NCR D1 Big Games and Playoff Ramifications This Week

10.29.2026College Men

Walsh vs Rio Grande 2026 Photo Alex Goff.

Walsh has a key game against Queens. Photo Alex Goff.

Author: Alex Goff

NCR D1 conferences figure some things out this weekend as the playoffs are now just a couple of weeks away.

Let's take a look at who could be considered for the NCR playoff bracket and what they have to do to get there.

Big Game #1

Walsh at Queens basically decides who is the #1 seed in the ARC. If Queens wins, the Royals are #1 and will play St. Bonaventure for the ARC championship in a week.

If Walsh wins and gets a bonus point, they are for sure #1 and will play Bonnies in the title game. A Walsh win without a bonus point might or might not get them to #1, but would still ensure they're in the #1-vs-#2 game.

The losing team of these two will play in the #3-vs-#4 match and they will play the winner of this weekend's Kutztown vs Belmont Abbey game. Kutztown's resurgence has been something to see after they were last in the conference this year and could end up 3rd this year.

Does 3rd matter? It does. The winner of #3-vs-#4 will almost certainly get an at-large bid for the first round.

Big Game(s) #2

The Big Rivers season has been a bit shaky this year what with teams struggling to have sufficient numbers (notably Thomas More and Drury). But at the top the best teams have been impressive. Iowa Central CC is the #2 team from the West and will play East #1 Marian.

"The big thing is we've been healthy," said Marian Head Coach John Harley. "We're pretty deep and so when we do have injuries, it's next man up. Iowa Central is a good team and I really like [Head Coach] Brent Nelson. But they are mostly freshmen and sophomores, and our starting lineup is basically seniors and juniors."

Aquinas, who has emerged well this year, hosts Indiana Tech, a team that originally entered the season with the goal of winning one conference game. Now you're in the conference playoffs.

These two teams played a non-conference match and Aquinas won 32-29.

Big Game #3

UCLA hosts Southern Nazarene in a battle of independents. The UCLA Bruins have had a couple of decent results, beating Michigan in a close one, and beating Notre Dame. But losses to Brown and Dartmouth spelled out what GRR pointed out earlier when UCLA made the shift to NCR—their quarter system makes it tough to hit the ground running in September and even early October.

SNU has a pretty good body of work having started a bit earlier than UCLA. The Crimson Storm has played seven A-side games, while UCLA has played five. SNU started against two D1AA teams, but they also played a XV from Lindenwood, Air Force, Queens (!), and Iowa Central. They beat AFA and Queens, and lost close games to the other two.

That's a pretty solid body of work for an independent team.

Now we get to see who is the best of these two. Realistically, both will likely take at-large bids to the playoffs, but the winner will probably (maybe?) get a better draw.

These are not the only two teams shooting for an at-large. Wingate are a Southern Independent. They have beaten Virginia Tech, East Carolina, UNC-Charlotte, VMI, and and UNC Chapel Hill. They have Lander on Nov. 7 and if they win that game they should be in the frame for a playoff spot. We'll probably, finally, decide to rank them, also.

And ... Others

Dartmouth is reportedly getting a forfeit win over Syracuse, setting the Big Green up for being the #1 team in Liberty going into November 7's winner-take-all game with Brown.

Brown has AIC, a tougher assignment, and this should be a game where Brown will join Dartmouth at 5-0. Then those two will play for the top spot in the Liberty in the final conference game of the fall.

AIC is a tough team despite their 1-4 record and Brown has to be careful.

"We had a bit of a slow start to the season because we had a lot of guys kind of getting their sea legs," said Brown Head Coach David LaFlamme. "But we have improved and we're all working toward the same goal."

Meanwhile, Fairfield is done and sits at 4-2 after a crucial bonus-point win over AIC.

"That was massive for us," said Head Coach Austin Ryan. It was a tight game, which Brown will have noted. A week later they came back from a 25-19 deficit with a late try from lock Dady Bennett and a penalty try on a collapsed maul to seal it 33-28.

Will they get a playoff spot?

Yes, we think so.

The NCR Playoffs

These teams get a bye to the quarterfinals: ARC winners, who could be Queens, St. Bonaventure, or Walsh; the Big Rivers winners, who should be Aquinas or Marian; the top NCR Big 10 team, which will be Indiana; the Liberty winners who will be Dartmouth or Brown.

These teams play in the first round: ARC runners-up (Queens or Bonnies or Walsh); Big Rivers runners-up (who should be Aquinas or Marian); the 2nd NCR team in the Big 10, which could be Notre Dame or Wisconsin; Liberty runners-up (who should be Dartmouth or Brown).

(Note: Indiana Tech could still sneak in here)

The teams should be at-large bids: Southern Nazarene, UCLA, Fairfield, and the ARC #3 which could be one of any five teams. And possibly Wingate, but we think SNU and UCLA have an edge over them.