Women DI College Top 20: May 12, 2015

With the national champion (re)crowned, it’s time for one last Women DI College Top 20 for the 2014-15 season. There were some important crossover matches during the spring playoffs, and they jostled the top half of the list. It was difficult to weigh those outcomes against 7s results, so we decided to better honor those spring 7s teams with a separate ranking, which will combine DI and DII teams into one list.

Penn State won its fourth consecutive, 10^th overall, DI national championship on Saturday, defeating spring champion Central Washington 61-7 in the title match. We kept Norwich at #2 because the Cadets played the Nittany Lions a little harder in the fall championship. It’s tempting to move up the Wildcats one more spot, especially after come-from-behind wins against BYU and Life, but it’ll have to wait until next season.

Speaking of Life, the Running Eagles made a big leap from #11 to #5, and it had everything to do with the first-year varsity team’s performance at the spring final four. Against Central Washington, Life took a 17-5 lead into halftime – a scoreline that surprised everyone. The Wildcats had not been pushed like that before, but the eventual victor did right itself and won 40-17. We like that Life kept it together on day two. Consolation matches can be loaded - teams carry injuries from day one, give their bench the start, or aren't mentally invested – but that doesn't dilute the fact that there's a game to be won. Life, which doesn't carry a full roster yet, defeated West Chester 34-10 during the spring semifinal consolation match, and that says something about the team's resolve and its athletes.

Where Life took the biggest jump, Stanford fell the farthest. The Cardinal lost 53-7 to Central Washington in the spring quarterfinals, and the team was never really in it. The question became whether to drop Stanford below Quinnipiac, which has been idle save a couple of 7s tournaments. We relied on the Bobcats' fall finale against Penn State (as well as the win vs. Indiana) during the fall semifinals, and that five-month-old result was good enough for us. And placing Stanford beside UC Davis made sense; the two played two closes games against each other during league, and both lost to CWU and beat Washington State by similar margins.

Army, American International, Lindenwood, and Brown – they’ve been doing good things on the 7s circuit, and again, it’s why we’re working on the 7s-only ranking. The West Pointers won the ACRA 7s Championship, defeating Norwich twice in the process, but that wasn’t enough to leap over a 15s playoff team. AIC dropped because of Life’s big jump, and also for its third-place finish at ACRAs. The Yellow Jackets are rebuilding for the fall, and we’re eager to see what Dimitri Efthimiou will launch now that he’s had a chance to recruit. Speaking of recruits, watch for a loaded Lindenwood, which we'll be previewing shortly.

Stay tuned for the 7s rankings.