Men's College Preview & Picks: Saint Mary's Takes On Hungry O-Club

Men's College Preview & Picks: Saint Mary's Takes On Hungry O-Club

After looking back at last week's D1 picks, we preview this weekend's top games, including Olympic Club at Saint Mary's, and predict which teams will win.

Feb 2, 2018 by Alex Goff
Men's College Preview & Picks: Saint Mary's Takes On Hungry O-Club

Last week we made predictions on 32 men's college rugby games, excluding three games that were postponements or forfeits, and were fairly accurate on our picks. 

Two of those games we said were pick 'ems, and we were right on both counts (the scores were 33-27 and 22-20). We picked 30 outright winners and were right on 29 of them! Only Nevada's 38-27 win over Sacramento State stymied us.

We got one margin of victory exactly right (Gonzaga beating Idaho 22-12) and one in which we were wrong by a point (MTSU beating Georgia Tech 46-3). Overall we were less successful with the margins of victory, being in the ballpark for 13 of the 32 games.

Still, it was not a bad week with a 96.9 percent success rate.

This week there's all sorts of stuff to look out for:

Mid-South Kicks Off

Arkansas State's matchup at Life on Saturday is an obvious one. This game is streaming live on FloRugby and features two top 10 teams in one of the best rivalries in the men's college game. However, the host Running Eagles have been looking pretty unstoppable. 

This is a Mid-South Conference game, and so is Lindenwood at Clemson. The visiting Lions rode a strong scrum performance to defeat Central Washington last week and should be OK on the road again Saturday.

O-Club Tries To Test Gaels

Olympic Club's road trip to Saint Mary's on Saturday kicks off our live coverage of the SMC men's team for the next few seasons. This is going to be a chance for O-Club to rebound from a tough outing against Cal (not helped by a red card to flanker Bruce Thomas) and an opportunity for the host Gaels to show their stuff against a hard-nosed men's club.

Olympic Club head coach Ray Lehner told us he has one of the best teams he's had in a while, but getting his players on the same page against fast and very fit teams like Cal or Saint Mary's is a tall order. We like the Gaels in this one.

By the way, you will see more of Olympic Club in a week when the PRP kicks off live on FloRugby.

Red River Showdown Weekend

The Red River Conference is heating up, and we have three games that are challenging to pick. Texas Tech and Oklahoma will be a good, competitive game. LSU at Texas is possibly a preview of a playoff game — we're taking the home team in that one. Also streaming live on FloRugby, an improving Baylor team travels to Arkansas for a crucial conference matchup.

USA Curtain-Raiser

UCLA hosts Arizona at StubHub Center in Carson, CA, as a curtain-raiser for the USA vs. Argentina XV game on Saturday. It will be a nice experience for the Bruins and Wildcats to play in a big stadium before a large crowd. Both have done so before in sevens rugby, however, so don't expect them to be too starstruck. We like Arizona in this one.

This Weekend's Games And Our Picks

2/2Arizona State
at
Grand Canyon
Non-Conf.
GCU by 17
2/3Nevada
at
Stanford
Pac West
Nevada by 15
2/3
UC Santa Cruz
at
Chico State
Pac West
Chico State by 5
2/3
San Jose State
at
Sacramento State
Pac West
Sac State by 11
2/3
Fresno State
at
San Francisco State
Pac West
Fresno State by 9
2/3
UC Davis
at
UC Santa Barbara
California D1A
UC Davis by 31
2/3
Baylor
at
Arkansas
Red River
Baylor by 8
2/3
Texas A&M
at
Houston
Red River
A&M b y 45
2/3
Texas Tech
at
Oklahoma
Red River
Oklahoma by 15
2/3
LSU
at
Texas
Red River
Texas by 6
2/3
Arizona
at
UCLA
PAC D1A Conf.
Arizona by 13
2/3
Arizona
at
USC
PAC D1A Conf.
Arizona by 20
2/3
California
at
San Diego State
Non-Conf.
Cal by 38
2/3
Lindenwood
at
Clemson
Mid-South
Lindenwood by 21
2/3
Arkansas State
at
Life
Mid-South
Life by 18
2/3
Washington State
at
Western Washington
NCRC
WWU by 24
2/3
Boise State
at
Oregon
NCRC
Oregon by 8
2/3
Gonzaga
at
Eastern Washington
NCRC
Gonzaga by 14
2/3
Idaho
at
Western Oregon
NCRC
Idaho by 9
2/3
Long Beach State
at
Cal State Fullerton
Gold Coast
Long Beach by 29
2/3
Loyola Marymount
at
Cal State Northridge
Gold Coast
CSUN by 12
2/3
Claremont
at
San Diego
Gold Coast
Claremont by 21
2/3
FAU
at
USF
SIRC
USF by 9
2/3
FIU
at
FSU
SIRC
FIU by 17
2/3
UNF
at
UCF
SIRC
UCF by 25
2/3
Kennesaw State
at
MTSU
SIRC
MTSU by 7
2/3
Central Washington
at
Washington
Non-Conf.
CWU by 48
2/3
Olympic Club
at
Saint Mary's
Non-Conf.
Saint Mary's by 35
2/4
Idaho
at
Oregon State
NCRC
OSU by 19