Far be it for us to burden you with our problems, but our final Men's DII rankings are late, and in fact we missed a few weeks, and we're sorry.
So this was because your editor moved, and was a little under the weather, and as a result, found some things fell by the wayside. And, as we all can attest to, when something falls by the wayside, it can sometimes stay by the wayside, and the longer it stays, the hard it is to bring it back onto the road.
Tortured metaphors aside, we saw at GRR World Headquarters that there would need to be big changes thanks to the playoffs, and we finally decided to wait for it all to be over.
As it is, we got the #1 right and UW-Whitewater, despite a scare or two, ran the table. VMI was brilliant through the playoffs and was a bit of a surprise for us - mostly because we dropped them down because of a close loss to NC State early in the season. Norwich and ND State didn't disappoint, while Grand Valley State's competitive loss to Whitewater brings them up.
Bethel, having been close to GVSU, moves up, too.
Here are the explanations for the major movers:
VMI - up 11 places because they finished 2nd in the nation.
GVSU - up 10 places because of a close loss to UW-Whitewater.
UW-Milwaukee - up 14 places because of a very close loss to GVSU.
IUPUI - up 5 places because of a very close loss to Illinois State, who are ranked #6.
Hartford - up 13 spots thanks to winning New England Wide Conference, and then beating Oswego and pushing Norwich.
Bethel - up eight spots because they almost beat GVSU during the regular season.
Bloomsburg - down nine spots because other teams moved up, and for getting beaten badly in loss to VMI.
UNC-Charlotte - down 12 spots because they lost to Bloomsburg.
Montana State - down eight spots because of a loss to Illinois State that was worse than IUPUI's loss.
York - down 12 spots because they are below Bloomsburg, who dropped.
Coast Guard Academy and Quinnipiac - up seven places thanks to Hartford's success.
RPI - down five places because of big loss to VMI.
Scranton - up five spots - no specific reason.
East Carolina - up five spots because of strong finish in Southern Conference.
Siena - entering Top 50 at #30 thanks to solid finish in the conference and the realization that their only losses were to RPI and Sacred Heart, and they were very close.
SCSU - down 10 spots because of big loss to Oswego in playoffs.
UMass-Lowell - down nine spots mostly because others moved up.
Coastal Carolina - up 14 places thanks to strong finish and decent showing by other Southern teams ... enough to bunch everyone up a little closer.
DePaul - up nine spots because they lost to Marquette 22-21, and thus should be right behind Marquette.
Appalachian State - see Coastal Carolina. Up six spots.
Louisiana Tech - entered Top 50 after making playoffs and were competitive. Deep South conference not strong in reporting scores and stuff like that so they didn't get ranked before.
Middlebury - down 18 spots because others moved up and they weren't consistent.
Bentley - down 16 for same reasons as Middlebury.
Marist and William Paterson - down eight spots as Tri-State gets hit overall.
USMMA - down six for same reasons as Marist and WPU.
Bryant - into Top 50 thanks to a couple of good late results.
UNC - down five because they didn't finish super-strong.
| Goff Rugby Report Fall 2016 Men DII College Rankings #6 | ||||
| Rank | Prev | Team | Conference | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | UW-Whitewater (Wisc.) | WIIL | Won nationals |
| 2 | 13 | VMI (Va.) | Cardinals | national runners-up |
| 3 | 2 | Norwich (Vt.) | Rugby Northeast | 3rd at nationals |
| 4 | 4 | North Dakota State (ND) | Northern Lights | 4th at nationals |
| 5 | 15 | Grand Valley State (Mich.) | Great Lakes | Beat UW-Mil. (21) 31-28, lost to UWW (1) 24-12 |
| 6 | 7 | Illinois State (Ill.) | WIIL | Bt IUPUI (14), MSU (9), lost to NDSU (4) |
| 7 | 21 | UW-Milwaukee (Wisc.) | WIIL | Bt. UMD (10), lost 31-28 to GVSU (15) |
| 8 | 10 | Minnesota-Duluth (Minn.) | Northern Lights | Lost 39-31 to UW-Milwaukee (21) in Round 1 |
| 9 | 14 | IUPUI (Ind.) | Midwest | Lost 24-21 to ISU (7) in Round 1 |
| 10 | 8 | NC State (NC) | Cardinals | Bt. ECU (32), lost to Norwich (2) |
| 11 | 24 | Hartford (Conn.) | New England-Wide | Bt. Oswego (17), Lost to Norwich (2) |
| 12 | 20 | Bethel (Ind.) | Great Lakes | Close to GVSU |
| 13 | 11 | Northern Michigan (Mich.) | WIIL | 4th in WIIL |
| 14 | 5 | Bloomsburg | MARC | Bt. UNCC (5), lost 43-5 to VMI (13) |
| 15 | 3 | UNC-Charlotte (NC) | Southern | Lost 32-29 to Bloomsburg (5) |
| 16 | 12 | Furman (SC) | Southern | Bt. La. Tech, Lost to NDSU (4) 31-15 |
| 17 | 9 | Montana State (Mont.) | Rocky Mountain | Lost 30-10 to ISU (7) in Round 2 |
| 18 | 6 | York (Pa.) | MARC | |
| 19 | 17 | SUNY Oswego (NY) | Upstate NY | Bt. SCSU (22), lost 28-20 to Hartford (24) |
| 20 | 18 | Geneseo (NY) | Upstate NY | Close to Oswego |
| 21 | 16 | Western State (Colo.) | Rocky Mountain | |
| 22 | 29 | Coast Guard Academy (Conn.) | New England-Wide | |
| 23 | 30 | Quinnipiac (Conn.) | New England-Wide | |
| 24 | 19 | RPI (NY) | Tri-State | Lost 49-5 to VMI (13) in Round 2 |
| 25 | 26 | Sacred Heart (Conn.) | Tri-State | |
| 26 | 31 | Scranton (Pa.) | MARC | |
| 27 | 32 | East Carolina (NC) | Southern | Lost to NC State (6) in Round 1 |
| 28 | 35 | The Citadel (SC) | Southern | |
| 29 | 39 | Pitt State (Kans.) | Gateway | Lost to UWW (1) in Round 2 |
| 30 | Unr | Siena (NY) | Tri-State | |
| 31 | 28 | Vermont (Vt.) | Independent | |
| 32 | 22 | Southern Connecticut (Conn.) | Rugby Northeast | |
| 33 | 36 | Millersville (Pa) | MARC | |
| 34 | 25 | UMass-Lowell (Mass.) | Rugby Northeast | |
| 35 | 49 | Coastal Carolina (SC) | Southern | |
| 36 | 33 | Marquette (Wisc.) | WIIL | Lost to UW-Milwaukee (35) |
| 37 | 46 | DePaul (Ill.) | WIIL | |
| 38 | 44 | Appalachian State (NC) | Southern | |
| 39 | Unr | Louisiana Tech | Deep South | Close loss to Furman (12) in 1st Round |
| 40 | 40 | UMS&T (Mo.) | Gateway | |
| 41 | 23 | Middlebury (Vt.) | Rugby Northeast | |
| 42 | 42 | Old Dominion (Va.) | Cardinals | |
| 43 | 27 | Bentley (Mass.) | Rugby Northeast | |
| 44 | 43 | SLU (Mo.) | Gateway | |
| 45 | 37 | Marist (NY) | Tri-State | |
| 46 | 38 | William Paterson (NY) | Tri-State | |
| 47 | 41 | USMMA (NY) | Tri-State | |
| 48 | 50 | Southern Illinois (Ill.) | Gateway | |
| 49 | Unr | Bryant (RI) | Rugby Northeast | |
| 50 | 45 | UNC (NC) | Southern | |
