Who is jumping from the 2nd tier into the top tier in Men's D2 college rugby?
As we've been saying for a while this fall, there's a fairly clear division between the stronger teams and the next tier. There's generally a series of tiers within D2 college rugby, but the gap isn't always especially large. It is this year.
We might be seeing UMBC, Loyola, UMass Lowell, Southern Illinois, or New Hampshire straddle that gap, but that may be about it.
Because of that we are seeing very little change in the top 15 or 20. It's hard to imagine there'll be too many changes. Why? Well look at the recent results.
In the last two weeks, scores between Top 20 teams and those not in the Top 20 have, with one exception, been blowouts or forfeits. The frequency of forfeits is concerning, for sure, but putting those aside, the average winning margins of those games (except SLU vs SIU) is 67. SLU vs SIU was 17-12 and after that we moved SIU up. They won this week and they move up again. But those other games, 13 of them, included five winning margins of 80 or more. Not ideal
So overall we're not seeing a ton of close games involving the top 15-20 teams.
In the rankings 21-40 we have more movement. North Dakota State moves into the Top 40. Central Michigan, UMBC, Southern Illinois, and Loyola all move up significantly. Big losses, not playing, or forfeiting, will see teams move down.
