This is actually a very difficult NCR D1 ranking to put together.
That is the case because, in part, some of the higher-ranked teams lost, but they lost against very, very strong D1A opposition such as Life University and Mary Washington. At the same time, we have some teams lower down in the Top 20 that won, but they end up moving down.
We can tell you with confidence, there are few things that annoy a college rugby team more than winning a game and moving down in any rankings. But ... who else moves down? Thomas More and Belmont Abbey were idle this weekend. It's difficult to move them down too far. Dartmouth lost, yes, but in a very close game to the team ranked one place below. Hard to move them down far.
Meanwhile, Aquinas beat Iowa Central, which is an immensely impressive showing and they have to move up. But it's not such a big victory that Iowa Central should move down too far. And given Iowa Central's impressive results leading up to conference play, it's hard to just move them down to #19 or something.
Wheeling moves up thanks to a loss, but when you lose 43-42 to Davenport, that seems like an indication you might know what you're doing.
So because of all of this, Fairfield moves down despite a win, and so do Principia and Marian. We could well be wrong here. Principia did beat Lindenwood, but it was not Lindenwood's front line 15 ... the vast majority of their starters were freshmen. So we feel OK seeing Principia's ranking nudge downward a bit. Marian is just unlucky because Aquinas moves in above the Knights ... for now. Ultimately we also nove Iona out of the Top20 and we're not happy about that. They could easily come back.
And yes, it's for now. There are so many games to come to move this around.
This coming week, then, we'll see Rio Grande vs Wheeling, Belmont Abbey vs Walsh, Aquinas vs Principia, Marian vs Iowa Central CC, Iona vs Brown, Fordham vs Dartmouth, and more.
