The last two weeks were huge in DII, with several playoffs taking place.
The Mid-Atlantic was hot and heavy with LAU elimination matches, and we pegged half of their teams pretty accurately.
Salisbury won narrowly over Towson in the Potomac, as our rankings would have indicated, and Georgetown proved competitive against Towson in a semifinal loss, which is why the Hoyas remain ranked after picking up their third loss.
As well as our rankings held up in the Potomac, they did poorly in Virginia, where previously top-10-ranked Mary Washington dropped a pair of games to end its season on a low note. Unranked Radford and VMI, both of whom had appeared in our list at one point this season, will represent the VRU in the MARFU playoffs next spring. They now reappear and we credit them for winning a tough league accordingly.
In the Eastern Penn, a league which we’ve all but ignored, East Stroudsburg is one game away from an LAU championship and an undefeated season. The EPRU saw its best teams move to DI this year, so we didn’t look at the league as a very strong one. It’s still tough to tell if it is, but East Stroudsburg has earned a spot in our Top 25.
Another team who faces a similar battle against perception is St. Edward’s. With the creation of the Southwest Conference, the Texas DII league lost all of its heavy hitters. St. Ed’s has won two tournaments this fall, tied SWC leader Texas in a scrimmage and now defeated Texas Tech, who returned to DII this season after being competitive in DI last season.
Another playoff took place in New York, where the pilot Geographical Union pitted its top four teams against one another to crown a champion. New York is split into two regions – New York State and Met NY. State earned just one bid to the GU semifinals, but its owner, Colgate, won the title. Colgate has gone 9-0 this season, and probably deserved a look before now.
In the Midwest, our rankings held up well. Top-ranked UW-Whitewater held serve against UW-Milwaukee in the TU semifinals and staved off Northern Illinois in the final. The Huskies beat Ohio by a somewhat comfortable margin the semifinals, earning their place in the top 10.
UW-Milwaukee, whose only losses this season have come at the hands of the defending national champs, and Ohio did well enough to stay ranked. Milwaukee defeated Ohio 19-12 for third place on Sunday. You might wonder why a seven-point difference in a game equates to 11 spots in the standings. We don’t put much stock in Sunday third-place for which nothing but pride is played.
1. (1) UW-Whitewater 10-0 Won 31-18 over N. Illinois, 38-22 over UW-Milwaukee
2. (2) Lindenwood 8-0 Won 97-3 over Principia
3. (3) Salisbury 8-0 Won 50-14 over Mt. St. Mary’s, 18-10 over Towson
4. (4) Northern Colorado 6-0-1 Won 50-12 over Denver, 50-3 over Colorado College
5. (5) Utah Valley 8-0 Idle
6. (6) Northern Illinois 8-1 Won 35-10 over Ohio, lost 31-18 to Whitewater
7. (8) Towson 8-2 Won 23-13 over Georgetown, lost 18-10 to Salisbury
8. (12) Boston Univ. 7-1 Won 41-35 over Rhode Island
9. (7) Sierra College Idle
10. (13) UW-Milwaukee 8-2 Lost 38-22 to Whitewater, won 19-12 over Ohio
11. (10) Central Missouri 3-0 Idle
12. (11) Rhode Island 6-2 Lost 41-35 to Boston
13. (Unr.) Virginia Military Institute 5-1 Won 26-7 over Mary Washington
14. (16) UNC Wilmington 3-1 Won 20-15 over ECU
15. (Unr.) Radford 4-1 Won 44-26 over Old Dominion
16. (Unr.) Colgate 9-0 Won New York; 30-12 over Marist, 45-20 over Fairfield
17. (14) ECU 2-1 Lost 20-15 to UNC-Wilmington
18. (17) Coast Guard 5-2 Idle
19. (22) Bentley 6-1 Won 30-8 over Providence
20. (20) Pepperdine 4-0
21. (19) Ohio 5-2-1 Lost 35-10 to N. Illinois, 19-12 to UW-Milwaukee
22. (Unr.) East Stroudsburg 7-0 Won 40-24 over Villanova
23. (24) Georgetown 5-3 Lost 23-13 to Towson, won 40-12 over Mt. St. Mary’s
24. (Unr.) St. Edward’s 1-0-1 Won 23-21 over Texas Tech
25. (22) Cal Maritime 0-0 Scrimmaged St. Mary’s third side
Dropped Out:
(9) Mary Washington 3-2-1 Lost 26-7 to VMI, 24-22 to Longwood
(15) Colorado School of Mines 4-2 Lost 21-17 to Denver
(18) AIC 7-0 Deemed ineligible for using unCIPPed players, ineligible players.
(23) Vassar 6-1
(25) North Dakota State 5-1-1
Source: Rugbymag.com