Our preseason D1A rankings have an air of speculation about them.

Of course you can't be sure how a team will look on the field at any time, but coming off a period of 18 months where some teams hardly played, this fall's first ranking could be even more difficult.

So we took a stab. Lindenwood, undoubtedly the best team of 2020-2021, drops to #4 only because they graduated a bunch of really impressive players, and we are just easing up on the pressure a little. Cal seems like an automatic #1 pick in uncertain times, but expect this top group to shift around a lot, especially as the fall-active teams get going.

When we were unsure we favored teams we knew would have players no matter what (Army, for example), and we also gave a boost to Cal Poly, UCLA, and UCSB after some coaching moves that we think will pay off, especially combined with the added enthusiasm of the return of the game. 

And hey, remember all that talk about Rugby East being in the NCR? Yes, they are, but they are also in D1A, and until we hear different we're assuming they're part of both and will proceed that way. The Liberty Conference, however, is not in that same category, and we don't have Liberty teams ranked here. So D1A is down to about 43 teams. We've ranked the top 40.

Rank		Team	Conference
1		Cal	PAC
2		Saint Mary's	California
3		Life	Mid-South
4		Lindenwood	Mid-South
5		Army	Rugby East
6		Central Washington	Independent
7		Arkansas State	Mid-South
8		BYU	Rocky Mountain
9		Kutztown	Rugby East
10		Navy	Rugby East
11		Arizona	PAC
12		Penn State	Rugby East
13		UCLA	PAC
14		Davenport	Mid-South
15		Indiana	Big Ten
16		Ohio State	Big Ten
17		Cal Poly	California
18		Grand Canyon	California
19		Texas A&M	Red River
20		Illinois	Big Ten
21		Colorado	Rocky Mountain
22		Colorado State	Rocky Mountain
23		Oklahoma	Red River
24		Air Force	Rocky Mountain
25		St. Bonaventure	Rugby East
26		Notre Dame College	Rugby East
27		Utah	Rocky Mountain
28		UC Santa Barbara	California
29		Wisconsin	Big Ten
30		Utah Valley	Rocky Mountain
31		Michigan State	Big Ten
32		San Diego State	California
33		Purdue	Big Ten
34		UC Davis	California
35		Texas	Red River
36		Michigan	Big Ten
37		Baylor	Red River
38		North Texas	Red River
39		Utah State	Rocky Mountain
40		Santa Clara	California