We are cooking now.

This weekend we have close to 40 D1-level men's college rugby games. Of those, about 16 are ranked teams against ranked teams. Not that that means an awful lot as we're talking about four different rankings, but still. Here's how that shakes out:

CRAA D1A Ranked vs CRAA D1A Ranked: Just one game, Mary Washington at Army

NCR D1 vs NCR D1: Three games, which are Siena at AIC, Dartmouth at Iona, Walsh at Kutztown

D1AA vs D1AA: Boston College at Yale

The rest are mixed, with Iowa State (ranked D1AA) vs Northern Iowa (ranked D2), and Southern Nazarene (ranked NCR D1) vs Montana State (ranked D2). SNU is playing two games this weekend so might be splitting their squads.

Five games are NCR D1 games against CRAA D1A teams, although two of them feature 2nd sides (SNU vs Air Force Silver, and Lindenwood 2nds vs Principia). 

All of that leaves three more big matchups:
Arkansas State at Iowa Central CC
Navy at St. Bonaventure
Indiana at Lindenwood

(All rankings mentioned are GRR rankings unless stated otherwise)

Mizell Embraces New Challenge at Penn State

Maybe the marquee game among these is St. Bonaventure (#3 among NCR D1 teams) vs Navy (D1A #2), two teams that have won their respective organizational championships in the last few years, and two teams with aspirations to do the same this season. Navy has started the season impressively, and they finish strong. It's one of those things about rugby that we at GRR receive a lot of "yeah, but" comments from coaches. We lost 50-19 ... yeah, but it was 24-19 with 20 minutes to go. Or, we won 29-26 but we had three yellow cards. Or, they scored five tries but two were on interceptions. 

All fine and good to say that, but if it becomes a pattern, then maybe it's not a fluke. Teams that keep getting yellow cards need to look at themselves, not anyone else. Navy scored piles of tries late. Why? Because they are fit, they manage their replacements intelligently, and they make good adjustments. Look for Bonnies to keep it close for a while, but the expectation is that Navy pulls away in the final 15 minutes.

Mary Washington (D1A #14) at Army (D1A #7 is an important game for both, with UMW looking to move up in the pecking order and Army looking to recover from a 2023-24 season that didn't quite hit expectations. Army beat Indiana 54-7 last week which is quite the head-turner of a result. 

"We've been focused on our climb as a team and this is game was just a building block for us to continue to stack days," said TJ Rotello, who scored three tries. "Great start to the season for us and we will continue to improve daily and hunt for the next team."

UMW played a mixed-level side against a mixed-level side from Mount St. Mary's last week in a development game.

An all-NCR matchup is Walsh (#1) at Kutztown (#5). This should be an excellent matchup. Two years ago, NDC at Kutztown was a massive barnburner, and we think this year we'll see a fun one.

Almost All-Rankings

Several of this week's games include teams that, if they have a good performance should jump into the rankings.

They include:

Syracuse at Brown. Syracuse lost to Dartmouth last week and are building something. With Brown being the defending Liberty Conference champions, if Syracuse can push them, we would be forced to think about getting them into our GRR NCR D1 Top 20.

Rio Grande, which beat D2 #1 IUP in their opener, hosts Tennessee, our D1AA #6. We don't think Rio Grande even has to win this game to maybe nudge up into our NCR D1 Top 20. It will help, however. Utah Valley at Air Force could be a rankings launching pad for UVU. Michigan State at McKendree could be a chance for McKendree to bust into the GRR D1A Top 25.

Some Fun Stuff

Kansas hosts Southern Suburbs from Australia and there's also a women's game there. This is a fun, and quite cool upshot of the Jayhawks' tour of Australia in the spring. It will also be a good test.