Photo courtesy University of Arizona Women’s Rugby •
It is time for spring rankings. The first list of the season requires a good amount of explanation, but it’s a good refresher on the collegiate set-up and won’t be repeated going forward.
RELATED: DI College Fall Final Rankings • DII College Fall Final Rankings • Women’s Rugby Results: Feb. 17-19
CANDIDATES include teams vying for the Division I spring championship and/or DI Elite national championship. There is a new post-season this year, where spring DI and DI Elite teams combine into a spring Round of 16. The quarterfinal winners move onto the DI Elite national championship semifinals, and the four quarterfinal losers move onto the DI spring championship semifinals. So, a DI team could win the DI Elite title and vice versa.
The teams that competed toward the DI fall championship are not included. If there was a DI national championship, then fall champion Air Force would have been included in the DI spring rankings.
RECORDS reflect league matches only. Friendlies might be listed in the comments but aren’t included in the rankings record. But for DI Elite-classified teams like Life, Lindenwood and BYU, all games are included in their respective records because they don’t compete in a league or conference. They played games in the fall, but their records will only reflect spring outcomes.
The EXCEPTION is Penn State. The Nittany Lions won the fall-based Big Ten conference and forewent the automatic berth to the DI fall championship so it could compete for the DI Elite national championship in the spring. The Nittany Lions went 7-0 in the Big Ten but its record will mimic that of the other DI Elite teams, in that only spring results are reflected.
Penn State vs. BYU in 2016 DI Elite final.
And now the rankings: The DI Elite teams are at the top of the list because that’s why they were separated out of DI in the first place. Penn State is the reigning DI Elite champion. Idle Lindenwood played the most ambitious fall schedule, which included wins over Life University, UC Davis and Stanford, and a loss to Penn State. The Running Eagles are now in “go mode,” and duked out a one-point win over DI senior club Raleigh on Saturday (stay tuned for more). BYU flew to UC Davis for a 30-10 win so far this year.
The Cougars have had the lightest schedule so far and we’ll reassess their #4 ranking with more field time. A big curiosity is how Eagle Jordan Gray’s absence will affect the team’s look, and that question will be answered March 4 in Las Vegas against Lindenwood.
UC Davis is the top-rated DI club team and has dominated the Pacific Mountain West thus far. Games against BYU and Lindenwood have given the Aggies perspective on what it will take for a DI Elite semifinal berth (read more). Chico State had given Davis a good game in the league’s opening weekend, but then Stanford served the Wildcats back-to-back 24-12 losses to take second place in the standings.
UVA has returned all but two starters from its spring championship runner-up squad. The team’s favored for the Mason Dixon conference title and played a sobering league match against Virginia Tech, which held a halftime lead before falling 22-7. Tech is 3-0 and shut out University of North Carolina 48-0 this year. James Madison (3-0) is the conference’s North pool leader, but posted a heavy loss to UVA in a friendly earlier this year. The pools will contest quarterfinal crossover matches on March 18.
Washington State has been crushing it in the Pacific Mountain North, outscoring opponents 278-41 after four games, and should take the top seed out the region to conference playoffs on March 25-26 at Stanford. Oregon (2-1) is looking like second-strongest at this point, but the Washington rematch on March 4 will say for sure.
WSU Cougars /// Photo: Bob Scoverski (see full album / donate to Youth in Focus)
The Pacific Mountain conference has added a play-in round to its playoffs. On day one, the North’s top-two teams will play the West’s third- and fourth-place teams. The victors will then move onto Sunday’s semifinals against the West’s top-two teams, which have byes on day one. Day two’s games are for seeding purposes, as all four teams will advance to the DI spring Round of 16.
The Pacific Mountain’s South division broke off to join the Gold Coast conference, where there is already a SoCal-based DII league. UC San Diego spent the weekend beating Arizona State 40-15, while fellow 3-0 Arizona shut out CSU Northridge 32-0. The two victors will sort out the top standings spot this weekend in Tucson.
There’s no change in the Sunshine State, as Central Florida continues to dominate the league. The team is 6-0 and has outscored opponents 291-24. Two of those victories are forfeit wins over Florida International – the team that served UCF a regular-season loss last year.
Stayed tuned for updates.
