Fall Men DI College Rankings Week 11

Here it is, the final Men's DI Fall college rankings, including all the teams that play significant fall schedules. 

In the ACRC Bowl Series, we had several scenarios whereby a team could have earned the #1 spot. The most clear-cut would have been AIC losing a relarively close game to Clemson and Indiana beating Kutztown - Indiana would have jumped to #1. The nightmare scenario might have been Kutztown edging Indiana and AIC losing to Clemson. Then we might have ended up with Arkansas State or Clemson at #1, but it would have been a very difficult decision.

In the end, AIC made it easy, but thumping a very, very good Clemson team 54-21. AIC lost their #1 place a month ago by winning without playing well while another team, Kutztown, won a big game. This time around, the Yellow Jackets were brilliant, complete, and dominant. They will only get better.

Indiana stays at #2 after beating #5 Kutztown by four. Both are wonderful teams, and Kutztown's only previous blemish, a 24-15 loss to Penn State, keeps them as low as #5.

Tennessee, but sweeping South Carolina, edged past Clemson for #9.

Some other playoff and bowl games make for obvious moves. Notre Dame College moves past Syracuse after beating the Hammerheads, but stays below St. Bonaventure (which beat Western Michigan) because Bonnies beat NDC earlier in the fall. BC and Alabama hold relatively steady as the 26-20 BC victory fit with the rankings. However, UMass leaps ahead after beating NC State. The ACRL teams in general take a hit because of NC State's result, and the ECRC teams as a whole, move up thanks to three good results in the ACRC Bowls. New England College lost 24-7 to AIC at the beginning of the season ... that's beginning to look like a heck of a result.

Now to address some questions and weird rankings. We got a question regarding Dartmouth, a dominant conference champion, being only around #40. Well here's the thing about Dartmouth - while we applaud the Big Green playing outside the conference, the results aren't there - 43-17 loss to BC, 79-14 loss to AIC, 101-12 loss to Lindenwood, and 55-29 to Navy. UMass lost to AIC 41-11. New England College lost to AIC 24-7. Boston College 50-7. Air Force, University of Notre Dame, and Notre Dame College were all closer to Navy than Dartmouth. Maryland had basically the same scoreline and are now, in fact, ranked below Dartmouth due to the aforementioned ACRL slide.

So crossover games we like, but, a la St. Bonaventure, you've got to get the results, too.

Now, let's look at Iona. The Iona Gaels make no sense. They beat Army (at the time ranked #1), but lost to Wheeling Jesuit. They lost to Kutztown in a nailbiter, but were crushed by Penn State. They lost to Delaware (who lost to Kutztown by 56) on Saturday. So where do you put Iona? Ahead of Army and below Penn State and Kutztown, OK. But Delaware, whose return to college rugby is a great story, still didn't play a hugely tough schedule, and their 46-34 win over St. Joe's turns out to be not that big a deal ... St. Joe's has been stronger. Does beating Iona mean Delaware is better than Army even though Army beat Penn State, and Penn State thumped Delaware? It's really hard to figure out for those two.

Our feeling, in the end, is that Delaware did beat Iona by seven points, and oddly that offsets Iona's advatage in four common opponents (Ioan 1-3, points different of -41, Delaware 1-3, pd of -48). While at the beginning of the fall, Delaware wasn't as good as Army, as the fall has progressed, it's reasonable to say the Hens could beat the Knights. And since both teams will have competitive opportunities in the spring to change our minds, we end up putts Delaware ahead of Iona at #17.