The Northern Lights conference seems like such a foregone conclusion that USA Rugby and Goff Rugby Report both made the same mistake, penciling in Minnesota-Duluth as the conference champion before the conference playoffs.

Of course, the playoffs are a bit of a new thing, but they do hold some suspense. The Fighting Penguins, ranked #1 by Goff Rugby Report this entire fall, remain the heavy, heavy favorites.

However, the battle for 2nd, which brings with it a date with Colorado School of Mines. 

If Duluth does as expect and makes the final over MSU-Mankato, then the big battle might well be North Dakota State v Winona State for that other place in the final.

North Dakota State made a late surge to put themselves in position to make the national playoffs. They lost a close one, 12-5, to Winona State the weekend before last, and then followed that up with a 24-17 defeat of Mankato, to jump into 3rd and avoid Duluth in the semis.

For Duluth’s part, they won big over St. Cloud State, and Head Coach Jeramy Katchuba said the key for his team has been maintaining the standard. 

“This is a tough conference,” said Katchuba. “I think Winona and ND State have both really improved.”

Having said that, Katchuba has to recognize that UMD beat those two teams by a combined score of 115-7. It was ND State’s first game of the season, though.

Duluth has managed to keep their level of play high. The Penguins haven’t slipped against weaker teams and in six league games have given up four tries.

The return over Matt Barton has kept the defending national champs at the top. He took a year off to concentrate on school, but in returning is better than ever, and scoring multiple tries every game. No. 8 Luc Desroches has been a huge factor, taking over as the main go-forward guy for Jake Luetgers, who graduated. Katchuba said he was concerned about how he could replace Luetgers, but the players have filled in nicely. 

“Luc’s been a difference-maker,” he said.

So this weekend it’s Mankato v Minnesota-Duluth and Winona v North Dakota State at the Fuad Mansour Soccer Complex in Rochester, Minn. On Sunday, the finals will be played. Expect Duluth to come out on top, but the rest of the story is yet to be told.