| 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 Pac-12 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 122 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.
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