A lot of movement this week in the D1AA rankings.
That's what playoffs can do for you.
We had a few surprises, especially in the Heart of America playoffs weekend, where the North kind of dominated, which was a surprise. Minnesota, which has been lurking for a while, comes into the Top 30.
Also coming in is Oregon State and Oregon. This is because Oregon State played Sam Houston State really close, 22-20, and Oregon had already beaten Oregon State. So right now we have four of the five NCRC teams in our Top 30.
SHSU gets pinged a bit for their 22-20 scoreline vs the Beavers. Also getting pinged is Babson, which lost big to Bowling Green. There's a danger in hanging everything on one game, even a playoff game. Babson had a good year, and maybe this was just a bad day. But they have to move down at least a little, and because they beat Northeastern in the Liberty semis, Northeastern has to move down, too.
The thing is ... that means someone moves up. Who would that be? West Chester and St. Joe's are very close and they kind of move together, and yes WCU lost to BC ... but they were leading 31-5 at one point and we figure we'll treat that result as a close loss even though, in the end, it wasn't that close.
It just seems overkill to move Wayne State or Delaware or Western Michigan past Babson and Northeastern. But don't think we didn't consider it.
Iowa State and Iowa are done for the fall, but they can still move up depending on performances. Is Kentucky that good based on their 79-0 shutout of UNC Charlotte? Or is UNC Charlotte just that outmatched? Maybe a bit of both. The Southern Conference doesn't provide the same weekly challenges that the SCRC does, but they're working on it.
But it's possible that Kentucky, Louisville, or Tennessee can have a bad performance and ISU or Iowa moves up. We'll see.
Remember, we reboot these rankings in January with teams that play in the winter spring, which will include some HOA teams, teams on the West Coast, and teams in Florida. So we'll see maybe 10 teams remain in the rankings, and the likes of Florida State, ARC, Fresno State, Claremont Colleges, and San Francisco State (who are already winning games) will join.
Before all that happens, we have seven more games to round out the fall.
