We've got another new #1 in our DIAA rankings.

Now, in the past we've had situations where a lower-ranked team has beaten the #1 team and not gone to #1. This has happened recently. In addition, those who are Dartmouth fans might—quite legitimately—point to the fact that Queens University lost to Army, and Dartmouth beat Army, so why shouldn't #2 Dartmouth move up to #1?

The first reason is that the two lineups Queens and Dartmouth faced were somewhat different. Different enough to discount a result? Maybe not, but different enough to open the door. The second key part of the equation is strength of schedule. It's not just a "what did you do last week?" ranking; it's a totality of what you've done. Dartmouth has played Holy Cross, Penn, Army, Northeastern, and Harvard. Queens has played Army, NC State, Maryland, Navy, Mount St. Mary's, Southern Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Mary Washington. So Dartmouth played, and beat, two teams who are well-regarded in DIA or NCR's top DI level. Queens played two highly-ranked DIA teams and lost (competitively), and beat four ranked DIAA opponents. 

In the end we felt that Queens had logged more wins against tough competition. Now, this could all change. Dartmouth plays Navy this coming week. Queens lost to Navy 34-21 on September 25. If Dartmouth dramatically improves on that (or even wins), then there's a really good chance Dartmouth moves to #1.

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We haven't made a lot of shifts apart from that. Most of that is because we're waiting on a couple of key games in the MARC, and the SCRC playoffs could be interesting. 

Tennessee also has a legitimate claim for #1. After all, they are undefeated, having beaten two major contenders in Kentucky and Clemson, and also beaten Ohio State, which is second in the Big 10 and could be a top-10 team if they beat Indiana November 13. Mary Washington could still get back to #1 if they record results that make us forget this past Saturday. Notre Dame could be #1 if they perform well in their final games, against Davenport and Indiana.

Bowling Green, Iowa Central, and potentially a few others could lay claim to that lofty position by the time the fall is over.

Rank	Prev	Team	Conference	Notes
1	8	Queens University	Chesapeake	Beat UMW (1)
2	2	Dartmouth	Ivy League
3	3	Tennessee	SCRC	Beat South Carolina
4	1	Mary Washington	Chesapeake	Lost to Queens (8)
5	4	U. Notre Dame	Independent
6	5	Bowling Green	MAC	Beat IUPUI (26)
7	7	Iowa Central CC	Independent	Beat Wisconsin
8	6	Kentucky	SCRC	Beat Kennesaw State
9	9	Clemson	SCRC
10	12	Mount St. Mary's	Chesapeake
11	11	Louisville	MAC
12	13	Western Michigan	MAC	Beat Cincinnati (20)
13	10	Wheeling	Independent
14	14	Kansas	Heart of America
15	15	Brown	Ivy League	Beat Penn
16	16	Arkansas	Heart of America
17	17	Minnesota	Heart of America
18	18	Western Washington	NCRC	Beat Washington
19	21	Rowan	MARC	Beat James Madison (43)
20	19	Boise State	NCRC
21	20	Cincinnati	MAC	Lost to WMU (13)
22	22	Iowa State	Heart of America
23	23	St. Joseph's	MARC	Beat Delaware
24	24	West Chester	MARC	Beat Temple
25	25	Salisbury	MARC	Beat Rutgers
26	26	IUPUI	MAC	Lost to Bowling Green (5)
27	27	CSULB	Gold Coast
28	28	Florida Atlantic	Florida
29	29	Arizona State	Gold Coast
30	30	South Florida	Florida
31	31	Central Florida	Florida
32	32	Southern Virginia	Chesapeake	Forfeit win
33	33	Kansas State	Heart of America
34	38	Texas State	Lonestar	Beat UTSA (34)
35	34	UT San Antonio	Lonestar	Lost to Texas State (38)
36	35	Fresno State	Pac West
37	36	UCSC	Pac West
38	37	Iowa	Heart of America
39	39	Sam Houston State	Lonestar	Beat UT Dallas
40	40	Chico State	Pac West
41	42	Oregon State	NCRC	Beat Washington State
42	41	Georgia	SCRC
43	45	Virginia Tech	Chesapeake	Beat Maryland
44	44	Mizzou	Heart of America
45	43	James Madison	MARC	Lost to Rowan (21)