We don't have a ton of moves this week but one or two are consequential.
Rio Grande, Notre Dame, Marian, and St. Bonaventure nudge up a spot or two. Walsh, Siena, Fairfield, Principia, and Southern Nazarene all drift down a spot or two. Walsh moves down despite winning simply because St. Bonaventure put in a strong win over what we believe is a stronger opponent. All of those moves can be negated or reversed with one or two results.
Now, to the feature move of the week. Yes Brown won, and won massively. Queens barely beat their opponent. So why do we move Queens up to #1 and Brown down to #2? Strength of schedule. Brown has been playing some outstanding rugby and could well be the #1 NCR team out there. But they are so far ahead of their opposition that it is difficult to truly gauge their strength. Meanwhile, Queens is in the Rugby East, and that conference is very difficult. Winning games in the Rugby East is a lot tougher. Notice we didn't move Queens up to #1 when they beat South Carolina, Tennessee, or Alabama. We moved them up when they beat Mary Washington, a team that pushed Army and beat Kutztown already.
Is it a stretch to put Queens at #1? Maybe, but right now we're backing strength of schedule. This coming week Queens plays Belmont Abbey, who could bolster their standing with another hard-nosed performance. Brown has a bye weekend. Then Brown takes on AIC, which is a huge game, while Queens takes a week off. Brown's strength of schedule improves with Fairfield and Dartmouth still on the horizon, so we could get an answer to the question at the beginning of this paragraph. Both teams have their ranking destiny in their hands.
