This week was a huge week for the Men's D2 rankings, with several non-ranked or lower-ranked teams beating those ranked higher.

Or so it seemed. Actually, ranked teams vs non-ranked teams went 11-1 (not counting forfeits; there were six of those). In ranked vs ranked games, higher-ranked teams were 4-2. So, really, the big news is those three results against rankings, two of which were in the Great Midwest. Marquette (last week's #26) beat #4 UW-Whitewater on the final play of the game.

We should have had Marquette higher, obviously, but that's what happens when there's been no D2 rugby for 21 months, you have to fall back on history and be suspicious of teams that saw a surge in success in 2019. Turns out, Marquette is here to stay, and that's good for the league. Also in  the Great Midwest, Northern Iowa beat Illinois State. We were happy with our initial decision to list ISU at #13—respect but still a little unsure how their recent success (like Marquette's) would carry over. At the same time, UNI had fallen on hard times. There was nothing really from the last few years that told us they would start strong.

They started strong.

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And, finally, there was Coast Guard over Boston University, and this is really just a dumb move by GRR, as you'd expect an institution like the Coast Guard Academy to be able to muscle through COVID shutdowns because of the the serious life choices the students have made. We should have foreseen USCGA would be ready to go.

The results, then, prompt Marquette to get a big boost and Whitewater to drop, but not too far. We think they are still strong. Northern Iowa vaults into the Top 10 but that is a shaky spot. They have to back it up. Coast Guard moves up, but we remind you the result was 15-11 over BU so it's not like they dominated. (UNI kind of dominated.) We had Northern Michigan on our watch list, and then UW-Platteville beat them 24-7, so, yes, Platteville jumps in. Also coming into the rankings is Scranton, while Lehigh (no result reported yet), Villanova (same), and York (loss to Bloomsburg) drop out. We fully expect more MARC teams to come in soon.

Big drops: West Virginia has lost two games by big margins, so they drop. WVU had beaten Alderson Broaddus, so they drop, and lost to Kent State 17-15, which had pushed Kent State into #6. Kent State's basis for that ranking is frittering away, so they drop 18 places. Why 18? Because other teams won games, often against good competition.

Illinois State drops after their loss, but not too far. Minnesota-Duluth just hasn't played so we dropped them from #14 to #38. Once they start playing we expect them to move up.

Meanwhile, Furman's strong defensive effort led them to a big win and they stay at #1.

Rank	Prev	Team	Conference	Notes
1	1	Furman (SC)	Southern	Beat Appalachian State
2	2	Adrian (MI)	Great Lakes	Beat Central Michigan (7)
3	3	Marian (IN)	MCRC	Forfeit win
4	5	Norwich (VT)	New England-Wide	Beat Sacred Heart
5	9	Vermont (VT)	New England-Wide	Beat New Hampshire
6	26	Marquette (WI)	Great MW	Beat UW-Whitewater (4)
7	4	UW-Whitewater (WI)	Great MW	Lost 36-31 to Marquette (26)
8	Unr	Northern Iowa (IA)	Great MW	Beat Illinois State (13)
9	7	Central Michigan (MI)	Great Lakes	Lost to Adrian (2)
10	10	Loyola-Chicago (IL)	Great MW	Beat UIC
11	11	UMS&T (MO)	Gateway	Forfeit win
12	11	Central Missouri (MO)	Gateway	Beat John Brown
13	16	UMass-Lowell (MA)	New England-Wide	Beat Bentley (25)
14	18	IUP (PA)	Allegheny	Beat West Virginia (29)
15	15	MTSU (TN)	SCRC	Beat Ole Miss
16	17	Memphis (TN)	SCRC
17	19	Belmont Abbey (NC)	Southern
18	20	UNC-Charlotte (NC)	Southern	Beat Lander
19	21	UNC (NC)	Southern	Beat Coastal Carolina
20	39	Coast Guard (CT)	New England-Wide	Beat Boston University (24)
21	13	Illinois State (IL)	Great MW	Lost to Northern Iowa
22	32	USMMA (NY)	Tri-State	Beat RPI (33)
23	23	Marist (NY)	Tri-State	Forfeit win
24	6	Kent State	Allegheny
25	25	Bentley (MA)	New England-Wide	Lost to UMass-Lowell (16)
26	24	Boston University (MA)	New England-Wide	Lost to Coast Guard (39)
27	Unr	UW-Platteville (WI)	Great MW	Beat Northern Michigan
28	27	Montana State (MT)	Rocky Mountain	Forfeit win
29	30	Miami (OH)	MCRC
30	37	Ferris State	Great Lakes	Beat Oakland
31	38	Virginia (VA)	Cardinals	Beat Washington &Lee
32	33	RPI (NY)	Tri-State	Lost to USMMA (32)
33	40	Thomas More (KY)	MCRC	Beat Eastern Kentucky
34	Unr	Scranton (PA)	MARC	Beat Shippensburg
35	29	West Virginia	Allegheny	Lost to IUP (17)
36	22	Alderson Broaddus (WV)	Allegheny
37	35	SLU (MO)	Gateway	Forfeit win
38	14	Minnesota-Duluth (MI)	Northern Lights
39	31	Pitt State (KS)	Gateway	Forfeit win
40	34	Grand Valley State (MI)	Great Lakes	Forfeit win