GRR: College Men
The great experiment in NCR is hitting its stride this weekend.
The Big Rivers Conference was created this year to accommodate the new influx of varsity and school-supported teams in men's college rugby. The result was some teams were bumped up from D2 to accomplish this, but that really mainly served to keep D2 more D2.
The big results within the GRR Men's D2 Rankings environment have to be North Carolina State shutting out UNC-Wilmington and Washington University beating St. Louis University.
That would be a #20 over a #7 and a non-ranked team over a #24. We also got unranked Central Missouri over UMS&T (#23) and unranked Grand Valley State coming in after a massive win over Calvin.
Hey wait a minute, what about Washington University?
Not considered a contender in a Gateway Conference that has had plenty of contenders, Washington has vaulted itself to the top of the conference pecking order with a 60-0 defeat of Maryville and, this past weekend, a somewhat shocking 45-15 defeat of #24 St. Louis University.
NC State made a bit of a statement with Saturday’s Southern Conference victory over UNC-Wilmington.
And it was more than just a victory, but a 44-0 shutout. The Wolfpack clearly put their hand up as a conference contender.
The Northern Lights Conference is shaken up a little already as the season just gets started.