR playoffs. And here's why. Yes they beat SVU last week, but Penn State is improving every week and beat Kutztown last week. This is what they call a potential banana skin for Queens.
Army at Walsh is important for both, and really now St. Bonaventure at Kutztown has likely a direct influence on the NCR playoff seedings.
And we have Trinity Western in this list. You'll see why.
Big Rivers was supposed to have eight teams in their quarterfinals, and then we thought maybe we'd have only five. After the fight that ended the Rio Grande-vs-Thomas More game (won by Thomas More) there was a thought that both of those teams would be out of the playoffs. Trine, meanwhile, is so down in numbers that they already backed out of the playoffs. But ... as we understand it, Rio was indeed dropped from the playoffs, while Thomas More remains. However, TMU has instituted some internal player suspensions and there might be more (we don't know for sure). The Saints will host Aquinas, but their depth will be tested.
Since all four teams in the Big Rivers West are in the playoffs and only two from the East are in, this all required some reshuffling. Top teams Wheeling and Principia now have a bye to the semis (which makes sense as they are both unbeaten in the conference). Aquinas (#4 in the West) plays Thomas More (#2 in the East) while Marian (#2 in the West) hosts Iowa Centeal (#3 in the West). So not much of a crossover, but logic prevails.
