This is the second-to-last D2 rankings as we come down to the final weekend in Houston December 8-10.
We won't have an update until after that weekend, of course.
This past weekend's action was really interesting because we finally get some games across conference borders. Currently D2 rugby is heavily centered on conference play, and that is certainly a good thing, but we would humbly suggest that tours, even a tour to another state, or even just a inter-conference challenge weekend, would be really beneficial to everyone. Northern Lights and the Great Midwest used to do this and both would benefit from a cross-border event. Gateway and Great Lakes also would benefit from having a weekend where teams play each other—teams that are struggling for numbers could still play, maybe borrow some players or play 12-a-side, because those wouldn't be league games.
A long weekend trip to another state would be good, too. Just a suggestion, but we'd like to see more crossover games in D2, especially for the conferences that struggle to fill their schedules.
This week the rankings generally predicted the results. Of the 16 results over the two days of competition , higher-ranked teams won 13 and lost three. Of the three rankings upsets all were relatively close in rankings (#6 over #3, #10 over #4, #15 over #13). Perhaps the biggest shocker was #10 Vermont beating Villanova, which had already defeated Maine, a team that had beaten Vermont earlier in the season. So this was a case of a team (Vermont) who we knew was solid, but had lost a couple of games to be #3 in their conference—we couldn't rank them higher than #7 or #8 anyway.
Vermont's result means we kind of have to throw out their losses to Maine and Norwich. Playoffs mean more than regular season. Playoff knockout rounds also mean more than consolation games. Looking at the face of it, Vermont moves past Maine because UVM beat Villanova and Maine lost to Villanova. And Maine stays ahead of Norwich courtesy of their win over the Cadets in NEWCRC play. But that would mean we have to throw out Maine's 27-20 victory over UVM, and Norwich's 32-13 win over Vermont.
That's where the plan kind of breaks down. Close results are easier to throw out. Even so, if Norwich had done poorly in this past playoff weekend we could have made a drastic move. But they didn't do poorly. In fact, Norwich didn't do anything remarkable in terms of results. They beat a team we expected them to beat by a score that wasn't a surprise, and then lost to a team we expected them to lose to, but a perfectly creditable score of 46-26. So in the end we are comfortable throwing aside Maine's wins, because they were both really close (17-15 and 27-20) but less comfortable throwing away 32-13 (Norwich over Vermont on October 14).
So Vermont moves up, of course, but we can't move them past Norwich. So that's why the NEWCRC champion, Maine, is currently ranked third among those three NEWCRC teams.
The other thing worth talking about Montana State and Grand Valley State. Montana State moves up after their results, of course, and we might add that their conference being so isolated makes it more difficult to move them higher. It would be great if someone in D2 took a tour to, say, Denver, and met MSU there in September. Anyone game?
GVSU dominated a conference that's not especially strong. So now we come into the games this weekend. Montana State beat Loyola, and GVSU beat UW-Whitewater—two comparably-ranked teams and two teams we're confident are pretty close to each other competitively (the result between them was 17-15). Both lost to highly-ranked teams, with MSU losing to Northern Iowa and GVSU losing to Georgetown.
In the end, we put Montana State ahead of Grand Valley State because a) MSU's loss to UNI was closer than GVSU's loss to Georgetown; b) in fact, while Montana State lost by 22, and no other D2 game UNI played was within 50; c) GVSU's win was a consolation game on Sunday, while MSU's win was a knockout game on Friday; and d) Montana State's winning margin over Loyola was larger than GVSU's win over Whitewater.
