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Men D1AA College Rankings Week 8

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Men D1AA College Rankings Week 8

Kentucky evades USC tackling and moves to #1. Cassie Redden photo.

As we have mentioned several times before, we try very hard not to look at any other rankings.

We don't want to be influenced, and also ignoring other rankings allows us plausible deniability if anyone accuses us of copying just because we happen to agree. However, it's difficult to avoid sometimes when we do a search on social media, for example, because often the first post that shows up is NCR's rankings graphics. All of that is to say that we knew that NCR's poll had Kentucky at #1 and ... guess what? We think they were right and we were wrong. While it's entirely possible that Virginia Tech, which was #1 until last week, is the #1 team, it was difficult to put them there when Kentucky beat a fairly highly-ranked South Carolina and did so in convincing fashion.

Meanwhile, last week's #1, Louisville, of course lost, so they couldn't stay. We could have moved Kansas into the #1 but they lost a game, and while we don't penalize college teams for losing to men's clubs, we don't reward them, either. Bowling Green? Maybe, but they did lose to Notre Dame, which was weird. San Diego? They might be the best team in the nation, but they haven't played yet. Sam Houston State? Had they played and won this week, we'd have considered it. Iowa State? Yes, they are in the picture.

We also had several bug movers. UMass is a team we've been a little slow to love and that's in part due to how their schedule panned out. Had they been able to play (and beat) UConn earlier in the season then they might have been higher. In the end they played (and beat) UConn this past week and then beat Boston College. So now they are up 21 spots to #10. Florida beat Florida State (non-league game, we know) and move up 11 spots. We are starting to see something from Boise State and we are also seeing something from Rice. They move up nine and 10 spots, respectively.\

And at #40, Rowan beat Princeton, but overall Princeton has had the better season. We couldn't pick between them so we have them both at #40. For now.

Rank Prev Team Conference Notes
1 4 Kentucky SCRC Beat South Carolina (15)
2 2 Virginia Tech MARC Beat Delaware (39)
3 3 Kansas Heart of America Lost to Wichita RFC
4 6 Bowling Green MAC Beat Louisville (1)
5 5 U. San Diego Gold Coast  
6 7 Sam Houston State Lonestar  
7 1 Louisville MAC Lost to Bowling Green (6)
8 8 Iowa State Heart of America Beat Nebraska
9 12 Tennessee SCRC Beat Alabama (20)
10 31 UMass Liberty Beat Boston College (10)
11 10 Boston College Liberty Lost to UMass (31)
12 23 Florida Florida CC Beat Florida State (9)
13 13 Western Michigan MAC  
14 11 Fresno State California DIAA  
15 9 Florida State Florida CC Lost to Florida (23)
16 14 Clemson SCRC Beat Georgia
17 16 NC State Southern  
18 27 Boise State NCRC Beat Oregon State
19 17 Chico State California DIAA  
20 30 Rice Lonestar Beat Texas A&M Grey
21 15 South Carolina SCRC Lost to Kentucky (4)
22 20 Alabama SCRC Close loss to Tennessee (12)
23 18 Kansas State Heart of America  
24 19 Western Washington NCRC  
25 21 West Chester MARC  
26 22 St. Joseph's MARC  
27 28 Binghamton Liberty  
28 33 Iowa Heart of America Beat Minnesota (37)
29 25 South Florida Florida CC  
30 29 Missouri Heart of America  
31 32 Yale Liberty  
32 34 UTSA Lonestar  
33 35 Cincinnati MAC Beat IUPUI
34 Unr James Madison MARC Beat Maryland (24)
35 24 Maryland  MARC Lost to James Madison
36 26 Florida International Florida CC  
37 36 UNC Chapel Hill Southern  
38 38 Washington State NCRC  
39 39 Delaware MARC Lost to Virginia Tech (2)
40T Unr Princeton MARC  
40T Unr Rowan MARC Beat Penn