We've talked about how close teams are in D1A, and this past weekend showed in some ways how that's true and in some ways how it's not.

The very strongest teams were able to test multiple lineups against opposition, but when they put in their best combinations, they win in impressive style. We're talking about Navy, Army, Central Washington, Lindenwood, and Life.

At the same time, we can look at Cal Poly, who was a try short of Saint Mary's, and beat Army by eight, but Army beat Arizona by five, Saint Mary's beat UCLA by seven, and UCLA beat Arizona by three ... only for Arizona to beat Cal Poly by 28. 

What that did is force us to count some results over others. Could Arizona be ranked above UCLA despite losing to the Bruins? Sure, it was a close game. And if Arizona wins or is very close to Cal this coming weekend maybe we can move them up. Or what if Army has a very poor game against Life, could we move them down a bit and maybe throw out that Arizona loss to Army? Possibly. 

Here are the scores from this past weekend:

Army 25 Mount St. Mary's 15
Navy 45 Penn State 7
Lindenwood 24 Arkansas State 7
Life 92 Davenport 7
Cal 76 Colorado State 7
Arizona 47 Cal Poly 19
Central Washington 53 BYU 26
Saint Mary's 24 UCLA 17
Ohio State 31 Air Force 29
Utah State 39 UC Santa Cruz 21

This includes the Challenger Cup games. Ohio State and Air Force were ranked right next to each other so a close result either way wasn't a surprise. UC Santa Cruz hung tough against Utah State. We moved them up and not San Diego State ... why?

Well, first off this is a playoff game and UCSC gets a little bump for that. The other thing is that, while San Diego State did indeed beat UCSC, it was a one-score result and overall, UCSC did a bit better against everyone else in the California Conference. Against common opponents in the California Conference, both teams were 2-5, with UCSC's points different about 2.9 points per game better. Look at those seven common opponents and UCSC had a better result against five of them.

That's why UCSC comes in at #25 and not San Diego State.

More playoff games coming!

Arizona at Cal
Central Washington at Saint Mary's
Army at Life
Lindenwood at Navy

The Challenger Cup teams play a week later, so we'll have four more games that week.