With the California Conference all-but-clinched, the DIA playoffs have been settled with a little less than two weeks to go.

USA Rugby has instituted a couple of seeding rules. First off, as has always been the case, the top four (based on the D1A Rankings) conference champions get a bye to the quarterfinals and will host that quarterfinal.

So Mid-South winners Life, West DIA winners Utah, Big Ten winners Indiana, and presumptive California winners St. Mary's will get a bye to the April 23 quarterfinals. In addition, any other conference champion will host a first-round playoff game, and the #3 Mid-South team, regardless of ranking, will have to play on the road.

And so on April 16, Mid-South #3 Davenport will visit San Diego State (California #2). Red River winners LSU will host at-large team Arizona. Cal Poly (California #3) visits Air Force (West D!A #4 but essentially tied for 2nd with the same record as both Colorado and Colorado State). Wheeling Jesuit (Rugby East #4) plays at Mid-South #2 Lindenwood.

Round 1 April 16

Match #1 Davenport at San Diego St

Match #2  Arizona at LSU

Match #3 Cal Poly at Air Force

Match #4 Wheeling Jesuit at Lindenwood

Round 2 April 23

Match #5: Winner Match #1 at Life

Match #6: Winner Match #2 at Utah

Match #7: Winner Match #3 at St Mary's

Match #8: Winner Match #4 at Indiana

Round 3 April 30

Winner Match #5 vs Winner Match #8

Winner Match #6 vs Winner Match #7

The final will be played at St. Mary's May 7.

Some team notes: Arizona made the playoffs thanks in large part to a demanding schedule that included St. Mary's, Utah, Cal, Lindenwood, UCLA, Arizona State, Colorado, Notre Dame, and Oregon State. They won only four of those, but the key games were close losses to Utah and UCLA, the win over Arizona State, and the win over Colorado, which ensured the Wildcats were to be ranked ahead of the Buffs. 

Some other highly-ranked teams aren't in the playoffs due to other plans. Penn State and Army are in the Varsity Cup (as are Air Force and Utah, but they are doubling up and in fact play each other April 9, so one of them won't have a game April 16), and Kutztown is concentrating on 7s. 

Rankings: The Goff Rugby Report all-DI rankings from last week rank the DIA playoff teams as follows: 2, 4, 6, 9, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 32. Average ranking 14.5. In contrast, the 16 Varsity Cup teams are ranked 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, and three not ranked. If we assign the non-ranked teams the highest-possible ranking of 51, the average ranking is 20.8.