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Men D2 2023 Rankings Week 4

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Men D2 2023 Rankings Week 4

Northern Iowa (the photo's from 2021, sorry) inches upward. Bob Nemmers photo

Wow, what an interesting weekend in Men's D2 college rugby.

First off, we had seven games where both teams were ranked. All of those games were fairly lopsided, with only one where the winner was ranked below the losing team. The average score was 41-7. So what we found was, for the most part, the highest-ranked teams are, in fact, quite strong, and they are even strong enough to win comfortably over teams that have already shown well.

The only upset was MSU Mankato vs UM-Duluth and frankly we weren't surprised Mankato won—it was a surprise that tey won by 35. Another surprise was Vermont 38-0 over UMass-Lowell. We did have a few ranked teams fairly to defeat a non-ranked team. MTSU tying Xavier isn't a big issue for MTSU because Xavier is a pretty solid small college team. Washington University losing by a point to Southern Illinois could have pulled Wash U. down but instead we've moved SIU up. Yet we made the opposite decision when Bloosmburg lost to East Stroudsburg.

Big movers are: Mankato, moving up 18 points. Again, Mankato was strong last year but it was a bit of a new thing, so we waited until they played to put them back in the Top 20 ... they're there now. Mira Costa College drops 18 spots because we haven't seen anything from them.

Memphis beat Georgia Tech and moves up eight spots after a big win over GT. Scranton drops 10 spots because they were idle and a lot of other teams played and won. Marquette drops 10 spots because they lost by a significant amount to Northern Iowa, and, again, other teams won and moved past them. 

The big mover in the upper echelon is Vermont, which shut out UMass-Lowell 38-0 and move from #9 to #6. 

Games to watch this coming weekend: Miami at IUP; Kent State at West Virginia; Central Michigan at Grand Valley State; UNH at Norwich.

Rk. Prev. College Team Conference  
1 1 IUP (PA) Allegheny  
2 2 Loyola (IL) Great MW Beat Illinois State
3 3 Northern Iowa (IA) Great MW Beat Marquette (10)
4 4 Norwich (VT) New England-Wide Beat Coast Guard (11)
5 5 Georgetown (DC) MARC Beat UMBC
6 9 Vermont (VT) New England-Wide Beat UMass-Lowell (9)
7 6 Marist (NY) Liberty Beat Oswego
8 7 Villanova (PA) MARC Beat Bucknell (28)
9 8 Auburn (AL) SCRC Beat Tennessee Tech
10 12 SLU (MO) Gateway Beat MS&T (24)
11 11 Coast Guard (CT) New England-Wide Lost to Norwich (4)
12 20 Memphis (TN) SCRC Beat Georgia Tech (34)
13 13 UW-Whitewater (WI) Great MW Beat UW-Platteville
14 14 Montana State (MT) High Peaks Beat UCCS
15 15 GVSU (MI) Great Lakes  
16 16 Chicago (IL) Great MW  
17 19 UNC-Wilmington (NC) Southern  
18 36 MSU Mankato (MN) Northern Lights Beat UM-Duluth (27)
19 21 Miami (OH) Allegheny Beat W. Kentucky
20 10 Marquette (WI) Great MW Lost to Northern Iowa (3)
21 Unr Southern Illinois (IL) MARC Beat Washington U. (18)
22 18 Washington U. (MO) Gateway Lost to Southern Illinois
23 25 Kent State (OH) Allegheny  
24 28 Bucknell (PA) MARC Lost to Villanova (7)
25 24 UMS&T (MO) Gateway Lost to SLU (12)
26 22 UMass-Lowell (MA) New England-Wide Lost to Vermont (9)
26 22 New Hampshire (NH) NEWCRC Beat Bentley
28 30 Central Michigan (MI) Great Lakes Beat SVSU
29 32 MTSU (TN) Allegheny Tied Xavier
30 33 Towson (MD) MARC Beat York
31 35 Cornell (NY) Liberty Beat RIT
32 39 Virginia (VA) Cardinals Beat Washington & Lee
33 27 UM-Duluth (MN) Northern Lights Lost to Mankato (36)
34 31 Illinois State (IL) Great MW Lost to Loyola (2)
35 17 Mira Costa College (CA) SoCal  
36 26 Scranton (PA) MARC  
37 38 Northern Illinois (IL) Great MW Beat UIC
38 37 RPI (NY) Liberty  
39 Unr Colorado Mesa (CO) High Peaks Beat Mines
40 Unr USMMA (NY) Tri-State Beat SUNY Maritime