It’s playoff speculation time.

Here’s a look at what we might see in the Men’s DII College playoffs:

 

Pittsburgh Brackets

(two groups of four teams will play here)

Rugby Northeast

MARC

New England Wide

Upstate NY

NECRC

Colonial Coast

WIIL

At least one at-large

 

Bryant looks to be the strongest team in Rugby Northeast, even though Providence is also undefeated. It’s one of those two for sure.

Rowan and IUP seem to be on similar a collision course in the MARC.

Coast Guard has been dominant in the New England Wide … but, as in the RNE, there’s another team lurking, which would be Hartford.

In Upstate New York, Cortland has been the team to beat, and no one has. However, they've got a playoff that could trip up anyone, so we'll keep an eye on them. In the NECRC, Norwich is clearly the best team and have basically clinched. Salve Regina is tops in the Colonial Coast, and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change.

Wisconsin-Whitewater looks to be the favorite in the WIIL, again.

So that leaves an option or two for at least two play-in teams. We could see another WIIL team, but we might also see a runner-up from Rugby Northeast, MARC, NEWCRC, and Upstate NY - who all have cases to plead.

 

Greenville, SC

Tri-State

Southern

Cardinals

At-Large

Sacred Heart and William Paterson look to be the best in the Tri-State. The Southern is always tight, and watch for Furman, UNC-Wilmington, Coastal Carolina, and UNC-Charlotte all to push for the conference title. There’s an excellent chance, since this bracket is in the Carolinas, that the top two might get a shot.

Cardinals is down to NC State and VMI, and will continue to be. Second-place should really play off with the #2 from the Southern to get here. But, the real wild card is Tulane, which is playing an independent DII schedule, and could be considered here.

It’s not unprecedented for conference champs to have to play-in - they did last year. 

 

Wayne State

Northern Lights

Gateway

Rocky Mountain

Great Lakes

This is kind of straightforward, except that the Northern Lights will be wanting a second team to get a look. And given how the Gateway lost to the WIIL #2 last year in the play-in round, we could see that again. The Northern Lights #2, however, was beaten fairly convincingly in the play-in round, so you never know.

As for the teams who could compete, Minnesota-Duluth is the heavy favorite to be the Northern Lights winner again. Several teams remain in contention in the Gateway, while in the Rocky Mountain it appears to be Western State. Great Lakes is likely GVSU, although Oakland is having a good season.

 

All of the play-ins need to be held the weekend of November 5 12, and the teams we might see involved are:

Tulane (independent team from the Deep South)

WIIL #2 (UW-Milwaukee, Northern Michigan, Illinois State, Northern Iowa)

Northern Lights #2 (Winona State, North Dakota State)

MARC #2 (IUP or Rowan … possibly York)

Southern (Furman, UNCW, or Coastal)

Rocky Mountain (School of Mines)

Cardinals (VMI or NC State)

Great Lakes (GVSU or Oakland - if they are close when they play each other) 

 

It’s perhaps a little less likely to see Rugby Northeast’s or Tri-State’s #2 get involved, given how their conference champions performed last year in the national playoffs. But it’s also a matter of geography; a team that needs a play-in opportunity might be best-suited to play the Tri-State #2. 

For certain, various teams and conferences are still lobbying for a play-in spot.