What Happened When NCR D1 Teams Played D1AA Opponents?

09.05.2026College Men

Drury huddles up. Photo Natalie Whipple.

Author: Alex Goff

Six games this past weekend saw NCR D1 teams take on D1AA opponents and, really, it went as you'd expect.

Except, of course, there is always a chance that a D1AA team would beat a higher-division team, but the latest results show that perhaps the teams are actually finding their right level. NCR D1 teams should beat D1AA teams. But in that context, the D1AA teams did pretty well.

Current Record

So far this season we've seen 11 games between NCR D1 and D1AA teams, and only once (Iowa State vs ICCC) has the D1AA team won.

Shorthanded Drury Hangs On

Saturday was a good day for Drury University as the Panthers defeated Arkansas 24-8.

This was the beginning of a short but challenging season for Drury in which they will face Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa Central, Aquinas, Southern Nazarene, and the Springfield Rugby Club.

The Panthers went into the game a bit shorthanded, without a full bench. Graduations and injuries have stressed their depth. But they hung in there and battled hard to take the win.

"We were really focused," said captain and flyhalf David Evans. "We are not a huge team so we decided not to waste energy with things like counter-rucks. We just played defense and did what we needed to do. The guys showed a lot of grit."

Drury Celebrates. Photo Natalie Whipple. — You can see the emotion from the Drury players. Photo Natalie Whipple.

With Head Coach Bryan Bevel unable to be with the team because of illness, everyone in the program worked hard to get this result.

"Our wings and fullback swept well and made sure we weren't under pressure," said Evan. "When we had the ball we did really well to maintain possession."

As the game went on the Drury forwards started to flag a bit, but the Arkansas defense was fatigued also. So the Panthers started to spring it wide and fullback Isaiah Little scored a try because of that and was nicely supported by wing Riley Rhea.

Evans himself scored two tries and ran the attack well, while among the forwards hooker Cohen Chew snagged three strikes against the head.

That was huge for us," said Evans.

Drury will need to get more players back and they do have a couple they are developing. But still this already-young team has a win on the board.

Marian Battles Highly-Regarded Wildcats

Marian took on Kentucky at Kuntz Stadium and came away with a 27-20 victory.

Marian took a 7-0 lead on a kick-and-chase scored by Mack Bridges. Pendleton product Jacob Rowley added the second and Casey Graybill, another Rugby Indiana product, scored the third, with Joe Martindale converting all three and adding two penalty goals.

John Dardis started at inside center for Kentucky in this match with Colin Spellacy moving from wing to flyhalf; Dardis scored 13 points. Eli Arthur put in a ton of work for the Wildcats and they did a good job of bouncing back from a physical and hard-nosed start from the Knights to keep it close.

When Kentucky started to come back—they turned a 14-0 deficit into a 14-13 scoreline—Marian did well to stay composed and retain the lead.

Fairfield Makes a Statement

Boston College is a well-regarded team in D1AA and should do well in the Liberty. But Saturday saw them defeated fairly convincingly 45-14 by Fairfield University

"We played in the right end of the field," said Fairfield Head Coach Austin Ryan.

Archer Fenton and Patrick McHale led the way at flyhalf and inside center running the attack. Eamonn O'Reilly led the forwards and it was a very physical showing by the Stags. When BC decided to kick to relieve pressure, Fairfield fullback Ian Thomson countered well to bring the pressure back.

For BC, this is a good test for them to prepare themselves for the contact they will encounter come playoff time. That may be when they see a defensive front of a similar vein.

Not As Close As the Football Game

While the nation is up in arms about the end of the Michigan-Western Michigan football game (for the record, GRR is in the WMU camp on that one), Michigan defeated WMU by a more comfortable margin 29-15.

WMU scored three unconverted tries, so they could have made it a little closer. This was a solid performance from Michigan and also a good warmup for Western Michigan as they prepare for a challenging MAC schedule.

Wingate Keeps Going

After a win last week that didn't exactly thrill their coach, Wingate defeated a very good Virginia Tech team 33-12. Wingate is playing a NCR D1 independent schedule so this game has perhaps a bit more importance that it would for a team in a specific conference.

"We improved from Week 1 to Week 2," said Wingate Head Coach Frank McKinney, who started this program from scratch a couple of years go. "Our attack looked a lot better and we had another good defense day. I can see signs of growth."

The key work-on for the Bulldogs will be their penalty count.