Who could be major contenders
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Well, hey, everyone, it's still July, but it's time to take a look at Men's Division 2 college rugby to see what kind of changes have happened and, and also, maybe talk about contenders.
First off, we're just going to go quickly, on the CRA D2, which played in the spring, has kind of straightened itself out a little bit. A little bit more easy to understand. That's a division that I've been woefully behind in covering at all. But they do have, a final in the spring and, won very nicely by North Florida this past spring.
But they've, got a Florida conference, they have a Gold Coast conference, they have a Northern California Conference, a couple of new names in there. You'll see, Cal Maritime now are firmly ensconced there. Stanford going, into there now, Florida has always had pretty strong conference there but, but all of those are solidified.
And that happens in the spring. That's not the crux of the D2, but certainly deserve to be recognized, and deserve me to perhaps do a little bit better job covering them in the fall. However, we have just about, I think it's, it's a hundred or so teams in NCRs D2 and that is where you'll see the bulk of it.
We always a little bit of a, sort of needling on NCR about what they call a national championship and what is and what isn't. I mean their Division 3 is most definitely a national championship. Division 2, yeah. I mean it is. It's very difficult to say that the top team in that playoff isn't the top team in that division in the nation.
A couple of changes though. The LoneStar, which kind of was still figuring itself out now has. This is, this is their Tier 2. And when I talked about D1 I made a mistake or something changed. I'm not quite sure. But I did have Sam Houston State. I expected them to be in Tier 2.
They're back in Tier 1. But we do have, we do have Rice coming into Tier two. So some questions there as to how that's going to pan out playoff wise. But I think that's a big change.
The other big change for me that I think is enormously positive, Allegheny, which was probably almost certainly the weakest conference in terms of, no disrespect to the team that kept winning it, but more the teams that were struggling to compete with IUP is now a very strong conference because we have two teams that have dropped down from D1AA, probably wisely so.
And that would be Ohio University and Dayton. This will be a very good move for both of them and we'll see them perhaps be able to fulfill their fixtures a little bit better, not have to worry so much about depth in the same way. And they do have players who can play.
So I think that's good news for them. Kent State, solid, decent team. West Virginia, solid, decent team. So now you've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, where you've got a five team conference where there are some real games in there. The other conference that is of Interest to me.
Great Lakes, Miami came into that one leaving out of the the Allegheny going to the Great Lakes. Miami and Grand Valley State are the top two teams there. Miami missed the playoffs by a point. The other teams perhaps are still struggling to get back to a level that they used to be at Central Michigan used to be a team that was thinking about winning conference, stuff like that.
However, I still think that they've sort of solidified. Yeah. Okay, we've got our five teams and that's good. You'll notice though the Grand Valley look at their schedule. They play a lot of D1 teams, a lot of D1 teams. They're taking their prospects very seriously. We'll talk about that in a minute.
Great Midwest is huge as usual. That's great. Gateway. A lot of teams. What I'd like to see is more teams that are able to play every week. And I think we'll see that Mid Atlantic. That's always a fun one too. What you'll also see is some of the teams that were struggling in the Allegheny have moved to the Southeastern.
Southeastern is now a larger conference. Most of those teams are. Well, they're building toward a level that they want to play at. I wouldn't say. If you looked at the number of teams, the number of teams in Southeastern, number of teams in the Great Midwest about the same.
Are they equal competitively? I would say no. I would say Great Midwest certainly stronger there. A little bit of question under that independent line. Washington, State. There's a lot of talk about where they're going to be competing. I've had conflicting results. I've reached out to Washington State University, haven't received a reply.
So Are they playing D2 NCR? Are they playing D1AA, CRA? Are they doing both? Are they doing neither? Who knows? I think they're eventually should be a D1AA level team. It's about numbers. Another one to point out I've forgotten to.
Forgot to point out would be would be Nazareth which is a school supported program that's dropped down within the Liberty to the D2 and probably the right place for them again on depth. What you're seeing is a couple of programs have moved into D2 from D1AA area because numbers, depth, competition for players, things like that. And it's probably the right place for them.
What we aren't seeing, and I don't think we'll see this and Nazareth is a school supported team. But they're not just going and we'll go down and win a championship. I don't think that's really going to happen for them. What we aren't seeing though is the issue of, a large number of school supported teams going into D2 just trying to build up a championship and build up their trophy case, which is what we used to see.
And NCR is working pretty hard for that not to happen. Well, we want to thank our sponsors. Irish, rugby tour is the best touring company in the business. They'll take you anywhere. They know how to make it fun. In between the rugby, they know how to get professional coaches to work with your players and they get you competitive games.
Next Phase Rugby. If you want to find a place where you can play rugby and enjoy your college experience, you should be on the next phase rugby app. But we could look at some contenders. And I think this is interesting to me. First of all, let's have a look at the teams that.
Well, they were senior-heavy last year. They did well, but they were senior-heavy. Coastal Carolina pretty much, they're the crux of their forward pack, graduated. So unless they're coming back for a grad year, we're gonna, it's a question mark on them.
That's okay. They were a very good, competitive second place in the Southern. The Southern is good conference. So they're going to have their work cut out for them to compete at that level. But they could, Salisbury, Salisbury loves surprising people.
They had a ton of seniors last year. That doesn't mean they're out of it. The great thing about the mark, and we've seen this before, is you have time in the mark to build your season. The regular season, not super long, what is it, four or five games, something like that.
But they have a large playoff. They go quarterfinal, semifinal, final. So if you just get to the point, hey, we're hitting our stride now and you get into the quarterfinals and we've seen it happen, where number eight seed has gone all the way. That was a couple of years ago. Yeah, you can do it. So Salisbury is a young team going in, but they're in the right conference to be able to build. And if they get it right for the last couple of weeks of the regular season, they get into the quarterfinals.
Could then hit their hot streak. Scranton, same kind of deal. They graduate. They had a great season last year. Graduated a ton of seniors. So are they. And, and really, there's a question as to whether those juniors are moving up or.
Or not. That. That's a bigger question, I think. That's actually a question for iup. They had seniors, they had sophomores. I didn't see a lot of juniors on their team. But Scranton, and then defending champions Vermont.
Fantastic season from them. They had so many good players. So many of those good players, have graduated. At least one major top player has transferred and I think going on to a graduate degree somewhere else.
So that's going to be a difficulty for UVM In a conference where generally there's, a lot of parity. Last, year, we didn't see it, but year to year in the. The North Atlantic group, we see a lot of parity, with Boston University in New Hampshire and Lowell and Norwich and Maine and then, of course, Vermont.
Who am I missing? I know I'm missing. I'm missing one. Coast Guard. Coast Guard. This is a conference that, you get a team that might be, 2 and 6, but, everybody's young and they're building together, and they actually. They lost a couple of games, even, say by 10 or 12. But they feel like, we could have won that game. And they make those differences and they win those games. So a, younger Vermont team going into that conference, they may not struggle, but I think they could struggle. Teams to watch, keep an eye on, because something's happening there.
Benedictine out of Kansas in the Gateway. Nice, season last year, and they're just getting started. Pretty young team there. Norwich, new coach Carrick Pell. What a fantastic job, Bob Wegler did for that program and got them, as a national contender pretty much every year.
And I think, we will see. It's still. It's a change, new blood, some different things. Let's just see how it goes. It might be a transition year. It might be like, hey, everything's pieced together. And like I said, it's a very competitive, conference there in the North Atlantic.
St. Thomas, which is new into the Northern Lights. The Northern Lights is not a highly competitive conference, in my opinion at the moment. But St Thomas coming in, playing as a Division 2 team, could be a contender.
Absolutely. Baylor. Baylor now in Tier two in Lone Star. If that's going to be a true Division 2 pathway for them. Baylor could be very good very quickly. There they've. They've been playing in the, D1AA sphere, even the D1A sphere at times, but times Change.
Here's the thing about Baylor. We've got the enrollment numbers dropping for male students and for college students in general. Baylor is very hard to get into. It has a fantastic pre med medical school program that is in high demand.
So if you go there you want to be a doctor or you want to work in the medical field, it's a fantastic school to go to but it's in high demand. So all of those factors and you combine in the fact that when Baylor was really good they had three or four guys who were exceptional rugby players.
And it's very easy to fall into that trap where you think you've got a program that is, that you piece together and is fantastic. And it was very good program. I, during that time I was in Texas so I was seeing Baylor play a lot.
I would just go up the road, go up 35 and go see him play in Waco. It was great. But they had some exceptional rugby players and those guys graduate, it's not the same. So they've had to sort of work their way through that and figure that out.
And maybe D2 is the right place for them to figure that out. Thanks to the US Rugby Foundation. Rugby ball right there on that. They do so much to grow the game at the high level, at the beginning level, everywhere in between. And thanks to our kit provider 8x8 Sports, does great kit and playing kit but also casual stuff as well and off field and warm up gear and Panther Rugby Academy.
Go to panther anthraciacademy.com and find out how you can join them for an elite playing experience. Also to look at, I mentioned the Miami Miami of Ohio. In the Allegheny there was only one team coming from the conference going into the NCR playoffs which was a shame. I got a little bit to talk about that at the end of this video. But they lost by a point.
They're just out of it. They really are. Playoff caliber team. Whether they beat Grand Valley State or not, they are playoff caliber team. Washington University. I'm curious about that because Washington University was the university that merged with UHSP or subsumed UHSP into the their entity.
As I understand it, I don't think anybody from UHSP program stayed on to study at and play with Washington University. But if they did that would be a nice little boost for them. I was just curious to see how that works. And I mentioned Nazareth, a school supported team very young, very Young really still, building their depth, still building their roster.
So, how are they going to do in here? It'll be interesting. I think depth is a crucial thing for them. These are teams to watch, see how they go. We don't know. But then contenders, major contenders and a lot of the contenders from last year.
And see, I don't have Vermont defending champions in there. I'm not saying they can't contend. I'm just saying that they were very senior heavy. But UNC Wilmington bring back a lot of players, A lot of players. And they were very, very good last year. Chicago graduated couple bring back some guys.
A couple of guys who are going in there are a really nice fit. So they they lose a player at a certain position. They've got that position coming in a high level player that's very good. Grand Valley State, as I said, very good players. A top 14 last year and they are scheduling Division 1 teams all the way through. Why? Because the head coach, John Mullet wants them to be tested. Fantastic. Love it. And one more, real contender. I don't know why, almost slipped my mind. It's terrible that that's the case. But Cornell, Cornell really was getting good two years ago.
Last year, fantastic team. I think they're possibly even stronger. They could be a champion. So keep an eye on Cornell for sure. Villanova, again, a team that brings back everybody. And they were, they weren't conference winners.
But last year was kind of a weird year for the mark. It's always a weird year for the mark. I think that's a team to watch. Georgetown also a team to watch. Within contender, list. Colorado, Mesa. Now they came out of the west, surprised everybody and they were very good.
And they bring back just about everybody from that team. Loyola, Chicago, yet another team out of the great Midwest. Wow. Yeah. Gotta be interested in them. Memphis brings back everybody. They're so fast. They're so exciting.
Really exciting. Possibly the most exciting team to watch. IUP again, I mentioned that, they kind of have weird the team that's come, the rising senior team. There aren't a lot of players on there, but they're going to be good for a while. But I think they can reload. It's tough. That is definitely a team that had a cadre of exceptional players and held onto them and won a championship that way. But I think, they're backing that up.
And then Northern Iowa. And of all the programs you see everybody, not everybody. Well, the teams that win in Division 2 for a long time, they have that group and then they lose that group and then we move on and see another team.
So, U. Minnesota-Duluth was dominant and then Wisconsin Whitewater is dominant. But eventually those guys graduate. You're able to bring in a couple more, maybe even a younger brother, keep going. But eventually things change.
Wisconsin Whitewater is not winning championships anymore, but they could, they could come back. Northern Iowa is one of those teams that always seems to be there. They don't really have that dip in quite the same way the other ones do. And they'll be back. They definitely will be back. Now, how will those playoffs look? Because what NCR has had is a round of 16 and most years and before them, USA Rugby did the same thing. For better or for worse, they did the same thing which was they would have these play ins.
They said, we don't know whether the number three team from this conference or the number two team from that conference or even the conference champion over here, which one is the better one. So you have some play in. So you would have a first round moving into the round of 16.
Last year the play in was kind of crappy because we had two games. One of them ended up being a forfeit. SMU did not show up for their game. Forfeited their game. So I think that was Benedictine winning that, moving on, and having one or two, I think it's a waste of time.
So I think you either. Well, really, I think you'd go with 21 teams. Yeah, you go with 21 teams or maybe you go with 20 or you sort of hold on to the 16 and just do a round of 16.
I'm one of those people who says the playoffs are playoff. Your only expectation to get into the playoffs is to win your conference. I also don't think that if you, if you are a conference champion, I don't think you should be in a play in.
I think you, a conference champion, should be in the round of 16. Right now we've got 12 conferences. I don't see any problem with putting all of those champions into the round of 16, even the southeastern, partly because the champions probably going to be Memphis and they're going to be very good. But even if that weren't the case, I think you've been NCR has created a conference, said this is a Division 2 competitive Division 2 conference, then, it's a conference.
You don't just say, well, it's A lesser conference. We can't really afford to do that. But if you did that, that would leave four spots for, a runner up. I don't love a number three going in. Despite the fact that number threes have occasionally done quite well.
I don't love it, especially, especially if it's number three in the standings. I understand. Say if you lose to the, if you lose in the semifinals to the eventual conference champion, and then you go and play a third, fourth game and you win that, you can say, excuse me, we're just as good as the runners up. I do get that. But make the final. Anyway, of those 12, conferences I looked at, who are the a, the largest ones and the most competitive because it's not always the same thing.
And if you look at, say, who won a playoff game, who won a round of 16 game last year, and amazingly it was eight, there were eight winners of a round of 16 game. Eight different conferences. So see Great Midwest, Southern, High Peaks, Mid Atlantic, Southeastern, Great Lakes, Liberty and North Atlantic.
So I would be reluctant to say, that those other four conferences, Gateway, Allegheny, Lone Star, Northern Lights, should have a second seat. But, Allegheny, it's tough.
And I mean, I look at it right now and I would say the Great Midwest, with the historical strength and the size of that conference, I would have no problem putting the number two team in there. I would say the same about the Mid Atlantic, historically doing quite well even if they don't produce champions and a large conference.
So I think that would be fine. After that, well, the Southern, maybe the Great Lakes, maybe, the North Atlantic maybe. I kind of like the idea of the Great Lakes and I would argue potentially the Allegheny as well. So if you want to do that and then come up with three, I would like at least four play-ins. You could come, up with that. What I would recommend for NCR to do is something they don't do is don't get caught up so much in last year.
You have to look at this year and you have to look, they do their own rankings, right? But they should look at mine as well because sometimes mine are better. I won't say I'm always right. Absolutely not. But sometimes it's worth having a look at who's actually coming through. So if you're not thinking, about say, Ohio University or Baylor and Rice and Lone Star, something like that. Right. And you're not paying attention to the fact that they are winning or coming very close to the very best teams, things like that.
If you're not thinking about, someone coming out of nowhere a little bit, you can miss something and then producing a game at the last minute, that's tough. And one of the things NZR has been very, very good at is not doing things at the last minute and planning ahead.
But you're going to have to delay a little bit with your players if you want to do play-ins. Or you just be draconian about it, which is fine, and put a big old guillotine down and say, 12 teams, these, these, four from these conferences, bam, that's it.
Tough if you can't make it because then you just have to win your conference anyway. It's good. I think it's gonna be a great season because I really don't know who's gonna win. I do think that a lot of teams that were strong last year are gonna be strong again this year. We have a few, up and comers and we have a few changes where teams coming from the D1AA sphere, could find a good home and do some damage in Division 2.
It's worth the watch all the way through. Really love it and we will see how it goes this season. And that does it for our latest edition of Rugged Matrix America. Thanks again to our sponsors, Irish Rugby Tours, the US Rugby Foundation. Next phase, Rugby Panther Rugby Academy.
And we will see you next time.
