(Dobson Images)

Another season is done and dusted for the collegiate teams and although the usual suspects made the big final there's still plenty to debate.

Hats off to a truly dominant Penn State women's team who won it all.

The program there is exemplary and will always be a top contender. Of course, Stanford University women are in that same class and they proved it with an exceptional season as well.

That's numbers one and two, so where do the rest rank? Well, the teams in that next tier this year are Brown, Navy, Army, and BYU.

All had strong teams and are solid programs and since I've have first hand knowledge of 3 of the 4 that helps. In addition we have the BYU v Penn State result as a yardstick. So for me it's Brown, BYU, Army, then Navy. It's hard when you just don't have as many definitive results as one would want but that's the breaks.

After that top 6 it's very open. Chico always seem competitive in the Pacific and have Stanford as a regular opponent while UVA have it tough in the Mid-Atlantic with PSU and Navy there. But they are big state schools so let's not pity them too much!

New Mexico and Northern Iowa just don't seem to play enough top quality teams and one of the problems with rankings is that you need tough schedules.

There are teams that didn't make the National Championships for various reasons, Eastern Illinois for instance don't enter the competition, but the program there is another that doesn't play a tough schedule so it's hard to rank them.

The interesting thing about the women's collegiate rugby scene is that the standards continue to improve and the athletes coming to rugby are getting better. But the top talent seems to be going to a few places and that might not be good for the game.

The NFL consistently strives for parity and what makes college basketball and March Madness so much fun is that any number of teams could win on their day. So let's hope that some things happen to make 2009/10 an even better year.

Let's hope the Competitions Committee or USA Rugby decide to seed the teams in April, when they are actually known, rather than take the old status quo route.

As I've said before and I'll say again the current system compromises the integrity of the competition.

Let's hope that more and more high school rugby players look around the country and go to multiple programs rather than just seek to be on the PSU or Stanford national championship team!

Let's hope that USA Rugby can find some funding to subsidize the round of 16 so that programs don't have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on travel to compete.

Let's hope that someone has the courage (USA Rugby?) to have a trial Fall Championship season. Do it like football and we can have a champion in January. If it doesn't work after a couple of years then we can always go back to the old system.

Let's hope that Athletics Administrators all over the country support the girls and women who play rugby and understand that they have to look past the gender stereotyping. Yes, it's a tough contact sport and by the way we enjoy it!

Let's hope that the NCAA rules manuals have the rugby sections re-written to reflect the best interests of the sport and it's participants. The Varsity Sport initiative that USA Rugby promotes might actually make really significant progress.

Let's hope that the current players have such a great experience with the sport that they are hooked for life and we continue to grow and improve.

Have a great off-season.

Final rankings 2008/09
1 Penn State
2 Stanford
3 Brown
4 BYU
5 Army
6 Navy
7 Chico State
8 New Mexico
9 Virginia
10 Northern Iowa