The Georgetown University Rugby Football Club is the intercollegiate men's rugby union team that represents Georgetown University in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference of National Collegiate Rugby, Division II. They have twice reached the USA Rugby National Tournament Final Four, in 2005 and 2009.
The Lady Ruggers are Penn State University's (PSU) Women's Rugby Football Club sports team, established in 1991. They are a Division 1 Elite rugby team who play under USA Rugby, American rugby's governing body. Although they are an official PSU team the women's rugby program at PSU is not funded as a varsity sport and therefore cannot be officially called the "Nittany Lions". The team is part of the Penn State athletic department's "team sports" program and plays other school's varsity teams.
The Louisiana State University Rugby Football Club, often referred to as LSU Rugby, represents Louisiana State University in college rugby and rugby sevens. The team is part of the Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference (SCRC) and they play their home matches at the UREC Field Complex on LSU's campus.
National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) formerly the "National Small College Rugby Organization" is a rugby union governing body in the United States. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, NCR was created in 2007 by Chip Auscavitch and Steve Cohen to support and encourage the development and organization of small college rugby in the country.
The NCR National Championships are the national championship tournaments sponsored by National Collegiate Rugby for men's and women's college rugby in both 15s and 7s rugby.
The first tier of intercollegiate sports in the United States includes sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies. The major sanctioning organization is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Before mid-1981, women's top-tier intercollegiate sports were solely governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). Smaller colleges are governed by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Two-year colleges are governed by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) in most of the country, except for the unaffiliated California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) and Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC).
Division 1-A Rugby is the highest level of college rugby within the United States and is administered by USA Rugby. Division 1-A rugby is modeled after NCAA athletic competitions, with the 46 D1-A rugby schools divided into eight conferences: East, Midwest, Rocky Mountain, California, Big Ten, Red River, PAC, and Independent.
The Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC) is an annual college rugby sevens tournament. The CRC is the highest profile college rugby sevens competition in the United States, with the tournament broadcast live on NBC from 2010 to 2017, on ESPN News and ESPN3 from 2018 to 2019, The Rugby Network in 2021 and 2023, and on CBS Sports in 2022. The CRC capitalized on the surge in popularity of rugby following the 2009 announcement of the addition of rugby sevens to the Summer Olympics. Beginning in 2021, the tournament has been organized by National Collegiate Rugby under license for the name and logo.
Infinity Park is a stadium in the Denver enclave of Glendale, Colorado, and was formerly the unofficial home venue of the United States national rugby union team. The stadium has a seating capacity of 5,000 people. It opened in 2007, at a cost of $22.5 million. It is the first rugby-specific, municipally-owned stadium in the United States.
This is a list of results and records for the USA Rugby National Collegiate Men's Rugby Championships, which began in 1980. The 1984–1988 and 1990 editions were played in conjunction with the Annual Pebble Beach Rugby Classic. In 2010, several of the top college teams agreed to form the College Premier League, now known as Division 1-A Rugby to begin play in spring 2011. This list does not include records from the breakaway invitational Varsity Cup Championship held between 2013 and 2017, nor from the rival National Collegiate Rugby Organization's D1 championship that began in 2021.
Big Ten Universities is a Division 1-A college rugby conference founded in summer 2012 by ten of the twelve schools that then made up the Big Ten Conference. The Big Ten Universities was formed to improve rugby among the Big Ten schools by capitalizing on traditional Big Ten rivalries, increasing the number of fans, attracting talented high school rugby players, and playing other regional schools, which would create more competitive matchups with traditional rivals.
The PAC Rugby Conference is a college rugby conference composed of four schools from the Pac-12 Conference that compete against each other in Division 1-A Rugby. It was formed in 2012 with six teams, with conference play beginning in February 2013 to compete in Division 1-AA. In 2016, PAC added USC and Stanford and dropped Oregon State, and moved up to D1-A. Despite only recently moving up from D1-AA affiliation, the PAC has historically been one of the strongest conferences in college rugby, with five of its members consistently ranked in the Top 25 overall. The PAC Rugby Conference began play on February 2, 2013, with Cal beating Arizona State at Witter Field in Berkeley.
The Varsity Cup Championship was an American college rugby competition established in 2012 to serve as an invitational championship following the breakaway of several schools from Division 1-A Rugby.
The Bowl Series Rugby, formerly American Collegiate Rugby Championship (ACRC) Bowl Series, was an annual college rugby competition featuring top national teams playing fifteen-a-side rugby. The inaugural event was held in Charlotte, N.C. in November 2014; this 20-team bowl competition occurred at Charlotte’s Rugby Athletic Center, a sports and events venue located three miles from downtown.
The Potomac Rugby Conference is a men's intercollegiate rugby conference of the National Small College Rugby Organization.
San Diego State Aztecs Rugby Club is the rugby union club of San Diego State University in San Diego, California. It fields both men's and women's teams, the men compete in Division 1-A in the California conference and the women play in the Pacific Desert conference of Division II. The Aztec men's team won the US National Collegiate Rugby Championship in 1987.
The 2021 Collegiate Rugby Championship was a college rugby sevens tournament played from May 29–31, 2021 at Gold Mine on Airline in New Orleans, Louisiana. The tournament is also known as May Madness. It was the eleventh annual Collegiate Rugby Championship, and the first year that the tournament was held in New Orleans. The men's competition consisted of 28 teams while the women's competition contained 12 teams. All teams compete in a single elimination bracket. Lindenwood are the two-time defending champions. All matches played in the stadium were broadcast on The Rugby Network and on the National Collegiate Rugby YouTube channel. Lindenwood won the women's competition, beating Life in the final, 10–7. Likewise, Lindenwood beat Life, 24–14 in the men's final to claim their third consecutive title. Teams which were knocked out of the Premier Cup Bracket, competed in the Champion Plate, Challenge Bowl, and the Survivor Shield. Wheeling won the Champion Plate, Central College won the Challenge Bowl, and Mckendree won the Survivor Shield.
The 2022 Collegiate Rugby Championship was a college rugby sevens tournament played from May 28–30, 2022 at Gold Mine on Airline in New Orleans, Louisiana. The tournament is also known as May Madness. It was the 12th annual Collegiate Rugby Championship, and the second consecutive year that the tournament was held in New Orleans. The men's Premier Cup competition consisted of 32 teams, while the women's premier cup competition featured 16 teams. The tournament as a whole featured 110 teams competing across six men’s and women’s divisions, making it the largest ever collegiate rugby tournament. All teams competed in a single elimination bracket. Lindenwood entered the tournament as three-time defending champions. Kutztown won their first CRC title defeating Dartmouth 17–12 in the final. Lindenwood won their fourth women's title defeating Life 19–7 in the final. The CBS Sports Network broadcast five matches per day with the remaining matches available on The Rugby Network. Teams which were knocked out of the Premier Cup Bracket, competed in the Champion Plate, Challenge Bowl, and the Survivor Shield. Notre Dame College won the Champion Plate, Fordham won the Challenge Bowl, and Air Force won the Survivor Shield.
The 2023 Collegiate Rugby Championship was a college rugby sevens tournament played from April 28–30, 2023 at Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds, Maryland. The tournament is also known as May Madness. It was the 13th annual Collegiate Rugby Championship, and the first year that the tournament was held in Maryland. The men's Premier Cup competition consisted of 32 teams, while the women's premier cup competition featured 16 teams. The men's tournament as a whole featured 74 teams competing across four divisions. All teams in the Premier bracket competed in a single elimination bracket. Kutztown entered the tournament as defending champions. Lindenwood entered the tournament as four-time defending champions of the women's tournament. The matches were shown on The Rugby Network and National Collegiate Rugby's YouTube channel. Mount Saint Mary's won the men's Premier Cup defeating Indiana 19–5 in the final.
College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the auspices of the NCAA and are instead governed by National Collegiate Rugby and USA Rugby, two nationwide governing bodies. 27 women's programs participate in the NCAA.
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