DIAA-Level Men College Rankings Week 11

We didn't expect this to be a particularly difficult ranking to update this week, but it was.

Why? Well first off our #2 team lost, and lost to our #15. That's not so problematic; Tennessee deserves to be #2 and could be #1, so they move up, and Mary Washington is fine at #3. But the question arises as to who goes to #4. Normally we've think Notre Dame, but Notre Dame lost 30-0 to Davenport. Now, yes, Davenport is a DIA team, and one actually threatening the top 10 there. But being shut out 30-0 isn't exactly a great thing.

Interestingly, we got hold of the stats report on that game and Notre Dame was equal to Davenport on almost every measure—meters gained, tackles made, tackles missed, penalties, set piece success. Davenport's kicking game and, of course, their ability to actually get points when they were on offer saw them through. But that information meant we weren't inclined to drop UND too far. And while we might have considered moving Bowling Green up, BGSU did lose to Notre Dame earlier this fall. We'd need a more compelling reason to make that move.

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Clemson beat Kentucky, and has had a very good season, but their loss to Tennessee wasn't so close that we think they are right behind them. Iowa Central does drop down after losing big to Lindenwood, but not that far, because (almost) everyone loses to Lindenwood. 

So in the end #4 is Brown. We aren't completely sold on Brown because their opposition hasn't been great, and they beat Dartmouth by a razor-thin margin. But it's worth noting that Brown played the #1-ranked D2 team (Norwich) at the beginning of the season and beat them pretty handily. At the time that was sort of a "so what?" game but now we've got to think it's all part of the tapestry.

St. Joseph's may have broken out of the MARC deadlock with a win over Salisbury that was by more than a try. They move up seven spots. Kansas moves up after winning the HOA, and brings Minnesota with them. Mount St. Mary's drops down simply because their ranking hangs heavily on a close loss to Queens. As more teams get results against ranked opponents, that might not be enough. However, MSM does have a playoff game to play against Kutztown, so that should be interesting.

Wheeling and Arkansas drop down because we just haven't seen enough wins against ranked opponents. Wheeling's tie with Davenport is their major claim to being ranked higher. Washington State comes into the 45 after a loss, but a 17-8 loss to a very good Boise State team. 

Rank	Prev	Team	Conference	Notes
1	1	Queens University	Chesapeake
2	3	Tennessee	SCRC	Beat Georgia (42)
3	4	Mary Washington	Chesapeake
4	15	Brown	Ivy League	Beat Dartmouth (2)
5	2	Dartmouth	Ivy League	Lost to Brown (15)
6	5	U. Notre Dame	Independent	Lost to Davenport
7	6	Bowling Green	MAC	Beat Cincinnati (21)
8	9	Clemson	SCRC	Beat Kentucky (8)
9	8	Kentucky	SCRC	Lost to Clemson (9)
10	7	Iowa Central CC	Independent	Lost to Lindenwood
11	11	Louisville	MAC	Beat IUPUI (26)
12	14	Kansas	Heart of America	Beat Iowa State (22), Minnesota (17)
13	10	Mount St. Mary's	Chesapeake
14	17	Minnesota	Heart of America	Beat Arkansas (16), lost to Kansas (14)
15	12	Western Michigan	MAC	Beat Dayton
16	23	St. Joseph's	MARC	Beat Salisbury (25)
17	18	Western Washington	NCRC
18	19	Rowan	MARC	Beat Rutgers
19	20	Boise State	NCRC	Beat Washington State
20	22	Iowa State	Heart of America	Lost to Kansas (14), beat Arkansas (16)
21	26	IUPUI	MAC	Lost to Louisville (11)
22	24	West Chester	MARC	Beat Delaware
23	25	Salisbury	MARC	Lost to St. Joseph's (23)
24	27	CSULB	Gold Coast
25	28	Florida Atlantic	Florida
26	29	Arizona State	Gold Coast
27	30	South Florida	Florida
28	31	Central Florida	Florida
29	13	Wheeling	Independent
30	16	Arkansas	Heart of America	Lost to Minnesota (17), Iowa State (22)
31	21	Cincinnati	MAC	Lost Bowling Green (6)
32	33	Kansas State	Heart of America	Beat Nebraska, Iowa (38)
33	34	Texas State	Lonestar	Beat Texas A&M XV
34	32	Southern Virginia	Chesapeake
35	38	Iowa	Heart of America	Beat Missouri (44), lost to K-State (33)
36	35	UT San Antonio	Lonestar	Beat UTEP
37	36	Fresno State	Pac West
38	37	UCSC	Pac West
39	39	Sam Houston State	Lonestar
40	40	Chico State	Pac West
41	41	Oregon State	NCRC
42	Unr	Washington State	NCRC	Lost to Boise State (20)
43	42	Georgia	SCRC	Lost to Tennessee (3)
44	45	James Madison	MARC	Beat Temple
45	43	Virginia Tech	Chesapeake