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

DIAA-Level Men College Rankings Week 25

irish rugby tours

DIAA-Level Men College Rankings Week 25

Central Florida wins a lineout versus Florida State. Gaige vanBommel photo.

This article is a combined rankings and divisional update piece.

As skipped last week's rankings because there were only a small number of results and while those results would have prompted one major change, we decided to wait until this week, because once again several teams were idle, so combined we have a decent number of games.

Final Four Teams in Florida DIAA Decided After a Tense 1st Round

Sac State Holds Off UC Santa Cruz to Make Pac West Final

This past weekend's action has now finalized the ACR DIAA Spring playoffs for us. The Western Bracket looks to be Sacramento State vs Western Washington, and San Diego vs Fresno State.

The Eastern Bracket is already set for this co,ing weekend with UT San Antonio vs Kansas and Minnesota vs Texas State.

Are those the top eight teams playing in DIAA? Actually, no, not necessarily. The Florida teams are not in the playoffs because of all the changes into in the collegiate landscape. The Florida DIAA Conference opted to be an independent conference and as a result aren't in the ACR playoff picture. Had they been asked to participate, they probably would have accepted (although seeing as the Eastern Bracket is being held in Kansas ... maybe not). The spring championship will likely give us the best team playing in the spring, but the best team in Florida would certainly have had a say in that.

We will probably not end up ranking the top team from Florida #1 less because we think the ACR playoff is the be-all and end-all, and more because Florida teams don't play much out of their region. The only frame of reference we have, really, is Central Florida beating University of Connecticut by a tight margin in December. That game essentially told us at the time that UCF could play and ... that's about it.

Now, these past two weeks we've seen Western Washington beat San Diego, vaulting the Vikings to the Top 2 spot in the West. WWU moves up six places to #12. Are they better than Florida State or Wheeling or even Dartmouth? Maybe. We will wait on the playoffs to prove that. Fresno State won the Pacific Western, and they have dominated in that competition. FSU could be #1, but of course they're going to have to keep winning in impressive fashion. If Fresno State wins the Western Bracket is that enough? Maybe.


These rankings are brought to you by Next Phase Rugby, which is an app that helps college programs connect with hundreds of talented high school rugby players. This app is useful for club teams as well as school-supported college teams. In fact, it's a really, really good way for club-college teams to find players and educate them about your school and what's great about playing at your college. NextPhaseRugby.com  


By mid-April we will know who will play at the ACR finals and that will give us a good look at who might potentially unseat Tennessee as overall #1. We will probably, just before that reveal, give you our Spring-only and Fall-only rankings, partly because we'll probably shift to that next year anyway. But if you look at Fresno State, even though they haven't played outside their region, it's fair to say that Sac State, UCSC, Stanford, and Chico State all can play rugby.

And Fresno State's dominance is why we bumped them to #5. They beat Sacramento State 66-14. They beat Chico State 55-7. They beat Stanford 69-12. They beat UCSC 52-12. They beat Nevada 87-26. San Jose State forfeited to them ... and then they beat Sacramento State 36-0 on Sunday to win the conference. So an average score of 61-12.

But what if Fresno State makes it to the final and loses to, say, Kansas by 25? Well then we change things around quite drastically.

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