About 80 men's D1 teams are in action this weekend, with almost half of them (we count 34) are on the schedule.

Non-Conference Games

Sunday Lander visits Virginia Tech in a clash of a smaller school-supported team that is still growing against a pretty successful club team in Virginia Tech. The Hokies are probably favored in this one. Colorado State is at Utah Valley University. This would normally be a Rocky Mountain Conference game, but UVU joined NCR and is playing an independent schedule. So this is, technically, a non-conference game.

Purdue is at Marian in another club-team-vs-school-supported-team clash. Purdue has started fairly well but Marian is building something and looking ahead to the rest of their Big Rivers schedule.

And finally a matchup that has a lot of history with Indiana at Davenport. GRR will be at that game, watching a Davenport team that beat both Aquinas and Adrian in successive days. Those results helped bump Davenport to #6 among fall-playing D1 teams.

D1 Men's College Rankings Week 3

The win over Adrian wasn't a runaway, and the Panthers will want to be a little more clinical this week. It will be a tough out against Indiana, a team that can score ... a lot.

Rugby East

We detail a bit about how the Rugby East kicked off last week.

New-Look Rugby East Kicks Off With Competitive Games

Front-runners Army host Queens Friday night. Kutztown is at Penn State in a clash of two teams that a normally contenders in the conference but started the season with a loss. Mary Washington, which had to bow out of last week's game with Wheeling due to a slew of positive COVID tests (unfortunate but unavoidable), hosts Southern Virginia.

Big 10

With Indiana playing outside the conference the other six are in action. Illinois is at an Ohio State side still testing itself out. Michigan is at Notre Dame (34-0 winners over Purdue last week), and Wisconsin at Michigan State (41-12 winners over Illinois last week).  

Rocky Mountain

A BYU side with some talented young players looks to start a tough and long push to a national championship this weekend with a game against Air Force. The Zoomies at Air Force have repeatedly shown they can break open a game, but BYU's defense and physicality are pretty tough to break. Head Coach Steve St. Pierre's team brings back a really solid group led by Taysan Hammer.

Liberty

As always, this is a crowded slate of games. Brown at Harvard is a nice all-Ivy clash, while Nazareth at Dartmouth sees new vs old. Fairfield has been steadily improving and should provide a challenge for Iona.

AIC hosts Northeastern in a clash of contenders in their top tier. In the 2nd tier, is Stony Brook for real? A good result agaisnt Cortland might answer that.

MARC

The Mid-Atlantic kicks off and West Chester at St. Joe's headlines that group.

SCRC

While Tennessee is strangely idle for two weekends right after pushing Ohio State in a 12-10 loss, you've got to wonder if the players aren't champing to follow up on that. Meanwhile, they have to watch the rest of the SCRC to see who bubbles up as contenders. One of those could be Alabama, and if it is they need to do well in a road game at Kennesaw State. Clemson hosts LSU, which means it's really great to see LSU back in action at a high level again. Georgia was a dark horse in 2021 and they host South Carolina, looking to return to contender status. 

Kentucky, which played Thomas More last week, also waits until October to play again.

Southern Conference

The Southern's new D1AA bracket is small, but mighty, with Citadel at Belmont Abbey. Both have had warmup games—Citadel gave up a big score to Navy (not a surprise), and Belmont won against a local men's club. Not much to judge on there, really. This week is a big deal for both teams.

MAC

Western Michigan at Pitt is the top one there. Pitt beat Cincinnati last week and could lunch themselves into the conversation with a solid showing against the Broncos.

Lonestar

Early days yet for this league as it kicks off. UT San Antonio is at Dallas, and Rice is at Texas State. The Renegades of Texas State are thinking conference title again. For Rice, this is an emotional time. The program has been working its way back into D1 prominence, and this is the first 15s season after the tragic death of coach Pedrie Wannenburg in late April. He died when another car that was fleeing police crashed into Wannenburg's vehicle, which was carrying him, his wife, and their two children. Wannenberg was the only one to die, while his son was badly injured. He left a big hole in the rugby community in Houston and in Austin, where he also played and coached. Wannenberg played for the Blue Bulls in his native South Africa and wad capped 20 times by the Springboks. 

There seems to be a determination within the Rice program fueled by Wannenberg's influence.