DI College Games This Weekend

Men's College DI teams are thinking seriously about the next two months, as the playoffs, knockout rounds, and various other important activities rear their heads.

For some this is the time to turn attention to 7s. But there's still plenty of 15s to talk about, as teams look to get ready for the DIA playoffs, DIAA playoffs, and the Varsity Cup tournament. 

This week, at the top of the list is BYU v Utah. This is always a hugely intense rivalry game, and is played for the Wasatch Cup. BYU usually wins this, and this year's Cougar team looks more dominant than most. Maybe they're headed for a fall, but it's hard to see who will topple them. 

"Utah always plays hard," said BYU Head Coach David Smyth told BYURugby.com. "We'll need to stay focused and stick to our game plan as we have all season. Ball control will be key against the Utes. We'll need to starve them of the ball and keep attacking all 80 minutes."

That might also be coach-code for "now is not the time to let up and get sloppy." BYU played San Diego State midweek, and won 71-0 behind Josh Anderson's four tries. SD State is not a weak team, and yet they were controlled fairly convincingly by BYU. By the way, BYU v Utah kicks off tonight (Friday) at 7pm MT, and will be live-streamed here: https://www.youtube.com/user/BYURugbyTV

We would love to have previewed Air Force at Central Washington, but Air Force has canceled. Central Washington has, in the last month, played two games. Both were very competitive losses against excellent teams - BYU and University of Victoria - so maybe the quality of the opposition makes up for the lack of playing time.

Arizona finishes up the PAC Rugby Conference season with a game against Oregon State. Arizona is 1-3 in the PAC, and Oregon State 0-4. Arizona, too, has had a long layoff, but the Wildcats have made lemonade out of these lemons.

"Between our fitness scores and our work in training, it's been a lot of fun the past few weeks seeing the growth in this group and it's a credit to our captains for setting the tone" said Head Coach Sean Duffy. 

LSU finishes off their Red River Conference season against a good Baylor team. 

The Heart of America has a relatively full slate, but these games aren't too hard to predict. Kansas should beat Nebraska. Arkansas, which is undefeated, is favored against 1-4 Truman State. Iowa State v Oklahoma State is likely to go to Iowa State.

The California Conference finishes off over the next two weeks with St. Mary's against Santa Clara. We talk about what St. Mary's has been up to in the last couple of weeks. 

And we do have playoffs, with the NCRC choosing its top two. Western Washington is favored over a surging Oregon, who will be a very different opponent than the Ducks squad that lost 49-7 to the Vikings in January. Washington beat Washington State last week in Pullman, and will host WSU in Seattle this week, favored once more.

And the Gold Coast semis are this weekend, with the final on Sunday. Long Beach State is very much favored, but USC and Grand Canyon have a solid shot to unseat the 49ers.

(No Cal? The Bears slammed Stanford 121-5 midweek and won't play this weekend.) 

Check back here for scores.