Men DIA Rankings Week 17

Well of course; the #1-ranked team loses a game, that team usually drops down.

That's what happens here as Life slips from #1 to #4. Why down to #4? Well, Cal, at #2, is the logical team to move up to #1. Arkansas State beat Life, so Life should be below the Red Wolves. Lindenwood beat Arkansas State, so Lindenwood shouldn't move down. There could have been an argument for Saint Mary's to move up if the Gaels had beaten BYU by a decent margin. 

But instead Saint Mary's needed a last-second try to win. The result is an indication that BYU is perhaps better than last year, and could be good enough to make the top five. Navy drops down below Saint Mary's because, in the end, Saint Mary's did beat BYU, and Navy's close loss to Life is now put in the context of a Life loss to Arkansas State.

Life vs Lindenwood and then Arkansas State vs Navy over the next couple of weekends, followed by Saint Mary's vs Navy and Cal vs Army on March 7 should shake things up a little, too.

There is no change further down the line, as the teams involved did what you'd expect given their rankings. The one exception is Grand Canyon, which shut out Santa Clara and looked pretty good doing it. 

Here's how we're voting this week:

Goff Rugby Report D1A Rankings: Week 17
Rank	Prev	Team	Notes
1	2	Cal	Beat Arizona (12)
2	3	Lindenwood	Beat Clemson (26)
3	7	Arkansas State
4	1	Life	Lost to Aransas State (7)
5	5	St Mary's	Beat BYU (8)
6	4	Navy
7	6	Kutztown	Won D1A 7s Qualifier
8	8	BYU	Lost 25-24 to St. Mary's (5)
9	9	Notre Dame College
10	10	Davenport
11	11	Central Washington	Beat Trinity Western
12	12	Arizona	Lost to Cal (2)
13	13	UCLA
14	14	Army
15	15	Penn State
16	16	Iona
17	20	Grand Canyon	Beat Santa Clara (35)
18	17	St. Bonaventure	4th at D1A 7s Qualifier
19	18	Indiana
20	19	Ohio State
Goff Rugby Report D1A Rankings: Week 17
21	21	Illinois
22	22	Colorado
23	23	Colorado State
24	24	Notre Dame
25	25	Northeastern
26	26	Clemson	Lost to Lindenwood (3)
27	27	Texas A&M
28	28	Cal Poly
29	29	American International College
30	30	Boston College
31	31	Syracuse
32	32	Wisconsin
33	33	Mary Washington
34	34	Oklahoma
35	35	Santa Clara	Lost to Grand Canyon (20)
36	36	Utah Valley	3rd in D1A 7s Qualifier
37	37	UC Davis	Beat San Diego State (47)
38	38	North Texas
39	39	Texas	Beat LSU
40	40	Michigan
Goff Rugby Report D1A Rankings: Week 17