2021 Week 1 regional rankings

Region VIII Aurora Concordia Wisconsin Earlham Illinois Wesleyan Mount St. Joseph Chicago Washington-St. Louis Wisconsin-Eau Claire Wisconsin-Stevens Point Wisconsin-Whitewater

Region IX Augsburg Bethel Gustavus Adolphus Hamline Loras Northwestern St. Olaf Wartburg

The NCAA Week 1 rankings are listed in alphabetical order thanks to a pilot program across the division, which I hope is discontinued after this year.

My Week 1 rankings had Carthage, Wheaton, Wisconsin-La Crosse and Wisconsin-Oshkosh in Region VIII instead of Earlham, Illinois Wesleyan, Mount St. Joseph and Washington-St. Louis. In Region IX I had Cornell and Coe instead of Augsburg and St. Olaf.

Many things in Region VIII hinged on whether Illinois Wesleyan was in the top 10 or just outside. There are definitely two sets of Region VIII teams that are in over the other set depending on what is valued. Strength of schedule appeared to be the overriding factor in the discrepancies. Not a big fan of SOS trumping head-to-head results, but here we are. Perhaps things will change in Week 2 with the introduction of results vs. ranked opponents. In relative terms, the Week 1 rankings do not matter much.

-Ricky Nelson