In the East, Brown (8-0) and St. Bonaventure (6-1-1) will meet in the postseason for the fourth-straight year at 2 p.m. ET Saturday at Siena in Loudonville, NY. The three previous meetings were in the semifinals, with the winner twice going on to win the national title.
In 2022 and 2024, the Bears beat the Bonnies by identical scores, 11-10, en route to both of their national championships. In 2023, the Bonnies nipped the Bears, 15-13, before losing to Notre Dame College in the final. St. Bonaventure having won the 2021 title, and NDC having shuttered its doors, this is also a matchup between the only active programs to have won an NCR Men’s DI title.
In Obetz, OH Sunday, Big Rivers champion Marian duels with Walsh for the right to play either Brown or Bonnies in the semifinals. The Knights and Cavaliers have never met before, Walsh being in its second year as a program.
This is the first-ever DI playoff run for Marian (8-3), which avenged a regular season loss to Thomas More in the Big Rivers conference final to earn a bye to the quarterfinals.
Walsh (6-3-1) had to win its way in, beating Big Ten runner-up Indiana 36-19 in Bloomington, IN last week. The Cavs finished fourth in the ARC this fall, with a .500 record in conference play. They made the quarterfinals in their debut season last fall, losing to eventual champion Brown, 23-15, in the quarterfinals.
Sunday in Rio Grande, OH, Big Ten champion Notre Dame (8-2) faces Belmont Abbey (7-3) on the West side of the bracket. The Crusaders and Fighting Irish have never met before and have one common opponent this fall – Notre Dame fell at Walsh, 38-17, in September, and Belmont Abbey won at Walsh in October, 27-19 .
Notre Dame earned a bye straight to the quarterfinals with a snowy win over Indiana in the Big Ten final, while Crusaders had to win their way to Ohio with a 46-21 defeat of Thomas More last weekend, marking the program’s first DI postseason victory.
Awaiting the winner of the Irish and Crusaders will be either Queens (6-2-1) or Wheeling (5-3-1), who play Sunday at the Virginia Military Institute. The Royals and Cardinals met Oct. 3 during the Atlantic Rugby Conference regular season, playing to a 36-36 tie.
These two met in the semifinals last season, with the Royals winning 33-22. Queens is 3-0-1 all-time against Wheeling in 15s. Both are seeking their first DI 15s title, Wheeling having won the last two 7s championships, and Queens finishing runners-up to Brown in 2022 and 2024 after winning the Division II title in 2019.
Since tying Wheeling, the Royals have won four-straight, claiming the conference title. Wheeling dropped two-straight losses after the draw, but have rebounded with back-to-back elimination wins over Kutztown and Dartmouth. They defeated the Golden Bears to grab the conference’s last bid to the playoffs, and they survived a late comeback scare against host Dartmouth in the opening round.
