Here is our final Men's DII 15s rankings for the 2019 fall season.
Picking the #1 is fairly easy. The big concern on Queens had been that they hadn't played opponents whose strength we were sure of, and they had a loss to NSCRO team Southern Virginia in there, too. Even so, Queens we never lower than #8, and bumped up to #2 after the first rounds of the playoffs.
Who's No. 2?
There's a large gap between #1 and the rest, as no one has really been close to Queens (except Southern Virginia, a non-league game that the Royals clearly took a bit lightly). So Whitewater takes #2 on the basis of having lost only one game, and that one 10-5 in the mud. #3 is Vermont which could easily have beaten Whitewater in the Round of 16, and then after that is Memphis, which lost by only a try to Whitewater in the quarterfinals.
No. 5-No. 10
So having established that group of four, we look for #5. Now Missouri S&T took 3rd in the nation after beating Norwich. In addition, S&T beat Illinois State, the one team to beat Whitewater. So, sure, S&T was hammered by Whitewater, but join the club ... that's not rare. It's still clear that S&T should be ranked above Norwich and Illinois State, and by extension Furman (they lost to Norwich in OT).
We know that S&T won close games over Illinois State (13-10), and Norwich (42-36), and Norwich beat Furman in overtime. Illinois State gets a little boost because they beat Whitewater 10-5 in the Great Midwest final.
So those four all seem to be a unit, but if we lock them all together then if we don't rank a team at #5, that team gets bumped down to #9. That's a bit rough if you think a team is close to that high echelon. So that brings us to Villanova. Like Vermont and S&T, Villanova was a solid conference champion. The only issue was that Villanova lost in the Round of 16. That loss was 24-13 to Memphis, and in fact that game was within a try until the final minute.
So we're looking at Memphis being just a try short of Whitewater, and Villanova really just a try short of Memphis. Is that better than losing by over 40 to Whitewater (which is what S&T did)? Well, maybe not, but it seems like Villanova isn't all that different from S&T-ISU-Norwich-Furman.
You could shuffle all of these teams and come out with a different winner. Norwich, ranked #1 until this week, is still a very strong team, but we're having a tough time bolstering a higher ranking now that they lost two in a row.
The bump for Memphis moved up Middle Tennessee State because MTSU was close to Memphis.
Virginia
And finally, Virginia. Here's our problem with Virginia. We don't like teams that bail on games. Virginia opted out of the Cardinals Conference final with Queens, and that's why we dropped them out of the Top 40—as punishment. But there were extenuating circumstances, namely some injuries and the fact that Queens and Virginia had played the week before. Queens had won that game, making the second game kind of moot.
And then we look at that game and see that Virginia scored 28 against Queens, and allowed 51, which is a lot of points, but far fewer than anyone else allowed. And we didn't drop GVSU out of the Top 40 for not showing up to a playoff games—mostly because they did it the right way and for the right reasons. So we're bringing Virginia back, but with a warning that forfeits do not set well with the rankings.
Here it is:
Goff Rugby Report Fall 2019 Men's DII College Rankings Dec 9 2019 | ||||
| Rank | Prev | Team | Conference | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | Queens (NC) | Cardinals | Beat Norwich (1), UW-Whitewater (4) |
| 2 | 4 | UW-Whitewater (WI) | Great MW | Beat Missouri S&T (6), lost to Queens (2) |
| 3 | 5 | Vermont (VT) | New England-Wide | |
| 4 | 8 | Memphis (TN) | SCRC | |
| 5 | 6 | UMS&T (MO) | Gateway | Lost to UW-Whitewater (4), beat Norwich (1) |
| 6 | 7 | Illinois State (IL) | Great MW | |
| 7 | 11 | Villanova (PA) | MARC | |
| 8 | 1 | Norwich (VT) | Rugby Northeast | Lost to Queens (2), Missouri S&T (6) |
| 9 | 3 | Furman (SC) | Southern | |
| 10 | 10 | Loyola-Chicago (IL) | Great MW | |
| 11 | 20 | MTSU (TN) | SCRC | |
| 12 | 9 | UMass-Lowell (MA) | Rugby Northeast | |
| 13 | 24 | Pitt State (KS) | Gateway | |
| 14 | 12 | Boston University (MA) | New England-Wide | |
| 15 | 13 | Bentley (MA) | Rugby Northeast | |
| 16 | 14 | Marquette (WI) | Great MW | |
| 17 | 15 | Montana State (MT) | Rocky Mountain | |
| 18 | 16 | Lehigh (PA) | MARC | |
| 19 | 17 | Northern Colorado | Rocky Mountain | |
| 20 | 18 | UNC (NC) | Southern | |
| Goff Rugby Report Fall 2019 Men's DII College Rankings Dec 9 2019 | ||||
| 21 | 29 | SLU (MO) | Gateway | |
| 22 | 19 | MSU-Moorhead (MN) | Northern Lights | |
| 23 | 21 | Grand Valley State (MI) | Great Lakes | |
| 24 | 22 | Bethel (IN) | Great Lakes | |
| 25 | 23 | Minnesota-Duluth (MI) | Great Midwest | |
| 26 | 25 | William Paterson (NJ) | Tri-State | |
| 27 | 26 | Central Michigan (MI) | Great Lakes | |
| 28 | 27 | Colorado Mesa (CO) | Rocky Mountain | |
| 29 | 28 | UNC-Wilmington (NC) | Southern | |
| 30 | 30 | RPI (NY) | Tri-State | |
| 31 | 31 | Thomas More (KY) | MCRC | |
| 32 | Unr | Virginia (VA) | Cardinals | |
| 33 | 32 | Coast Guard (CT) | New England-Wide | |
| 34 | 33 | Northern Michigan (MI) | Great MW | |
| 35 | 34 | UW-Platteville (WI) | Great MW | |
| 36 | 35 | USMMA (NY) | Tri-State | |
| 37 | 36 | Marist (NY) | Tri-State | |
| 38 | 37 | Shippensburg (PA) | MARC | |
| 39 | 38 | York (PA) | MARC | |
| 40 | 39 | UNC-Charlotte (NC) | Southern | |
| Goff Rugby Report Fall 2019 Men's DII College Rankings Dec 9 2019 | ||||
