Men Fall DI College Rankings Week #5

This was a very difficult week of DI Fall rankings.

First off, let's discuss the lower end of the rankings. We've been waiting on Empire teams to see who would end up on top. I the end, it wasn't anyone, really. We looked at the numbers, who beat whom and who else they beat,a nd lumped the top three teams together as one. Cop-out? Maybe. In addition, Utah State has to get some dividend from being in such a strong and close conference as the West D1A. At 2-3 Utah State has a losing record, but has been exceptionally competitive. We decided to move USU up into the top 50.

Cincinnati, which is now 3-0 in the MAC, deserves a look, too, as does Kansas State, which has only lost the one conference game, a close loss to Missouri. So you see how it gets crowded and how we had to expand from 45 to 50. Even so, we have too many teams. It would have been nice to include Central Florida and Memphis, but we're going to have to wait there. Oklahoma? Well, OU lost to Texas Tech, and, in shortened matches, CSULB, twice. If Texas Tech had logged some better results, maybe they would be in the rankings. In the end, with so many other teams pushing up, OU, for now, drops out.

It's tough, but we'll see how it all shakes down in the coming weeks and months. We suspect Texas Tech is, in fact, quite good. We suspect the same of Central Florida, Memphis, and Middle Tennessee State. In addition, look for Oklahoma to rebound. They're still young and putting the pieces together. 

Up top, there was a question, too. Namely, what to do about the Notre Dame College v Indiana game. Here's the conundrum - NDC won, 31-30. That's a fact. But, Indiana was missing its two best backs, plus their starting hooker. In addition, one of those missing backs was their goalkicker. And since Indiana scored six tries (to NDC's five), and converted none, you've got to think that maybe if Teddy Terezis had played, he would have kicked at least one, and Indiana would have won.

So, theoretically, we could have kept Indiana at #2, or at least above Notre Dame College. But ... we don't like to do that too often. Kicking is part of the game. Should we discount a victory because somebody missed a tackle? How about if he dropped the ball while he crossed the tryline? Of course not, because that's rugby. Kicking conversions is rugby, too. If you miss the conversion, no one says "oh, well, losing by a kick is a shame, you should get the victory."

So around 40-50 we suspect that there are teams that are better than those ranked about them. And up top we suspect that Indiana might win a rematch over Notre Dame College, and it's quite possible that Arkansas State, Army, Air Force, or someone else, could be #2 (Penn State's #1 this fall, little doubt about that).