Photo courtesy of Vassar College Athletics
USA Rugby’s DII College Fall 15s season ended in spectacular fashion, as Vassar College surged in the second half of the championship final to claim its first fall title, 50-13 over then-reigning champion Winona State. The finalists felled many a good team en route to that game, and those matches provided insight for a final fall ranking.
With that said, the majority of teams were sorted according to their knockout round. The semifinalists occupy the top-four spots, the quarterfinal losers the 5-8 spots, and so on. It gets convoluted beyond those parameters, attempting to weigh big point differentials across different rounds with different conditions. As one Vassar player noted, the lead-up games to the final four cannot really prepare a team for the intensity that awaits in the title round. So while the Brewers beat Winona State by 37 points in the fall championship, that level of competition does not compare to the previous rounds when Vassar won by lower point differentials.
With that said, the only exception that was made occurred with St. Michael’s College, which lost to Bloomsburg 58-43 in the Fall Round of 32. Bloomsburg went on to beat Buffalo State 84-15 in the Fall Round of 16, and that result was enough for a swap.
For a visual of the DII College Fall Championship playoffs, view the brackets.
