Penn State’s Scout Cheeks during the DI Elite semifinals. /// Photo: Karen Jean Feury
The DI college rankings will receive on more refresh after the DI Elite national championship and DI spring championship held May 7. Only Penn State, BYU, UC Davis and UVA remain in the hunt for their respective titles.
The DI Elite quarterfinals and semifinals rearranged some positions. Penn State retained its #1 seed after a 13-7 semifinal win over Life University, which was promoted to #2 for challenging the four-time reigning champion to within a try. Remember that Life completed this feat on day two of a double-header against a fresh Penn State. BYU returned to Utah with two post-season wins against Stanford and Central Washington, and jumped over the Wildcats and Lindenwood in the process.
Stanford stayed put despite a massive loss to BYU, as the Cardinal rallied in the consolation match to shut out New Mexico 64-0. Even though the Lobos competed in DI Elite, they were outscored 178-0 and couldn’t be added to the Top 15. Additionally, Indiana fell off of the ranking for withdrawing from the competition days before the quarterfinals.
Reorganization was needed after the DI Round of 8. UC Davis reiterated its dominance out west, besting Washington State 44-0 and Chico State for the third time this spring 35-5. UC San Diego lost a heart-breaker to Chico in the quarterfinals, 29-27, and then didn’t have the gas against the Cougars in the consolation match for a 43-12 loss.
UVA was the favorite in the east and went 2-0 against James Madison and North Carolina for the spring championship berth against UC Davis. UNC was 10 points better than Central Florida in the quarterfinals and then posted its best point differential against UVA – 36-7 – on day two, warranting a boost. UCF then beat James Madison 39-29 in the consolation match.
The lone team to stay on the rankings despite not making the playoffs is Florida International University. The eastern portion of the DI quarterfinals awarded three seeds to Mason Dixon and one to Florida. UCF won the Florida berth with an extra bonus point in the standings, but FIU had split league games with UCF and won the latter. It would have been interesting to see an FIU vs. UVA quarterfinal for comparison purposes.
DI COLLEGE SPRING RANKINGS /// APR 27, 2016
New Rank (Old Rank) Team (Record). Results
1 (1) Penn State (12-0). Defeated Life 13-7 in DI Elite semifinal
2 (3) Life (12-3). Defeated Lindenwood 37-15, lost 13-7 to Penn State
3 (5) BYU (7-1). Defeated Stanford 70-5, Central Washington 24-10
4 (2) Central Washington (10-1). Defeated New Mexico 114-0, lost 24-10 to BYU
5 (4) Lindenwood (8-3). Lost 37-15 to Life in DI Elite QF
6 (6) UC Davis (8-1). Defeated Washington State 44-0, Chico State 35-5
7 (7) Stanford (5-3). Lost 70-5 to BYU, defeated New Mexico 64-0
8 (9) UVA (9-0). Defeated James Madison 81-12, UNC 36-7
9 (12) Chico State (4-5). Defeated UCSD 29-27, lost 35-5 to UC Davis
10 (11) Washington State (8-3). Lost 44-0 to UC Davis, defeated UCSD 43-12
11 (13) North Carolina (6-3). Defeated UCF 39-29, lost 36-7 to UVA
12 (8) UC San Diego (11-2). Lost 29-27 to Chico State, 43-12 to Washington State
13 (14) Central Florida (8-2). Lost 39-29 to UNC, defeated James Madison 34-24
14 (15) Florida International (7-1). Idle
15 (unr) James Madison (4-3). Lost 81-12 to UVA, 34-24 to UCF