The Upstate NY Men’s DII conference begins action this weekend, with most of the teams having been back in school for about a week.

So it’s a quick turnaround from “this is what a rugby ball looks like” to “let’s play a league game” but that’s what they have to do. 

Last year, Buffalo State won the West with a 4-1 record, while SUNY Cortland edged SUNY Oswego (5-0 v 4-1) in the East. This year, the ten-team league is now down to nine after Hobart and Hamilton dropped out and RIT joined. As a result, the season has changed from one of four in-division games and one crossover, to a round-robin where eight of the nine teams play each other each week. It makes for a longer and busier schedule - hence the early start.

Buffalo State Coach Rob Jenkinson said the key is to drill the basics over and over again to get ready for the season.

“We graduated a good amount of talent, six multi-year A-siders, so we may be looking up in some games this year,” added the coach. “I know what I have in my returning players so I take a good amount of time early in the week and work with the new ones. There could be a couple of diamonds in the rough that could help us this weekend. After that is is a simplified game plan to ensure we are all on the same page going into Saturday.”

It will be a tough start for Buffalo State as they take on SUNY Oswego in the Nickel City Saturday.

Here’s the lineup of this weekend’s games, with their 2014 fall conference record in parentheses:

Oswego (4-1) at Buffalo State (4-1)

Ithaca (0-4) at Fredonia (2-3)

LeMoyne (3-2) at Niagara (3-2)

Cortland (5-0) at RIT (DNP)