GRR on X  GRR on Facebook GRR in Instagram GRR Vimeo Library GRR on YouTube RuggaMatrix America Podcasts Support GRR on Patreon

Final Men DII College Rankings Of Fall - Plus Explanations

irish rugby tours

Final Men DII College Rankings Of Fall - Plus Explanations

UW-Whitewater and Norwich from 2016 because that's the best shot we have. Jeremy Fleming photo.

Far be it for us to burden you with our problems, but our final Men's DII rankings are late, and in fact we missed a few weeks, and we're sorry.

So this was because your editor moved, and was a little under the weather, and as a result, found some things fell by the wayside. And, as we all can attest to, when something falls by the wayside, it can sometimes stay by the wayside, and the longer it stays, the hard it is to bring it back onto the road.

Tortured metaphors aside, we saw at GRR World Headquarters that there would need to be big changes thanks to the playoffs, and we finally decided to wait for it all to be over.

As it is, we got the #1 right and UW-Whitewater, despite a scare or two, ran the table. VMI was brilliant through the playoffs and was a bit of a surprise for us - mostly because we dropped them down because of a close loss to NC State early in the season. Norwich and ND State didn't disappoint, while Grand Valley State's competitive loss to Whitewater brings them up.

Bethel, having been close to GVSU, moves up, too.

Here are the explanations for the major movers:

VMI - up 11 places because they finished 2nd in the nation.

GVSU - up 10 places because of a close loss to UW-Whitewater.

UW-Milwaukee - up 14 places because of a very close loss to GVSU.

IUPUI - up 5 places because of a very close loss to Illinois State, who are ranked #6.

Hartford - up 13 spots thanks to winning New England Wide Conference, and then beating Oswego and pushing Norwich.

Bethel - up eight spots because they almost beat GVSU during the regular season.

Bloomsburg - down nine spots because other teams moved up, and for getting beaten badly in loss to VMI.

UNC-Charlotte - down 12 spots because they lost to Bloomsburg.

Montana State - down eight spots because of a loss to Illinois State that was worse than IUPUI's loss.

York - down 12 spots because they are below Bloomsburg, who dropped.

Coast Guard Academy and Quinnipiac  - up seven places thanks to Hartford's success.

RPI - down five places because of big loss to VMI.

Scranton - up five spots - no specific reason.

East Carolina - up five spots because of strong finish in Southern Conference.

Siena - entering Top 50 at #30 thanks to solid finish in the conference and the realization that their only losses were to RPI and Sacred Heart, and they were very close.

SCSU - down 10 spots because of big loss to Oswego in playoffs.

UMass-Lowell - down nine spots mostly because others moved up.

Coastal Carolina - up 14 places thanks to strong finish and decent showing by other Southern teams ... enough to bunch everyone up a little closer.

DePaul - up nine spots because they lost to Marquette 22-21, and thus should be right behind Marquette.

Appalachian State - see Coastal Carolina. Up six spots.

Louisiana Tech - entered Top 50 after making playoffs and were competitive. Deep South conference not strong in reporting scores and stuff like that so they didn't get ranked before.

Middlebury - down 18 spots because others moved up and they weren't consistent.

Bentley - down 16 for same reasons as Middlebury.

Marist and William Paterson - down eight spots as Tri-State gets hit overall.

USMMA - down six for same reasons as Marist and WPU.

Bryant - into Top 50 thanks to a couple of good late results.

UNC - down five because they didn't finish super-strong.

 

 

Goff Rugby Report Fall 2016 Men DII College Rankings #6
Rank Prev Team Conference Notes
1 1 UW-Whitewater (Wisc.) WIIL Won nationals
2 13 VMI (Va.) Cardinals national runners-up
3 2 Norwich (Vt.) Rugby Northeast 3rd at nationals
4 4 North Dakota State (ND) Northern Lights 4th at nationals
5 15 Grand Valley State (Mich.) Great Lakes Beat UW-Mil. (21) 31-28, lost to UWW (1) 24-12
6 7 Illinois State (Ill.) WIIL Bt IUPUI (14), MSU (9), lost to NDSU (4)
7 21 UW-Milwaukee (Wisc.) WIIL Bt. UMD (10), lost 31-28 to GVSU (15)
8 10 Minnesota-Duluth (Minn.) Northern Lights Lost 39-31 to UW-Milwaukee (21) in Round 1
9 14 IUPUI (Ind.) Midwest Lost 24-21 to ISU (7) in Round 1
10 8 NC State (NC) Cardinals Bt. ECU (32), lost to Norwich (2)
11 24 Hartford (Conn.) New England-Wide Bt. Oswego (17), Lost to Norwich (2)
12 20 Bethel (Ind.) Great Lakes Close to GVSU
13 11 Northern Michigan (Mich.) WIIL 4th in WIIL
14 5 Bloomsburg MARC Bt. UNCC (5), lost 43-5 to VMI (13)
15 3 UNC-Charlotte (NC) Southern Lost 32-29 to Bloomsburg (5)
16 12 Furman (SC) Southern Bt. La. Tech, Lost to NDSU (4) 31-15
17 9 Montana State (Mont.) Rocky Mountain Lost 30-10 to ISU (7) in Round 2
18 6 York (Pa.) MARC  
19 17 SUNY Oswego (NY) Upstate NY Bt. SCSU (22), lost 28-20 to Hartford (24)
20 18 Geneseo (NY) Upstate NY Close to Oswego
21 16 Western State (Colo.) Rocky Mountain  
22 29 Coast Guard Academy (Conn.) New England-Wide  
23 30 Quinnipiac (Conn.) New England-Wide  
24 19 RPI (NY) Tri-State Lost 49-5 to VMI (13) in Round 2
25 26 Sacred Heart (Conn.) Tri-State  
26 31 Scranton (Pa.) MARC  
27 32 East Carolina (NC) Southern Lost to NC State (6) in Round 1
28 35 The Citadel (SC) Southern  
29 39 Pitt State (Kans.) Gateway Lost to UWW (1) in Round 2
30 Unr Siena (NY) Tri-State  
31 28 Vermont (Vt.) Independent  
32 22 Southern Connecticut (Conn.) Rugby Northeast  
33 36 Millersville (Pa) MARC  
34 25 UMass-Lowell (Mass.) Rugby Northeast  
35 49 Coastal Carolina (SC) Southern  
36 33 Marquette (Wisc.) WIIL Lost to UW-Milwaukee (35)
37 46 DePaul (Ill.) WIIL  
38 44 Appalachian State (NC) Southern  
39 Unr Louisiana Tech Deep South Close loss to Furman (12) in 1st Round
40 40 UMS&T (Mo.) Gateway  
41 23 Middlebury (Vt.) Rugby Northeast  
42 42 Old Dominion (Va.) Cardinals  
43 27 Bentley (Mass.) Rugby Northeast  
44 43 SLU (Mo.) Gateway  
45 37 Marist (NY) Tri-State  
46 38 William Paterson (NY) Tri-State  
47 41 USMMA (NY) Tri-State  
48 50 Southern Illinois (Ill.) Gateway  
49 Unr Bryant (RI) Rugby Northeast  
50 45 UNC (NC) Southern