If you have a little look at the Power Rankings (which are the official NIRA standings) you can see that some results had a bigger effect than others. Dartmouth, losing 31-7 to Harvard, dropped from 2nd to 4th and lost 244 Rankings points.
That's because they not only lost, but gave their points-for-per-game a rather significant hit.
AIC got a Rankings boost despite not playing a game. How? Because strength of opposition is part of the formula, and that is fluid. If it turns out that a team you played in Week 1 goes on a winning streak in Weeks 3, 4, and 5, then you get credit for having played them.
AIC beat Navy September 19, and then last week Navy beat Lindenwood. That helped Navy massively, and also AIC.
Lindenwood weren't hurt too badly because the score was 18-15, and so their defensive numbers remained good. In addition, Lindenwood followed that up with a 64-0 win over Brown.
Now, a little about that score. The Power Rankings formula rewards margin of victory upto 65. Once you start winning by more than 65, that starts to ding your opponent's scores enough that your strength of schedule takes a big hit. So, for Lindenwood, the 64-0 win was almost the exact perfect score to get without getting dinged for winning by too much.
This mitigated Lindenwood's loss to Navy, so their Rankings score dropped, but not by a lot.
Sacred Heart's 69-7 win over Queens was another almost-perfect winning margin. That boosted their offensive numbers and defensive numbers so well that the Pioneers added 172 Rankings points.
However, they only bumped up one place in the standings because of the distance they had to travel. They, along with Navy, did get past Brown.
Now we have a group of teams—Dartmouth, Army, Sacred Heart, Navy, and Brown—that are all relatively close. They are separated by 166 points, and since three teams moved by more than that this week, that seems like a pretty close bunch.
So ... This Week
AIC is at Dartmouth. This is the most impactful game of the week. A win by either will be hugely beneficial for the victor. If AIC loses, they can still stay in the conversation, but with Sacred Heart and Harvard on the horizon, it won't be easy.
For Dartmouth, this isn't a must-win, but it's not not a must-win. They are favored against Brown on October 31, but AIC and Sacred Heart before then probably needs to go their way.
(Quick note: Quinnipiac was in this schedule but then the school pulled their varsity status. That's being contested, by the way, but this made the season a bit more asymmetric than hoped for. All teams were expected to play six rankings games. Now some have only five. The Power Rankings system adjusts for that.)
The next three weeks will be huge.
On Top of the Heap
Harvard remains on top. There is no fancy algorithm needed to identify the Crimson as the current best.
They are idle this week, but then take on Navy, Lindenwood, and AIC in October.
"Overall, we are very happy with the team’s performance so far," said Head Coach Mel Denham. "Everyone is working hard in training to challenge themselves and improve, and we have a lot of players stepping into big roles on the field this year and doing a great job bringing their strengths to those positions."
Despite the three wins on the trot, Denham wants to see the team lean into their identity.
"To me, part of that is understanding our strengths while continuing to improve how we maximize the opportunities we create for ourselves," she added.
Looking at past results, it's worth noting that their opening win was 26-24 against Sacred Heart. The Pioneers, despite losing two games, might well be the one to vault into serious contender status.
