With the finals this past weekend, it's pretty clear that Thomas More is the #1 team and Adrian is #2.
Norwich finished ranked #3 and the only other changes are that we tie Northern Iowa and Illinois State—yes ISU beat UNI in the Great Midwest final, but UNI beat ISU earlier in the season and went further in the playoffs. Illinois State lost fairly convincingly against Adrian in the quarterfinals; Northern Iowa lost convincingly to Thomas More in the semis. Northern Iowa also lost a close game to NEWCRC champs Norwich. ISU had already won a close game to NEWCRC #2 UMass-Lowell. There's not much between them so we decided to have them tie at #4.
Also moving up are Marquette and Auburn—basically this is a result of how Marquette and UM-Duluth did against Thomas More, and how UM-Duluth beat Principia. In the end we get a feeling that Auburn probably also deserves to move up a bit.
This, overall, has been a remarkably successful fall. We were worried about forfeits and teams not being able to take the field due to COVID shutdown issues. All of that happened, but not so much that we couldn't have conference seasons, rankings, and championships.
What we also noted, by the way, was that our habit of ranking teams partly based on how tough a conference is didn't hold water this time. The Great Lakes and MCRC were not deep conferences, not like the NEWCRC or Great Midwest. And while that difference allows us to rank, say, the #3 or #4 team from those deeper conferences, and that's logical, what it doesn't do is say "hey, NEWCRC has the most high-quality teams so obviously their best team is THE best team." Actually, we don't usually think that. What we do think is that a weak conference makes it much tougher to judge whether the top team in that conference deserves to be ranked the best.
Conventional wisdom, and our experience at GRR, is that teams that win tough games through their season (or something like the Rugby World Cup) usually translates into a championship. Winning in rollovers does not. Usually. But this time it didn't pan out. Thomas More and Adrian won by massive margins, they won via forfeits, and they were rarely tested. Didn't matter. It's a testament to their coaching, their discipline, and the support from their school that they made the final. It will be a lesson going forward.
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| Rank | Prev | Team | Conference | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Thomas More (KY) | MCRC | Beat UNI (5), Adrian (1) |
| 2 | 1 | Adrian (MI) | Great Lakes | Beat Norwich (2), lost to Thomas More (3) |
| 3 | 2 | Norwich (VT) | New England-Wide | Lost to Adrian (1), beat UNI (5) |
| 4 | 4 | Illinois State (IL) | Great MW | |
| 4 | 5 | Northern Iowa (IA) | Great MW | Lost to Thomas More (3), Norwich (2) |
| 6 | 6 | UMass-Lowell (MA) | New England-Wide | |
| 7 | 7 | Marian (IN) | MCRC | |
| 8 | 8 | Georgetown (DC) | MARC | |
| 9 | 9 | IUP (PA) | Allegheny | |
| 10 | 10 | UNC-Wilmington (NC) | Southern | |
| 11 | 13 | Auburn (AL) | SCRC | |
| 12 | 14 | Marquette (WI) | Great MW | |
| 13 | 11 | UM-Duluth | Northern Lights | |
| 14 | 12 | Principia (IL) | Gateway | |
| 15 | 15 | Montana State (MT) | Rocky Mountain | |
| 16 | 17 | Marist (NY) | Tri-State | |
| 17 | 18 | Vermont (VT) | New England-Wide | |
| 18 | 19 | Memphis (TN) | SCRC | |
| 19 | 20 | Georgia Tech (GA) | SCRC | |
| 20 | 25 | Central Michigan (MI) | Great Lakes | |
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| 21 | 21 | Bucknell (PA) | MARC | |
| 22 | 27 | UNC-Charlotte (NC) | Southern | |
| 23 | 22 | Drexel (PA) | MARC | |
| 24 | 23 | Villanova (PA) | MARC | |
| 25 | 24 | UW-Whitewater (WI) | Great MW | |
| 26 | 26 | Providence (RI) | New England-Wide | |
| 27 | 28 | UNC (NC) | Southern | |
| 28 | 29 | Citadel (SC) | Southern | |
| 29 | 30 | Virginia (VA) | Cardinals | |
| 30 | 16 | Furman (SC) | Southern | |
| 31 | 31 | SLU (MO) | Gateway | |
| 32 | 32 | Pitt State (KS) | Gateway | |
| 33 | 33 | East Carolina | Southern | |
| 34 | 34 | Boston University (MA) | New England-Wide | |
| 35 | 35 | Coast Guard (CT) | New England-Wide | |
| 36 | 36 | USMMA (NY) | Tri-State | |
| 37 | 37 | RPI (NY) | Tri-State | |
| 38 | 38 | Belmont Abbey (NC) | Southern | |
| 39 | 39 | UMS&T (MO) | Gateway | |
| 40 | 40 | UW-Platteville (WI) | Great MW | xyz |
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