If Furman had lost to Belmont Abbey it's likely Norwich, having beaten two highly-ranked teams in convincing fashion, would have been #1.

As it is, Furman did enough to hold onto the top spot. For now. Any of the top 10 could potentially make a run for a title. Unfortunately for many, having a team unable to play you ends up hurting the team able to take the field. For all their ability, Adrian and Marian have been forfeited to far too much, and you need to play to move up. Several teams in the rankings, five in fact, moved down because they were unable to play a game, and therefore couldn't provide enough of a case to move up. With other teams in action, then, inaction is not your friend.

It might be a bit much to move Marian down to #6 from #3, but Marquette and Whitewater are playing some very, very good rugby right now, and you know we think the Great Midwest is a tough conference, so that's why they both move past the Knights. Notice that Northern Iowa, idle this week, didn't.

Memphis gets a boost after beating MTSU, and Montana State keeps flying the flag of the West, and doing it well—they move up five spots. The biggest mover is Principia, which has been on fire of late. 

Some other things to note: Several teams that won games saw their rankings drop. This is generally due to another team getting a big boost and those drops are usually just one spot. Secondly, you will see four new teams in the Top 40, and here's why ... Villanova has been really good and beat a ranked team by a lot; Pitt State beat a ranked team, and it was a close game so we ended up not penalizing Central Missouri; Loyola beat a ranked team and is now 4-0 in conference play; Drexel is now unbeaten in conference play. Three of these teams are form the MARC and that's no surprise given that we said a few weeks ago it was all a bit of guesswork with that conference.

Basically what has happened is some teams that have been historically strong have struggled, and teams that are relatively new to the DII league have done well. Villanova was just a team we were waiting on, and their shutout win over TCNJ (38-0) is definitely a head-turner.

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Rank	Prev	Team	Conference	Notes
1	1	Furman (SC)	Southern	Beat Belmont Abbey (17)
2	4	Norwich (VT)	New England-Wide	Beat Boston University (21)
3	2	Adrian (MI)	Great Lakes	Beat Fort Wayne men's club
4	5	Marquette (WI)	Great MW
5	6	UW-Whitewater (WI)	Great MW	Beat UW-Platteville (12)
6	3	Marian (IN)	MCRC	Forfeit win
7	7	Northern Iowa (IA)	Great MW
8	8	Central Michigan (MI)	Great Lakes	Forfeit Win
9	9	IUP (PA)	Allegheny	Beat West Virginia
10	10	UMass-Lowell (MA)	New England-Wide	Beat New Hampshire
11	11	Vermont (VT)	New England-Wide	Beat Quinnipiac
12	16	Memphis (TN)	SCRC	Beat MTSU (15)
13	14	Illinois State (IL)	Great MW	Beat UIC
14	13	UMS&T (MO)	Gateway
15	15	MTSU (TN)	SCRC	Lost to Memphis (16)
16	17	Belmont Abbey (NC)	Southern	Lost to Furman (1)
17	22	Montana State (MT)	Rocky Mountain	Beat Colorado Mesa
18	12	UW-Platteville (WI)	Great MW	Lost to UW-Whitewater (6)
19	18	UNC-Charlotte (NC)	Southern	Beat Appalachian State
20	19	Auburn (AL)	SCRC	Beat Ole Miss
21	20	Coast Guard (CT)	New England-Wide	Beat Bentley
22	21	Boston University (MA)	New England-Wide	Lost to Norwich (4)
23	26	UNC-Wilmington (NC)	Southern	Beat Citadel (29)
24	27	Bucknell (PA)	MARC	Beat York
25	Unr	Villanova (PA)	MARC	Beat TCNJ (36)
26	24	Loyola-Chicago (IL)	Great MW	Beat Northwestern
27	34	Principia (IL)	Gateway	Beat Washington University
28	23	Marist (NY)	Tri-State	Forfeit Win
29	25	USMMA (NY)	Tri-State	Beat Seton Hall
30	28	UNC (NC)	Southern
31	29	Citadel (SC)	Southern	Lost to UNC-Wilmington (26)
32	32	Thomas More (KY)	MCRC	Beat Miami of Ohio
33	Unr	Pitt State (KS)	Gateway	Beat Central Missouri (39)
34	35	Virginia (VA)	Cardinals	Beat Christendom College
34	Unr	Loyola (MD)	MARC	Beat Georgetown (33)
35	37	Grand Valley State (MI)	Great Lakes	Beat SVSU
36	39	Central Missouri (MO)	Gateway	Lost to Pitt State
38	Unr	Drexel (PA)	MARC	Beat East Stroudsburg
39	38	RPI (NY)	Tri-State	Forfeit Win
40	33	Georgetown (DC)	MARC	Lost to Loyola Md.