D1A Final Weekend Results Wrap and Playoff Guesses

03.28.2026 - 03.29.2026College Men

Cal celebrates. David Barpal photo.

Author: Alex Goff

The regular season in D1A is now in the books, as six games wrapped up, giving everyone a final look before the upcoming announcement of the playoff seedings.

Cal vs Saint Mary’s

The Cal Bears exploded for four converted tries in the final 24 minutes to turn what was a pretty close 38-23 match into a runaway 66-35.

Nearing the midpoint of the second half, Cal took control woith a Max threlkeld try as he burst onto a flat pass near the goalline. Moments later flanker Ryan Wenstrom picked up after an eightman pick and he charged in to score.
Saint Mary’s did answer, but tries form Cade Crist and Solomon Williams put it all out of reach.

Masi Koi scored three tries in the win, as almost certainly Cal secured the top seed from the West.

Mount St. Mary’s vs St. Thomas

The Mount finished up what has been a pretty good season for them with an emphatic 48-12 win over St. Thomas.
The game was tied 12-12 going into halftime when Raylon Murry burst over for his second and to give the Mount a lead they would never relinquish.

Tries from Trey Fields, Chase Brown, Logan Wild (who scored 18 on the day), and, finally, Simon Rossi put the game away.

This certainly helped Mount St. Mary’s in their seeding.

Penn State vs Mary Washington

On a steady improvement arc, Penn State capped their regular season off with an impressive 20-5 win over UMW.
The victory was sparked by some tenacious defense and a controlled, intelligent approach to winning this game.
After going 0-5 in the Rugby East, Penn State logged wins over Ohio State, St. Bonaventure, Davenport, St. Thomas, and now Mary Washington.

Overall, then, they were 5-7, as they lost big to Lindenwood and competitively to Arkansas State, but it all may well be enough for a playoff bid.

Arizona vs Colorado State

The Wildcats put together a strong showing in beating CSU 47-11 in Tucson.

“This is another amazing group of guys that have helped this program get better and better,” said Arizona DOR Sean Duffy. “We’re in a pretty interesting place, with a large group of youngsters in the team and a really strong leadership group. We hope to be playing for a while longer.”

Ohio State vs McKendree

Speaking of Ohio State, they may not make it to the championship playoff round, but the Buckeyes did themselves plenty of favors with a 36-14 victory over McKendree.

Freshman Sam Bosco was a power breaking the gainline, and he scored two tries in the victory.

UCSC vs Trinity Western

The Canadian Trinity Western won this game comfortably and wrapped up a D1A season (unofficially) with close losses to Grand Canyon and Cal Poly, and wins over UCSC and a solid XV from Arizona.

They also swept two from Western Washington, who, this week, announced they would be moving up to D1A.

Seeding Questions Remain

What this does for the playoff seedings remains to be seen. In the East, Navy and Lindenwood are the top two, Unfortunately, they didn’t play each other. Certainly the 15-0 (or 20-0, depending on what games you’re counting) Lindenwood would feel they’ve done enough compared to the 8-1 Navy. But the vice-versa is likely true, too.
Following those teams, Life, Army, Mount St. Mary’s, and Arkansas State are on a good position. The big question is, which teams are the #7 and #8.

Penn State and Davenport? Mary Washington? St. Thomas? That’s the debate.

In the West, Cal has beaten all comers and should be #1. Saint Mary’s wasn’t the closest versus Cal—Navy and Arizona were closer—but the Gaels did beat Arizona, so there’s that argument for them.

And thanks to one of their best season in recent memory, Arizona should have no trouble getting a home Round 1 game, and they could well be #3. That would mean they get another shot at a Saint Mary’s team that beat them by 50 last time around—a Saint Mary’s team the Wildcats would like another shot at.

After that it gets muddy. Cal Poly, UCLA, Grand Canyon, San Diego, and Colorado State are all in this mix. Above all of those is BYU, who played all of those aforementioned teams (except USD), and beat them all.

But they did lose to Arizona. Cal Poly beat San Diego but lost to UCLA. UCLA beat Cal Poly but lost to USD. GCU beat USD and UCLA but lost to Colorado State. It’s a mess, but it has to be figured out, because we’re talking about five teams pushing for four spots.