Conferences have already started narrowing down their contenders for berths to the USA Rugby DII Fall College Championship. The following reviews those league playoffs that are already underway as well as those that will take place in early November. (Expect updates as new information is available.)
After conferences name their champions, runners-up and additional teams will fill at-large seeds to the Round of 32, or wild card round, on Nov. 16 at the higher seed. The regional championships will be held on Nov. 23-24 in Columbia, Mo., and Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and then the four semifinalists will meet in Matthews, N.C., on Dec. 7-8.
PLAYOFFS IN PROGRESS
TRI-STATE
Quarterfinal play-ins occurred Oct. 19-20
Oct. 26-27 Quarterfinals
SUNY New Paltz @ Vassar College
Rensselaer Polytechnic @ Stony Brook University
Hofstra University @ Marist College
University at Albany @ Fairfield University
UPSTATE NY
Oct. 20 Semifinals
Cortland 112-0 Fredonia
RIT 29-28 Syracuse
Oct. 26 Championship: Cortland vs. RIT
NORTHERN LIGHTS
There’s some nuance to this conference’s playoffs, as the DII and NSCRO participants are grouped into Cup and Plate brackets rather than being separated out. So this weekend’s Cup playoffs include an NSCRO team:
Oct 26
CUP SEMIS
#2 MSU Moorhead (NSCRO) vs. #3 North Dakota (DII)
#1 Mankato (DII) vs. #4 St. Cloud (DII)
PLATE SEMIS
#1 St. Scholastica vs. #4 St. Olaf
#2 Gustavus Adolphus vs. #3 St. Benedict
Oct 27
Cup & Plate Finals
On Nov. 2, the highest-finishing DII team in the Cup bracket (Mankato is the leading candidate after an undefeated regular season) will play Winona State for seeding, as both teams will head to regionals. [As info, the Plate champion will play MSU Moorhead for the automatic berth to NSCRO regionals, and the runner-up will also advance.]
FUTURE PLAYOFFS
ALLEGHENY – Determined on standings between IUP (4-0) and Youngstown State (3-1), which just beat DI Pittsburgh [conference is currently slated for two seeds to regionals]. There are two more weeks of league play.
GREAT LAKES
Regular-season play continues until Nov. 2, and standings will be used for regional seeds. Last weekend, Grand Valley State played Bowling Green to a 17-15 win to stay undefeated.
GREAT WATERS
Nov. 2-3: Rd 8/4 @ Oshkosh, Wisc.
Marquette vs. Loyola
UW Oshkosh vs. DePaul
UW Eau Claire vs. UW La Crosse*
UW Stevens Point vs. UIC *
* Match opponents pending on result of UIC vs. Chicago
Nov. 9-10 Championship & 3rd place @ Cottage Grove, Wisc.
ILLINOIS
There are two more weeks of league play and then the semifinal / championship weekend will occur Nov. 9-10. Illinois State is currently undefeated and the favorite; however, Illinois played ISU to a 22-14 loss earlier this month.
MID-ATLANTIC
One more week of league play (standings) and then Nov. 2-3 crossover semifinals & championship will occur @ Millersville, Pa. Per conference commissioner Ashley Letten, the playoffs tentatively look like:
Nov. 2 Semifinals
Bloomsburg vs. Delaware
Kutztown vs. Temple
Nov. 3 Final & 3rd
[York is NSCRO and will play Scranton for the small-school championship and berth to regionals]NEW ENGLAND WIDE
There’s one more week of league play, as far as the playoff-eligible teams go, and the standings will place the top-four teams directly in the championships and 3rd place games: 1 v 2 for the former, and 3 v 4 for third. Hartford is 4-0, and Coast Guard and Vermont are 3-1.
OHIO VALLEY
There are two more weeks of regular season before the standings set. The Nov. 9 playoffs are still a work in progress, but there will definitely be a final between Cincinnati and the second-place team, and TBD for a third-place game. A new location is also being scouted.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN
Standings determine the automatic qualifier and it’ll come down to Colorado School of Mines (4-0) and Colorado Mesa University (4-1). They play each other in their final game of the regular season on Nov. 2, but the conference should receive an AQ and second berth to the Round of 32.
RUGBY NORTHEAST
Standings determine the seeds into regionals, and it’ll come down to Bryant (5-0) and Colby (5-0), which play each other on Nov. 2 in their final regular season match that serves like a league championship.