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Late Shifts in DIA, Varsity Cup

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Late Shifts in DIA, Varsity Cup

Utah and Air Force from 2015 - two teams that have backed away from the Varsity Cup.

The recent shakeups in the major DI competitions has left some questions.

Specifically, the University of Utah has pulled out of the Varsity Cup. (Utah Withdraws from Varsity Cup), and after a distressing on-field incident February 25, Arizona State is expected to be under suspension and won't be able to compete. This follows the February 4th announcement that Air Force has lft the Varsity Cup (Air Force Academy Leaving Varsity Cup).

Utah and Air Force have declared that they would like to considered for the DIA playoffs. Air Force won the West DIA and should expect to get a playoff spot as a result. But Utah has to be sure they retain a strong enough ranking. The current D1A Rankings have Utah at #14, which should be good enough, but the Utes have to do well against Arizona this coming weekend to stay in that picture.

(DIA got some good news with CBS Sports Network showing the final this May, by the way.)

Meanwhile, the Varsity Cup has to fill those gaps. They already brought in Harvard to replace Air Force, and now reports are that Boston College and Utah Valley University will be put into the Varsity Cup to replace Utah and Arizona State.

So that makes an interesting juxtaposition of the Varsity Cup and DIA playoff teams:

DIA: Life*, Saint Mary's, Air Force, BYU, Indiana, Baylor*, LSU*, Arizona*, Utah*, San Diego State*, Lindenwood*, and Davenport* or Colorado State* or somebody else

(*=probable selection but not guaranteed)

Varsity Cup: Dartmouth, Clemson, Notre Dame, Army, Penn State, Harvard, Cal, Central Washington, Navy, Boston College, UVU, UCLA, Arkansas State, Oklahoma

Using last week's Goff Rugby Report rankings, the DIA list averages a ranking of about 13 or 14, while the Varsity Cup has a ranking of about 26 (we gave non-ranked teams a ranking of 55).