Here is the latest Men's DII College playoff bracket.

This after the weekend's action when Plymouth State won the Colonial Coast (beating Salve Regina), SUNY Cortland took Upstate NY (beating Geneseo), Rowan took the MARC over York (Rowan Wins MARC), Sacred Heart beat William Paterson to win the Tri-State, UW-Whitewater took the WIIL over Illinois State, with UW-Milwaukee taking third (WIIL to Win - Whitewater Impresses), and Furman won the Southern (Furman Wins Southern Conference) over UNC-Charlotte. NC State also won the Cardinal over the Northern Virginia Griffins team, with VMI taking the #2 seed.

In addition, league action saw Bentley clinch the Rugby Northeast with Southern Connecticut Providence College Southern Connecticut 2nd (Saturday DII College Latest).

(Addendum and Correction: The tiebreaker for RNE serves to first find a winner. So with the three-way tie, the points difference among the three is used only to find the conference winner ... in this case Bentley. Once Bentley is declared the winner and is out of the equation, we look at the other two teams, and we go back to the original and preferred tiebreaker, which is head-to-head. So in this game, Providence beat SoConn 29-13 on September 16, and that's why Providence takes 2nd, not SoConn. So we were wrong, SoConn is not the second playoff team, it's Providence College.)

(Additional addendum: After an appeal from Southern Connecticut, USA Rugby has ruled that the Rugby Northeast rules say that the 3rd-level tiebreaker "eliminates" a team, which was taken to mean that a team is declared 3rd, or eliminated from contention. So with that understanding, they went back to what we originally said - SoConn is 2nd, and Providence College 3rd. However, Providence College is expected to appeal.)

The only piece of information we're missing is from the NECRC. That conference has decided its champion - Norwich - but we're still waiting on the runner up. The problem? That runner up is to be decided this coming weekend. On Saturday, Rhode Island plays Middlebury. Thanks to Middlebury beating Vermont this past Saturday, Vermont is vulnerable to being caught by Rhode Island. The score of the Middlebury-Vermont game was important, too. Middlebury won 19-12. Had Middlebury scored one more try, then they would have received a bonus point, and UVM would have lost a bonus point, this allowing Middlebury a chance to take 2nd if they beat Rhode Island November 12. But now it's only URI (85-12 winners over New Hampshire), who can catch Vermont, and they can do it with a win. They don't even have to have a bonus point.

The 1st round of the national playoffs is this coming weekend, however, and what may well happen is that Plymouth State, the team slated to play yhe NECRC #2 team, will be waiting to play that game, maybe on Sunday. Plymouth State is in New Hampshire, and Middlebury, who hosts the final league game on November 12, is in Vermont. So they are all close.

And remember, if Rhode Island rails to win on Saturday, it's Vermont, not URI, playing in the playoffs. All eyes are on the Green Mountain State, then, for the final piece of the puzzle.

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