DII Games This Weekend - Updated

This weekend is a huge weekend for Men's DII colleges trying to make a splash in the rankings, with seven games played between ranked opponents.

The best clash is probably Towson #5 v #10 Georgetown. The Capital conference is primed for a full shakeup, and Georgetown wants to be the shaker. VMI (#7) faces Old Dominion (#25) in a meeting of two unbeaten teams. ODU tied Mary Washington last week and will be trying to gain some ground on VMI.

Salve Regina (#39) at Plymouth State (#40) is a clash of two Colonial Coast teams at the top of the league. Endicott is waiting to pass them, but this game is a big one. In the MARC, Rowan is #14 and IUP is #45 but this could well be an upset special. Same, perhaps, goes for #28 Rhode Island at #34 Vermont. The rankings really punish teams that lose a game, which UVM did early, but they are rebounding and a victory here puts them right back in the NECRC hunt.

Top-ranked Minnesota-Duluth should not be troubled by MSU Mankato, but you never know. If Mankato shows well, that could help them, and hurt the Fighting Penguins.

Bentley against Roger Williams is another game where one team (Bentley, #33) is ranked well below the other (RWU, #19), but could still win the game. 

And finally, there's a game between a ranked team and a non-ranked team we need to look at. Principia is not in the top 45, for now, but faces a #16 UMS&T whose ranking is based largely on this past Saturday's upset of St. Louis University. But maybe it's not all that simple. Certainly Principia would return to the Gateway championship conversaiotn with a victory.