One of the biggest decisions we have to make in our rankings is whether to keep a tie as a tie in the rankings.

Yes Notre Dame College tied Davenport, but does that mean they have to be deadlocked from now on? This week, we've decided to separate the two. This is mostly because Davenport still has some games to play, and the data on NDC is pretty heavy, if a bit confused.

Had NDC beaten St. Bonaventure on September 21, this would be pretty easy. NDC beat Army, lost to Penn State and Kutztown competitively, and while the Falcons lost to Iowa Central CC, it was 22-20 and NDC rested some guys. So we could confidently put NDC up in the Top 10. But this week, NDC lost to Navy in a game they could easily have won. You know we think Navy is strong, so in this case, that loss carries some weight.

At the same tie, St. Bonaventure is also confused. Beat NDC, but lost to University of Notre Dame (switch the wins and losses and our job gets a whole lot easier). Then SBU beats Iona, who beat the Fighting Irish convincingly.

So do we keep SBU behind Notre Dame, but ahead of Iona, who beat Notre Dame? You see the issue.

And finally, one more dilemma; when teams are idle, and those around them lose or don't do what we expect, when can we move them up? We're looking at Arizona, Central Washington, and Grand Canyon.

Well the answer to that question is, there are games to come soon. A good January result for those teams means a lot, because right now we've seen nothing. 

As for those other questions, we've decided to value NDC's close loss to Navy and win over Army enough to break the tie with Davenport. We have decided that Davenport could well move past NDC at some point, but losing by 40 to Lindenwood won't do it. NDC hasn't played Lindenwood, but lost by two to Navy, who lost by five to Lindenwood, so there's that.

And we have to kind of dismiss St. Bonaventure's 13-10 loss on the road in the rain to Notre Dame, and instead take SBU's win over Iona this past weekend more at face value.

Our additional problem is that we feel that Indiana is stronger now then they were in early September, but Iona beat Indiana 33-5 in early September. Had that game been really close, we might have tossed the result at some point. But 33-5 is difficult to ignore.

You ever wonder who is #41? This week, it's Fairfield, and even with their season finished, they could move up if the teams 35-40 have trouble.

Goff Rugby Report D1A Rankings: Week 11
Rank	Prev	Team	Notes
1	1	Life
2	2	Cal
3	3	Lindenwood	Beat Davenport (10)
4	4	Navy	Beat Notre Dame College (10)
5	5	St Mary's
6	6	Kutztown
7	7	Arkansas State
8	10	Notre Dame College	Lost close game to Navy (4)
9	9	BYU	Beat New Mexico
10	10	Davenport	Lost to Lindenwood (3)
11	8	Army
12	12	Penn State	Game canceled
13	26	St. Bonaventure	Beat Iona (13)
14	13	Iona	Lost to St. Bonaventure (26)
15	14	Indiana
16	15	Ohio State
17	16	Colorado	Beat Wyoming
18	17	Illinois
19	18	Arizona
20	19	Colorado State
Goff Rugby Report D1A Rankings: Week 11
21	20	Notre Dame
22	21	UCLA
23	22	Central Washington
24	27	Northeastern	Beat Boston College (28)
25	23	Grand Canyon
26	24	Clemson
27	37	American International College	Beat Syracuse (31) 19-17
28	25	Texas A&M
29	28	Boston College	Lost to Northeastern (27)
30	31	Syracuse	Lost 19-17 to AIC (36)
31	30	Wisconsin
32	32	Mary Washington
33	29	Oklahoma	Lost to Lindenwood-Belleville (DIAA)
34	33	UC Davis
35	38	Utah Valley	Beat Utah State
36	34	San Diego State
37	35	Texas
38	36	Michigan
39	39	Fordham	Beat Binghamton
40	40	Air Force
Goff Rugby Report D1A Rankings: Week 11