D3East Rankings - November 30

The NCAA Division 3 Tournament is down to the Elite 8 quarterfinal round. Last Saturday Salisbury State survived Kean in a triple overtime thriller, while St. John Fisher stunned #1 Delaware Valley and knocked them from the ranks of the unbeaten.

We get few opportunities to compare east conferences during the regular season. So any opportunity we get to run a comparison in the playoffs is much welcome. However we need to remember we are dealing with a very small sample set. The top of the Empire 8 looks great after the Round of 16, but we only have two relevant games to draw this conclusion from.

Let's get past the mumbo jumbo and jump into our latest rankings release:

1. Salisbury State 11-1
2. Kean 10-2
3. St. John Fisher 10-2
4. Delaware Valley 11-1
5. Widener 9-2
6. Lycoming 8-2
7. Cortland 9-2
8. Hobart 7-2
9. Montclair 8-2
10. Lebanon Valley 8-3

Kean did everything but beat Salisbury State on the road. Ironically after a season in which pundits doubted Kean throughout their wins, they may have solidified their 2011 legacy with an incredibly impressive close defeat. Not many people gave Kean a chance to go into Salisbury and win, but they would have won had it not been for a blocked short field goal attempt in the first overtime.

St. John Fisher exposed Delaware Valley on Saturday. It was the first time someone shut down the Delaware Valley Aggies and controlled the football against them. It would be easy to point to this as proof of the superiority of top Empire 8 teams over top MAC teams. But that would be a mistake. One game is not enough to draw such a conclusion. For now accept that St. John Fisher is ranked one spot ahead of Delaware Valley, and let us see if Fisher can keep their season alive after this Saturday's quarterfinal action.