There's little doubt that the national champion crowned on December 8 will be our #1 as every team in that final four has done more than just win a couple of playoff games, but has been consistently strong.

However, they're not untouchable. Norwich lost an early regular-season game, albeit by a single point. Whitewater lost the conference final, albeit only 10-5. Queens raced through its conference season, but lost a non-league game to Southern Virginia.

UMS&T beat everyone in their league but most of the games were very close. What we're trying to say is, this has been a hugely competitive DII season with at least the top eight teams capable of winning it all.

As to the rankings: Norwich stays #1 because they won twice. Queens jumps to #2 after finally playing out of their conference and logging impressive scores. Queens could have jumped to #1 but it's difficult to drop a #1 team that doesn't lose. In addition, Norwich's overtime victory over Furman was against the team we had at #2. That tells us we had those rankings right. Furman hangs close at #3.

Whitewater's 10-5 loss to Illinois State in the Great Midwest final is somewhat put aside thanks to a pretty impressive performance in the playoffs. But again we buck the actual playoff order of finish in keeping Vermont in the top five. UVM lost to Whitewater 19-17—they don't deserve to be dinged to much for that.

UMS&T was a surprise for us, not that they were good, but that they were good enough to beat Illinois State. They did well and jump to #6, but could be higher. Illinois State, in losing only 13-10 to S&T, hangs close at #7. 

The success of Memphis also drags up MTSU from the SCRC. We see some other conference coattails, notably for Coast Guard in the NEWCRC, and for Pitt State in the Gateway. The Great Lakes all drop a little because GVSU couldn't take the field—the reasons are good reasons, but still if your team can't play, we can't put you in the top 20. GVSU, Bethel, and Central Michigan all seem to be pretty close and are in the 20s.

Also moving u is Thomas More. After Whitewater proved its mettle in the last two playoff rounds, we went back and saw how a 48-24 loss to Whitewater is in fact better than most Great Midwest teams did against the Warhawks, and on further reflection we felt More should move up six spots to #31.

Goff Rugby Report Fall 2019 Men's DII College Rankings Nov 25 2019
Rank	Prev	Team	Conference	Notes
1	1	Norwich (VT)	Rugby Northeast	Beat Loyola (9), Furman (2)
2	7	Queens (NC)	Cardinals	Beat Lehigh (15), UMass-Lowell (8)
3	2	Furman (SC)	Southern	Beat WPU (24), Lost to Norwich (1)
4	6	UW-Whitewater (WI)	Great MW	Beat Vermont (3), Memphis (26)
5	3	Vermont (VT)	New England-Wide	Lost to UW-Whitewater (6)
6	13	UMS&T (MO)	Gateway	Montana State (14), Beat Illinois State (9)
7	5	Illinois State (IL)	Great MW	Beat Moorhead (20), Lost to UMS&T (13)
8	26	Memphis (TN)	SCRC	Beat Villanova (4), Lost to UW-Whitewater (6)
9	8	UMass-Lowell (MA)	Rugby Northeast	Beat Central Michigan (29), lost to Queens (7)
10	9	Loyola-Chicago (IL)	Great MW	Lost to Norwich (1)
11	4	Villanova (PA)	MARC	Lost to Memphis (26)
12	10	Boston University (MA)	New England-Wide
13	11	Bentley (MA)	Rugby Northeast
14	12	Marquette (WI)	Great MW
15	14	Montana State (MT)	Rocky Mountain	Lost to UMS&T (13), Beat Moorhead (20)
16	15	Lehigh (PA)	MARC	Lost to Queens (6)
17	17	Northern Colorado	Rocky Mountain
18	19	UNC (NC)	Southern
19	20	MSU-Moorhead (MN)	Northern Lights	Lost to Montana State (14), Illinois State (5)
20	32	MTSU (TN)	SCRC
Goff Rugby Report Fall 2019 Men's DII College Rankings Nov 25 2019
21	16	Grand Valley State (MI)	Great Lakes
22	18	Bethel (IN)	Great Lakes
23	21	Minnesota-Duluth (MI)	Great Midwest
24	27	Pitt State (KS)	Gateway
25	24	William Paterson (NJ)	Tri-State	Lost to Furman (2)
26	29	Central Michigan (MI)	Great Lakes	Lost to UMass-Lowell (9)
27	22	Colorado Mesa (CO)	Rocky Mountain
28	23	UNC-Wilmington (NC)	Southern
29	28	SLU (MO)	Gateway
30	25	RPI (NY)	Tri-State
31	37	Thomas More (KY)	MCRC
32	Unr	Coast Guard (CT)	New England-Wide
33	33	Northern Michigan (MI)	Great MW
34	34	UW-Platteville (WI)	Great MW
35	30	USMMA (NY)	Tri-State
36	31	Marist (NY)	Tri-State
37	35	Shippensburg (PA)	MARC
38	36	York (PA)	MARC
39	38	UNC-Charlotte (NC)	Southern
40	39	North Dakota State (ND)	Northern Lights
Goff Rugby Report Fall 2019 Men's DII College Rankings Nov 25 2019