Bowling Green went 1-1 on a tour of the Carolinas last weekend, beating North Carolina 34-19 on Saturday and falling 22-18 to Clemson on Sunday.
Ohio State was originally scheduled to play the aforementioned fixtures, but chose not to last week.
San Diego State rebounded from their first league loss of the season two weeks ago to soundly defeat rivals University of San Diego 54-17 Saturday in Pacific Mountain West conference play.
Head Coach Matt Hawkins was pleased with the win, especially given that his squad had been in Las Vegas the week before playing 7s.
While USD and UC Santa Barbara are certainly different teams, SD State is different now, too.
“The core group of guys that traveled to Las Vegas a week ago really learned a lot and have taken it upon themselves to really get our team unity and culture to where it needs to be,” said Hawkins.
Santa Clara University’s highest-profile contribution to rugby is the fact the school has hosted a few USA test matches.
DI rugby glory on the pitch, however, has eluded the Bay Area Jesuit Catholic school with an enrollment just over 5,000.
But as the Broncos gear up for their opening D1-AA league clash with Stanford Friday night, they are feeling a surge of confidence despite being on a three-game losing streak.
The losing streak has to be taken in context, you see, and an 83-7 loss is rough, but not necessarily when the opponents are UC-Berkeley.
Santa Clara opened up their D1-AA season with an impressive 38-12 defeat of Stanford University Friday night in Santa Clara.
The Broncos, playing their first home night game as part of Bronco Pride Week, weathered an early charge by the Cardinal and ran away with it late.
The game was affected somewhat by a slew of cards handed out by referee JC Van Staden, who flashed yellow to Stanford three times, and Santa Clara twice.
DI-A play opens this weekend, with Oklahoma and Arkansas State hosting Life and Texas A&M, respectively.
Those games are obviously huge and could immediately separate the cream of the Mid-South from the rest of the crop.
DI-AA play commences, too, with the South Independent, Southeastern, Southwest, Northwest and Pacific Mountain West conferences picking up where they left off, and Northern California entering its first week.
There are also a number of interdivisional friendlies, as the Atlantic Coast Rugby League, the rest of DI-A and numerous DII programs are preparing for their spring seasons.
The big games outside of DI-A
South Carolina versus Tennessee is huge in the SCRC East.
College DI-AA
