The Des Moines bracket of the Men’s DII College Playoffs might well have been a forgone conclusion a few weeks ago, but maybe it’s not anymore.

The four teams in it have their own reasons for thinking they could get through to the semis.

There’s Minnesota-Duluth, of course, which won last year and is as powerful and unified as they were last year. The Fighting Penguins don’t care who they play - they approach the game the same way - and as such have been dominant. 

But, it’s reasonable to assume that a team that wins big all the time might be easy to shock. Grand Valley State already has had to fight and claw through Xavier to win the Great Lakes and then Northern Iowa to make this Round of 16 game. By beating Northern Iowa, GVSU at least got themselves in the conversation. And rugby tournaments are littered with the remnants of teams upset by opponents who had to fight for everything they got.

Duluth remains the favorite, especially thanks to their very, very solid second row of Connor Gleason and Andrew Buntrock.  Luc Desroches is a handful at No. 8 and Matt Barton is slick in the backline. But now UMD will have to be right on.

In the other half of the bracket, Rocky Mountain champion Colorado School of Mines has shown that they can play with the big dogs, too. Winona, the Orediggers’ play-in opponent in Liincoln, Neb., was the Northern Lights runner-up behind Duluth. And Mines took that game 54-22, and it wasn’t that close as the Orediggers led 40-0 at halftime. That halftime score was similar to the score  Duluth had against Winona.

Mines takes on Lindenwood-Belleville, which, amazingly, has made the Round of 16 despite not having a rugby team of any kind last year. With a team made up almost entirely of freshmen, the new varsity program has lost exactly one league/playoff game - the WIIL final to Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Aside from that final and perhaps their league win over Northern Iowa, last week’s 15-3 win over UMS&T was as tough a game as the Lynx have had.

“Saturday was definitely frustrating,” said L-B head Coach Pat Clifton. “There was some wind, but ultimately our catch-pass failed us and S&T was very salty in the ruck, more so than anyone we've played. You could tell it's something they've spent a lot of time on. But learning to play through those things is a part of the process, so we were happy to survive the test and advance.”

Lindenwood-Belleville is, like a lot of teams, keeping some players together with duct tape and prayers. They don’t have a big squad, and they’ve had some attrition, but, said Clifton, “we're better off now than I would have guessed we'd be a few weeks ago. We think we're a very fit bunch, and as long as we can stay healthy and get a win Saturday, that should help us Sunday.

“We're under no illusions that Mines is going to be anything other than very difficult,” added the Lynx Coach. “They’re a playoff-veteran team, and they're not driving 10 hours to gift us anything. We are still very young, and as such, immature. We have to be mentally tougher in the moments when things aren't going our way. And we have to impose our will instead of bending to accommodate our opponent. When we do what we train, and our fundamentals are good enough, we can do damage to anyone.”

It looks to be a very close matchup. As Clifton said, Mines has playoff experience, albeit in the NSCRO competition. Duluth knows they can’t look past Grand Valley State. Sunday’s quarterfinal, then, will certainly see some unfamiliar teams face off in Des Moines, and maybe one of those can pull off a surprise.