Spring 2022 Men D2 College 7s Rankings
Spring 2022 Men D2 College 7s Rankings
It took us a while to post these Men's DII College 7s rankings because, really, they were very difficult.
We had to deal with a bunch of results combinations that could be interpreted several different ways. For example:
IUP may have won the CRC, but they scraped by on numerous occasions. Is it reasonable, then, to look at what Cal Maritime achieved in the Premier Division and say Cal Maritime is the best team? We opt to put IUP at #1 but Cal Maritime is a legit contender.
Principia won five games by an average score of 32-3, but lost once, to Citadel, 12-10. We think Principia may be the best DII 7s team in the country, but that loss, small as it is, is difficult to look past for #1.
Lander lost to Norwich, but ended up 2nd in the CRC. Norwich may have beaten Lander but they lost to UNC-Wilmington, and Northern Iowa, and Georgetown.
Northern Iowa lost in the semis to IUP by three points (!) and then beat Citadel to take 3rd. But they were also shut out 26-0 by Georgetown. However, Georgetown lost to UMass-Lowell. So what do you do about that? Georgetown was the closest to Principia of anyone (except Citadel, who beat them), and were close to Lander. Which result do you throw out? UMass Lowell 24-12 over Georgetown or Georgetown 26-0 over UNI?
UMass Lowell did win that game and were very unlucky not to make the quarterfinals. If they had won the consolation bracket, we might have bumped them up to the top 6 or 7. But they lost to Montana State.
Hopefully you see how circular it all is. Really this is a reflection of how competitive the entire DII bracket was. We think that any of six or seven teams could have won the CRC.
So, finally, we had to make a decision. Given that we feel like many of these teams are close to equal, then it stands to reason that if someone were to rise above them, that team would have to win somewhat consistently. So a team that is competitive against other good teams, but loses games (Georgetown on Day Two) doesn't rate as highly as a team that wins consistently. So it might seem strange to rank Northern Iowa over Georgetown, but when those two played, UNI had a quarterfinal spot sewn up. UNI played five other teams, one of which was not strong, and four of which were championship contenders.
They lost to the eventual champions 29-26, albeit in the quarterfinals. Norwich lost three in a row on Day Two, Georgetown two in a row (before beating Norwich). The Citadel did well to beat Principia, but lost close games to IUP, Lander, and Northern Iowa. We think Citadel deserves to be Top 7 at the very least because they played a lot of tough competition. But Northern Iowa, in our opinion, has to be above them, and for that to happen, we kind of have to throw out that Georgetown loss.
We expect some hate mail on this one. Just keep in mind that the top eight teams are all capable on any weekend of coming out on top ... or not.
(One last note: we ranked 15 teams here because there were only six teams in the R7CC Blue and 16 in the CRC DII, so, with a couple of additions we're looking at a pool of 24 teams. Going up to a Top 20 just sort of seems a bit much.)
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| Rank | Team | Notes |
| 1 | IUP | 6-0 in CRC. Won three games by 3 points or less. |
| 2 | Lander | 2nd in CRC. Lost to Norwich. |
| 3 | Northern Iowa | Decided to throw out Georgetown loss. Beat Citadel, within 3 of IUP. |
| 4 | Citadel | Beat Principia by 2, lost to IUP by 2. |
| 5 | Principia | Won five games comfortably, lost 12-10 to Citadel. |
| 6 | Cal Maritime | Solid showing in the CRC Premier, beating some very good D1 teams. |
| 7 | Georgetown | Results vs Norwich and Principia better than UNCW's. |
| 8 | UNC-Wilmington | Beat Montana State, Norwich. 2-point loss to IUP. |
| 9 | Montana State | Beat Bentley, UMass-Lowell, Scranton. |
| 10 | UMass-Lowell | Beat Georgetown, but lost to MSU. |
| 11 | Norwich | Beat Lander. Close to UNI, UNCW |
| 12 | Southern California | Won R7CC Blue Division. |
| 13 | Memphis | Traded wins with Auburn. 2nd in R7CC Blue. |
| 14 | Auburn | Traded wins with Memphis. |
| 15 | Scranton | 10th in CRC. Close loss to Norwich. |
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