August ends with a solid slate of D1-level men's college games, with 20 matches (including some tournament games), at least, over the weekend.
Just about everyone is looking for games to play across conference and organizational lines. One of the things that comes out of the now five-year-old NCR/CRAA split divide is that many teams ignore it. At least they don't worry too much about it when there's a team nearby that they want to play, they play that team. Witness Iowa Central CC vs Iowa State, or Kansas vs Drury, or Davenport vs Marian.
At the same time, you're seeing a bit less spiking of the football when a program switches groups. Adrian moved to NCR. Wayne State and Trine moved to CRAA. It was news to a certain extent, but only when there was an over-arching story, mostly surrounding growing and development pains for school-supported teams, not because one group scored a victory.
This weekend, we see a bunch of crossover teams that are all designed to test the teams involved and see who on the rosters has what it takes. There is also the Dust the Rust Tournament in San Marcos, Texas so we'll keep an eye on that, too. Overall, this is a weekend of early-season excitement and promise.
We will be using these games to help us kick off our rankings next week.
Check back for scores.
