At FloRugby we've been fielding a lot of suggestions regarding these rankings.

Among the more common suggestions are that we go for D1A teams only, with the reasoning being that D1A schedules are way, way tougher and that even a D1AA team playing against the occasional D1A opponent isn't the same. We've also fielded suggestions that we penalize idle teams for not playing. Well, we've tried to address those two issues in this week's D1 Men's College rankings.

Is it D1A only? No, it's not. Ranking D1A and D1AA together started with this editor's rankings back in 2011, when what became D1A was formed. The argument that many D1AA teams were as good, or better, than many D1A teams was a fair one and remains a strong argument in a few small examples. In addition, the Varsity Cup started back in 2013, and it made even more sense to lump everyone together. There were teams playing at a D1A level but not part of that division.

With USA Rugby running it's own D1A rankings, it made sense to rank the different D1 levels together. Does it make sense now? Maybe, maybe not. With 70 teams in D1A, it's not as if we're desperate for rankings candidates. However, there are still D1AA teams that are of some quality. Witness Notre Dame College's win over Army over the weekend -- the 2016-17 D1AA champion beating one of the top D1A teams (both now in D1A). Witness Lindenwood-Belleville beating Wisconsin last week.

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It's possible that we will shift with the divisions and rank only D1A teams but not right now. In this top 50 ranking, 15 are D1AA teams. But of those, 12 are ranked 30 or lower and seven are ranked 40 or lower. Basically, this is already a D1A ranking. The top 20 is all D1A, so that would likely be the D1A ranking we'd put up, anyway.

As for penalizing idle teams, we're doing that. Several teams that aren't playing this fall were overtaken this week. Dartmouth, Davenport, Ohio State, Utah Valley, and Kutztown make moves. (Also we have a correction after a misreported score slipped through.)

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		FloRugby 2017-18 DI Men College	Rankings Week #4
Rank	Prev	Team	Notes
1	1	Saint Mary's	Idle until December
2	2	Life	Idle until November
3	3	BYU	Idle until January
4	4	California	Idle until January
5	6	Penn State	Beat St. Bonaventure
6	5	Arkansas State	Idle until October
7	8	Indiana	Beat Wisconsin (25)
8	7	Lindenwood	Idle until October
9	10	Notre Dame College	Beat Army (9)
10	9	Army	Lost to Notre Dame College (10)
11	20	Davenport	Beat Lindenwood-Belleville (19)
12	11	Navy	Blue Gold Game
13	12	Central Washington	Idle until January
14	13	San Diego State	Idle until January
15	21	Ohio State	Beat Cincinnati (43)
16	14	Utah	Idle
17	27	Utah Valley	Beat Air Force (26)
18	24	Kutztown	Beat Buffalo
19	15	Arizona	Idle until October
20	18	Iona	Beat Stony Brook
21	36	Colorado State	Beat Utah State
22	29	Dartmouth	Beat Harvard
23	16	UC-Davis	Idle until January
24	19	Lindenwood-Belleville	Lost to Davenport (20)
25	25	Wisconsin	Lost to Indiana (8)
26	17	Grand Canyon	Idle until October
27	22	Chico State	Idle until January
28	23	Clemson	Idle
29	26	Air Force	Lost to Utah Valley (27)
30	28	Baylor	Beat Texas State
31	Unr	Iowa State	Beat Oklahoma (49)
32	28	AIC	Beat New Hampshire
33	33	Bowling Green	Beat Western Michigan (45)
34	30	LSU	Beat LSU-Alexandria
35	31	UCLA	Idle until January
36	37	Kentucky	Beat Tennessee (37)
37	38	Tennessee	Lost to Kentucky (38)
38	41	South Carolina	Beat Alabama (42)
39	Unr	Texas A&M	Beat Arkansas (35)
40	40	Mary Washington	Beat Virginia
41	34	Western Washington	Idle until January
42	39	Cal Poly	Idle until January
43	42	Alabama	Lost to South Carolina (41)
44	46	Fordham	Idle
45	Unr	Mount St. Mary's	Beat Virginia Tech (44)
46	45	Western Michigan	Lost to Bowling Green (33)
47	35	Arkansas	Lost to Texas A&M
48	43	Cincinnati	Lost to Ohio State (21)
49	44	Virginia Tech	Lost to Mount St. Mary's
50	Unr	SUNY Cortland	Beat Binghamton (47)

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