It took us a while to post these Men's DII College 7s rankings because, really, they were very difficult.
We had to deal with a bunch of results combinations that could be interpreted several different ways. For example:
IUP may have won the CRC, but they scraped by on numerous occasions. Is it reasonable, then, to look at what Cal Maritime achieved in the Premier Division and say Cal Maritime is the best team? We opt to put IUP at #1 but Cal Maritime is a legit contender.
Principia won five games by an average score of 32-3, but lost once, to Citadel, 12-10. We think Principia may be the best DII 7s team in the country, but that loss, small as it is, is difficult to look past for #1.
Lander lost to Norwich, but ended up 2nd in the CRC. Norwich may have beaten Lander but they lost to UNC-Wilmington, and Northern Iowa, and Georgetown.
Northern Iowa lost in the semis to IUP by three points (!) and then beat Citadel to take 3rd. But they were also shut out 26-0 by Georgetown. However, Georgetown lost to UMass-Lowell. So what do you do about that? Georgetown was the closest to Principia of anyone (except Citadel, who beat them), and were close to Lander. Which result do you throw out? UMass Lowell 24-12 over Georgetown or Georgetown 26-0 over UNI?
UMass Lowell did win that game and were very unlucky not to make the quarterfinals. If they had won the consolation bracket, we might have bumped them up to the top 6 or 7. But they lost to Montana State.
Hopefully you see how circular it all is. Really this is a reflection of how competitive the entire DII bracket was. We think that any of six or seven teams could have won the CRC.
