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11.07.2026College Men
Brown players celebrate beating Dartmouth Nov 7, 2026 to win the Liberty Conference.
Brown players celebrate beating Dartmouth Nov 7, 2026 to win the Liberty Conference.
Author: Alex Goff

NCR's Men's D1 playoff picture is clearing.

This article will be updated as results come in.

Here's what's going on right now:

Atlantic Rugby Conference: St. Bonaventure garnered revenge for their regular-season loss to Walsh, beating the Cavaliers 29-19. That gave Bonnies the conference title and a better chance at repeating as NCR D1 champs. They will take a bye into the quarterfinals.

Walsh will have to play a first-round game.

Queens won convincingly over Kutztown 43-7 to dispel any lingering doubt about them being worthy of a playoff spot and the Royals should almost certainly claim an at-large bid.

Indiana was another team that lost in the regular season to a team they beat in their conference final. In this case a strong IU defensive effort saw them past Ohio State 21-14.

Center Mikey Cabreros got IU on the board first with a nice outside run where he fended off three different defenders. Ohio State answered, taking the lineout off a penalty and working it close before the forwards worked it over from short range.

Both teams worked hard to get back on defense when the other side made a break, and it remained 7-7 until just before halftime when freshman lock Avery Thomson s cored off a pick-and-go.

IU kept the momentum going and a snipe from freshman scrumhalf Jimmy Reis, with flyhalf Andrew Arbes good for his third conversion, made it 21-7 early in the second half.

OSU threw everything they had at Indiana, and with a Hoosier in the sin bin, Buckeye scrumhalf Mark French sold a sidestep and was over. Tommy Kilbane added his second conversion.

But for the final 27 minutes neither team could score. Indiana's defense held and the Hoosiers are Big Ten champs. They already had the top NCR D1 spot from the Big 10, but the trophy is nice, too.

David Laflamme holds the Scholars Cup and, more importantly, the Liberty Conference trophy.
David Laflamme holds the Scholars Cup and, more importantly, the Liberty Conference trophy.

In the Liberty, there is no playoff so it was about clinching the conference title with the overall record. Brown and Dartmouth came into the final weekend both 5-0, and also were competing for top spot in the new Scholars Cup challenge competition NCR had developed.

In the end it wasn't close as Brown rolled 55-7.

Triton Rugby
—
11.07.26
11:00am
IT Warriors
—
Golden Bears
7
FINAL
11.07.26
Queens
43
Bonnies
29
FINAL
11.07.26
Cavaliers
19
Dartmouth
7
FINAL
11.07.26
Watch
Brown
55
Bruins
40
FINAL
11.07.26
Aggies
21
Ohio State
14
FINAL
11.07.26
Indiana
21
AQ Saints
—
11.07.26
8:50pm
Watch
MU Knights
—

"We put in a lot of work this week to make sure our scrum was buttoned up, which worked well," said Brown Head Coach David Laflamme. "We also put in a new lineout system, and then just held onto the football."
With Dartmouth's power and size, Brown needed to keep possession and they did. But, added Laflamme, "I think one of the biggest differences was our defense is pretty solid. We try to close the space down and not give the big runners any space to move."

As he said, it all worked. Brown has a bye to the quarters, while Dartmouth will be in Round 1.

So the Bye teams are:
Brown, St. Bonaventure, Indiana, and the winner of Marian vs Aquinas.

The confirmed 1st-Round teams are: 
Dartmouth, Walsh, the loser of Marian vs Aquinas.

With Big 10 only (apparently) sending one team, it seems, then there are five at-larges: 
Southern Nazarene, UCLA (who ensured their place by beating Texas A&M this weekend), Queens (almost certainly), Fairfield (we feel quite confident about), and one more team, which could potentially be Wingate or Kutztown or the winner of Iowa Central vs Indiana Tech. Notre Dame isn't completely out of it, either.

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