We are diving headlong into the winter/spring college season this week.

The California D1A slate has six teams in conference action. Yes it's true Saint Mary's (in a non-conference game with Arizona) is the heavy favorite, but there's a lot of rugby to be played in order to get rankings love and playoff seeds. Cal Poly put in a solid showing against BYU—they played hard to prevent some BYU tries and while they lost 26-12, they kept at it all the way through.

Central Washington beat UVic (in a game where Head Coach Todd Thornley said CWU was a bit fortunate to win) and they turn around to host Canadian champions UBC. That's going to be a massive challenge for the Wildcats. 

In the Red River there is a ton happening in the Red River Conference. UT Austin is a solid team this year and they host an improving Teas Christian. Meanwhile, both Baylor and Texas A&M are serious contenders for the conference, and they play each other. So we will know a lot about the competitive balance in Texas after this weekend.

In D1AA there is a ton of action. Canadian top four team Trinity Western visits Western Washington.

Florida kicks off and the game of the week has to be Central Florida at Florida State. Not much of a warmup for those two. The California Conference D1AA is split into North and South. The South kicks off next week while the North has three games, including new team American River College. A community college in North Highlands, Calif., American River got started after Zach Swithenbank joined the college as Director of Program Growth for the ARC football team. When he was hired it was with the understanding that he would also start and coach a rugby team, so here we are. 

"We got everything we asked for from both the school the community and USA Rugby," said Swithenbank. "We have the support of multiple larger colleges who are big advocates for us. We have a good coaching staff and solid first-year player pool."

Now they just have to build from there.