The Louisville Cardinals are the NCAA athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. The Cardinals teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning in the 2014 season. While playing in the Big East Conference from 2005 through 2013, the Cardinals captured 17 regular season Big East titles and 33 Big East Tournament titles totaling 50 Big East Championships across all sports. On November 28, 2012, Louisville received and accepted an invitation to join the Atlantic Coast Conference and became a participating member in all sports in 2014. In 2016, Lamar Jackson won the school its first Heisman Trophy.
Charlotte Rugby Club, nicknamed the "Old Originals", are a rugby union team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They currently play in USA Rugby Division II, and are members of the USA Rugby South. They play home games at Skillbeck Athletic Grounds.
San Francisco Golden Gate Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based in San Francisco, California. SFGG's first side competes in the Northern California Rugby Football Union's Men's Division I, Women's Division II, and Pacific Rugby Premiership. The SFGG Youth Program includes high school Varsity, Junior Varsity, Frosh-Soph teams as well as U-12, U-10 and U-8 (non-contact) youth teams. SFGG also fields nationally competitive Rugby Sevens squads over the summer. The SFGG Old Boys team, the Señors, feature in occasional matches.
The Wisconsin Women's Rugby Football Club (WWRFC) is an amateur Division I women's rugby team in Madison, Wisconsin.
The Towson Tigers, formerly the Towson College Knights, are the athletics teams of Towson University. All of the major athletic teams compete in the Coastal Athletic Association with 19 Division I athletic teams. Gymnastics competes in the EAGL conference, having rejoined the league in the Spring of 2012.
The Tampa Bay Krewe, or Krewe Rugby, are a rugby union team based in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. They are members of the Florida Rugby Union, the organizational body for rugby union in Florida, and Division II side in USA Rugby, plus a youth side and a social side. Krewe Rugby was founded in 1991 by ten Tampa Bay area professionals who had previously been members of different novice to semi-professional level rugby union teams. The Krewe plays other Division- II Rugby Clubs from cities across Florida, including Jacksonville, Orlando, Naples, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami.
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 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).
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.
Kisi Keomaka "Maka" Unufe is an American rugby union player. He has played over a decade with the United States national rugby sevens team. He also played for the Houston SaberCats of Major League Rugby (MLR) as a center.
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.
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. This tournament is a major contributor to the selection process for USA Rugby Olympic athletes.
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.
Dallas Griffins Rugby, formerly Frisco Griffins, is a rugby union team based in Allen, Texas, United States, founded in 2008 by Phil Camm and Jeff Walton. Dallas competed in USA Rugby's first tier amateur competition, Red River Conference D1, and was a member of Major League Rugby at its foundation. The organization was later sold to a new ownership group and rebranded as the Dallas Jackals in preparation for the start of Major League Rugby.
The Rocky Gorge Rugby Football Club is a USA Rugby club men's Division I rugby union team based in Columbia, Maryland, United States. Gorge plays in the Mid-Atlantic Conference in the Capital Geographical Union. Rocky Gorge is the 2012 and 2014 USA Club Rugby Division II National Champions and has won four Mid-Atlantic Division I Championships.
San Diego State Aztecs Rugby Club is the rugby union club that represents San Diego State University. The men's team competes in Division 1-A in the California Conference and the women's team competes in Division II in the Pacific Desert Conference. The club plays their home games at ENS 700 Field.
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.
Adam Thimmig
