With the #1 team losing we have to have a new #1.

Adrian had a good chance to vault into that place but—as has been the case through a chunk of their season—they had an opponent cancel on them, and #2 Norwich beat a ranked opponent in convincing fashion. So it's logical that Norwich takes the #1 spot.

Where to put Furman? They lost to the #19 team and while you could argue that UNC-Charlotte has dramatically improved (UNC-Charlotte Win Jolts Southern Conference Pecking Order ) but it's tough to say they should rise to, say, #3 or #4. In the end, we nudge them up to #7 and Furman down to #8. It is distinctly possible that any team in the top 14 or so could go on a national championship run. We do think it's pretty tight in this group.

UMass-Lowell, which, like #1 Norwich, is undefeated in the NEWCRC, might well be higher than #9, but, as we have implied, we think that group is almost interchangeable.

The big change in this ranking is Georgia Tech. The thing about Georgia Tech was that they tied Auburn at the beginning of the season. After that, Auburn went on a run to show that they were much improved from two years ago. Tech, however, had forfeit wins and not enough data for us to go on. So we needed something, and an impressive win over MTSU was what did it. We had a list of five or so teams we were waiting on for this week's rankings. Three of those, Georgia Tech, Providence, and Sacred Heart, all come into the Top 40. Providence came into the Top 40 a couple of weeks ago after a close win over Coast Guard, but then they lost to Sacred Heart, and we wondered at their ability to back up a win. The Black Pack's victory over Boston University put paid to that.

With Coast Guard's loss to Norwich, in which they lost 46-0, we can sort of see, now, a hierarchy in the NEWCRC with none of those teams in the Top 20 but still in there. Providence, it seems, is at the top of that second group. Sacred Heart may have beaten Providence, but not those other teams. A win over UNH gets them in at #40.

The other big mover is Pitt State, which beat UMS&T 14-0. Now the talk is that they could have scored more. Whatever, what matters to us is the shutout. Shutouts are tough to accomplish against good teams. S&T drops seven spots and Pitt State moves up 14. Also moving up is Bucknell because they keep beating good teams. 

Click the image at the right to see a larger version of the NCR Men's DII playoff bracket.

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Rank	Prev	Team	Conference	Notes
1	2	Norwich (VT)	New England-Wide	Beat Coast Guard (21)
2	3	Adrian (MI)	Great Lakes	Forfeit win
3	4	Marquette (WI)	Great MW	Beat UW-Milwaukee
4	5	UW-Whitewater (WI)	Great MW	Beat Northern Michigan
5	6	Marian (IN)	MCRC	Lost to Lindenwood
6	7	Northern Iowa (IA)	Great MW	Beat Loyola (26)
7	19	UNC-Charlotte (NC)	Southern	Beat Furman (1)
8	1	Furman (SC)	Southern	Lost to UNC-Charlotte (19)
9	10	UMass-Lowell (MA)	New England-Wide	Beat Vermont (11)
10	9	IUP (PA)	Allegheny	Beat Kent State
11	8	Central Michigan (MI)	Great Lakes	Beat Calvin
12	11	Vermont (VT)	New England-Wide	Lost to UMass-Lowell (10)
13	12	Memphis (TN)	SCRC	Beat Ole Miss
14	13	Illinois State (IL)	Great MW
15	16	Belmont Abbey (NC)	Southern
16	20	Auburn (AL)	SCRC	Beat Mississippi State
17	24	Bucknell (PA)	MARC	Beat Bloomsburg
18	Unr	Georgia Tech (GA)	SCRC	Beat MTSU (15)
19	33	Pitt State (KS)	Gateway	Beat UMS&T (14)
20	17	Montana State (MT)	Rocky Mountain
21	14	UMS&T (MO)	Gateway	Lost to Pitt State (33)
22	23	UNC-Wilmington (NC)	Southern	Beat Coastal Carolina
23	25	Villanova (PA)	MARC	Beat Drexel (38)
24	27	Principia (IL)	Gateway
25	18	UW-Platteville (WI)	Great MW
26	Unr	Providence (RI)	New England-Wide	Beat Boston University (22)
27	21	Coast Guard (CT)	New England-Wide	Lost to Norwich (2)
28	22	Boston University (MA)	New England-Wide	Lost to Providence
29	28	Marist (NY)	Tri-State
30	29	USMMA (NY)	Tri-State
31	30	UNC (NC)	Southern
32	31	Citadel (SC)	Southern	Beat East Carolina
33	34	Virginia (VA)	Cardinals	Beat Old Dominion
34	15	MTSU (TN)	SCRC	Lost to Georgia Tech
35	35	Grand Valley State (MI)	Great Lakes	Beat Ferris State
36	32	Thomas More (KY)	MCRC	Forfeit win
37	36	Central Missouri (MO)	Gateway	Beat John Brown
38	40	Georgetown (DC)	MARC	Beat Towson
39	26	Loyola-Chicago (IL)	Great MW	Lost to Northern Iowa (7)
40	Unr	Sacred Heart (CT)	New England-Wide	Beat New Hampshire