| Sport | Rugby sevens |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2011 |
| First season | 2011 |
| No. of teams | 36 |
| Country | United States |
| Most recent champion(s) | Life University (3 titles) |
| Most titles | Lindenwood (4 titles) |
| Official website | www r7cc |
The USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships is an annual competition among the top men's college rugby teams in the country to decide a national champion in rugby sevens. USA Rugby organized the championship to capitalize on the surge in popularity of rugby sevens following the 2009 announcement of the addition of rugby to the Summer Olympics. USA Rugby recognized that rugby sevens is growing in popularity, participation and interest. At the time of the foundation of the tournament, rugby was one of the fastest growing sports across college campuses. [1] This tournament is a major contributor to the selection process for USA Rugby Olympic athletes. [2]
USA Rugby announced in September 2011 the creation of a new sevens tournament. [3] The launch by USA Rugby had a few hiccups. USA Rugby did not officially announce the December 16–17, 2011 tournament and its dates until September 2011, and at that time USA Rugby had still not determined the location. [3] Those mid-December dates were in the middle of exams for some schools. College Station, Texas, was ultimately announced as the venue in November. [4] College Station lacks direct flight to many major cities, and this problem was compounded by the decision to hold the tournament over a Friday and Saturday, requiring students to miss both a Thursday and Friday. For these reasons, many colleges that qualified or were invited to the tournament—such as Penn State, UCLA, Utah, BYU, Boston College, Navy, LSU, Iowa, Dartmouth, Delaware, Cal, and Bowling Green—declined to participate. [5] [6]
The inaugural 2011 tournament was contested by 24 teams that qualified based on performance in qualifying tournaments throughout the fall of 2011. The 2011 tournament was won by Life University, defeating Central Washington 22–17 in overtime. [7] Tim Stanfill of Central Washington was the tournament MVP, and Derek Patrick of Miami was the tournament's leading try scorer. [8]
The 2012 tournament was more organized, with only one team - UCLA - declining to participate in the tournament. The 2012 tournament also saw increased airtime, with the entire tournament available live via webstream and some of the knockout rounds broadcast on ESPN3. [9]
For the 2013 tournament, three teams—Cal, BYU, and UCLA—won bids but declined to participate. [10]
The 2015 tournament was held in May — unlike previous tournaments which had been held in December. The tournament took place in Denver over the weekend of May 23–24, less than one week before the 2015 Collegiate Rugby Championship in Philadelphia. Once again, several top teams did not play: BYU, California, Life University, and UCLA.
Sources: [25]
– 4 championships 
– 3 championships 
– 2 championships 
– 1 championship| Team | # | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Lindenwood | 4 | 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 |
| Life | 3 | 2011, 2022, 2023 |
| Arkansas State | 2 | 2012, 2013 |
| Saint Mary's | 1 | 2016 |
| Year | TV Viewership | Ratings | Channel | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 519,000 [26] | – | NBC* | ||
| *TV broadcast was taped. | |||||
| Year | Tournament MVP | Leading Try Scorer | Leading Points Scorer | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Tim Stanfill (Central Washington) | Derek Patrick (Miami, Ohio) | 8 | |||
| 2012 | Zac Mizell (Arkansas State) | |||||
| 2013 | Dylan Carrion (Arkansas State) | Matthew Beeman (Miami, Ohio) | 7 | |||
| 2014 | Tournament moved from fall 2014 to spring 2015 | |||||
| 2015 | Mickey Batemen (Lindenwood) | |||||
| 2016 | Dylan Audsley (St Mary's) | [15] | ||||
| 2017 | ||||||
| 2018 | Deion Mikesell (Lindenwood) | 7 | Nicholas Feakes | 47 | [27] | |
| 2019 | ||||||
| 2020 | ||||||
| 2021 | ||||||
| 2022 | ||||||
| 2023 | Orrin Bizer (Life) | [28] | ||||
The following rugby sevens tournaments, played throughout the fall season preceding the national championships, serve as the qualifying events for the national championships. The winner of each qualifying tournament earns an automatic berth in the national championships. [29] The rest of the places in the national championships are awarded to at large bids chosen by a selection panel.
| Tournament | 2011 [30] | 2012 | 2013 [10] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allied 7s | Texas A&M | Texas A&M | Oklahoma |
| Atlantic Coast 7s | N.C. State | Virginia Tech | Navy |
| Battle in the Bay 7s | * | * | St. Mary's |
| Big 10 7s | Wisconsin | Wisconsin | Wisconsin |
| California 7s | St. Mary's | San Diego State | Cal Poly |
| East Coast 7s | Boston College | Northeastern | |
| Empire 7s | Navy | * | |
| Halloween 7s | Kutztown | * | |
| Heart of America 7s | * | Lindenwood | Arkansas |
| Ivy Rugby 7s | Dartmouth | Dartmouth | Dartmouth |
| MAC 7s | * | Davenport | |
| Midwest 7s | Miami, Ohio | * | |
| Northwest 7s | Central Washington | Central Washington | Central Washington |
| PAC 7s | Colorado | Cal | Cal |
| Pacific Western 7s | * | * | San Jose St. |
| South Independent 7s | Life University | Life University | Arkansas St. |
| Southwest 7s | * | Texas | Texas |
| Southeastern 7s | Tennessee | Texas A&M | Auburn |
| Cougar Invitational | Brigham Young | Air Force | Air Force |
Notes:
The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Big Ten Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). For football, they are in the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I. UCLA is second to only Stanford University as the school with the most NCAA team championships at 123 NCAA team championships. UCLA offers 11 varsity sports programs for men and 14 for women.
The USA Sevens is a rugby sevens tournament held annually during March in the United States. The USA Sevens is the largest annual rugby competition in North America, drawing over 60,000 fans, and is broadcast live in the United States by ESPN. The USA Sevens was introduced in 2004, originally in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California. The event moved to San Diego in 2007, and from there moved to Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas in 2010. It then spent the entire decade of the 2010s in Las Vegas before returning to Carson in 2020. The USA Sevens tournament features 16 teams representing countries from every inhabited continent, including the host, the U.S. national team.
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 Army Rugby Football Club was founded in 1961 and for over 50 years the Army Black Knights have been a leader in USA Collegiate Rugby. The Army Ruggers are West Point's most winning team.
The Central Washington Wildcats are the 13 varsity athletic teams that represent Central Washington University, located in Ellensburg, Washington, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Wildcats compete as members of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
The Northeastern University Rugby Football Club is a college rugby union team representing Northeastern University. The club competes in the Liberty Conference of Division 1-A Rugby and is governed by USA Rugby.
The East Coast Rugby Conference is a college rugby conference, founded in 2011 after USA Rugby decided that collegiate rugby teams would leave their local area unions and form independent conferences. Seven teams participated in the inaugural season.
The Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC) is an annual college rugby sevens tournament. The CRC began as 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 at major universities 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 (NCR) under license for the name and logo. Since the CRC franchise was licensed to NCR, the tournament has primarily featured comparatively smaller universities, as USA Rugby, recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the sport's National Governing Body (NGB), holds the official championship in June 2024.
Peter Tiberio is an American rugby union player who plays for the Seattle Seawolves in Major League Rugby (MLR).
The Atlantic Coast Rugby League was an annual college rugby competition played every spring among eight universities—seven from the Atlantic Coast Conference, plus Navy. The league was disestablished in 2016.
Alexander Magleby is the CEO of the professional rugby union team, The New England Free Jacks. He is a former professional rugby union coach, and former United States national team player and captain.
The Red River Rugby Collegiate Conference is a college rugby conference in Division 1-A Rugby, formed during summer 2014. The conferences consists of many of the same schools from the Big 12 Conference that had previously been in the Allied Rugby Conference adding the Texas Christian University rugby team.
The Heart of America Rugby Football Union is a college rugby conference playing in Division I-AA, with membership composed mostly of Big 12, Big Ten and SEC schools. HOA organizes a league competition with the winner qualifying for the national playoffs, and every fall hosts a rugby sevens tournament with the winner qualifying for the national sevens championships.
The Lindenwood Lions men's rugby team represents Lindenwood University in college rugby. Lindenwood plays in Division I-A in the Mid-South conference. The team is coached by Josh Macy. The Lindenwood men's rugby team won the 2012 USA Rugby Division II national championship in its inaugural season, and finished second in Division I-AA for the 2012-13 season. Following the 2012-13 season, Lindenwood moved up to Division I-A for the 2013-14 season. Lindenwood has also had success in Sevens. The Lions won the D1 7s National Championship in 2015 & the Red Bull University 7s Championship.
Folau Niua is an American rugby union former player. He played fly-half for the United States national rugby sevens team from 2011 to 2022, and holds the U.S. record for most tournament appearances with over 65 caps.
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 2013 USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship was a rugby sevens tournament. The tournament was held on May 31 - June 2 at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania. It was the fourth annual Collegiate Rugby Championship and the third consecutive year that the tournament was held at PPL Park. For 2013, USA Sevens LLC expanded the tournament from 16 to 20 teams in order to include additional local Philadelphia-area teams, inviting Temple, Kutztown, Penn, and Saint Joseph's. Another local team, Villanova, was later chosen as a replacement for Army. Villanova was outscored 184-0 over four games.
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 2023 Division 1-A Rugby Championship is the eleventh season of the Division 1-A Rugby championship, the annual university rugby union competition run by USA Rugby for teams from the top twelve college teams in the United States. Navy won their first Championship with a 28–22 win over California, capping a perfect 18–0 season.
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.
| Governing body | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geographical Unions | |||||||||||||||||
| National teams |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Competitions |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Related articles | |||||||||||||||||
