Too many teams in the playoffs?

Washington State's withdrawal from this weekend's Pacific Coast playoffs raises questions about the opportunity costs of championship competition.

American schools and clubs have been willing to bear much in pursuit of a national title, yet too frequently otherwise solid teams have been forced by financial and logistical hurdles to pull out at the last minute. In Spokane, the Cougars bumped up against school policies limiting students to 500 miles or 10 hours of travel per day, American Rugby News reported.

Those are eminently sensible institutional guidelines, designed to promote studying as well as to manage the safety of youth. Any sport which aims to get closer to universities must grasp that these are fundamental components of the educational mission.

The incident's import is not Washington State's fate, nor the geographical circumstances of reputedly the country's strongest territory. It is that unrealistic demands are commonplace across America, and year after year they go unaddressed.

For example, one of the weekend's more interesting matchups is Louisiana State versus Colorado, at a Texas venue. The winner could go on to New Mexico in two weeks, and then California in four.

While the organizational strengths of these particular schools is unclear, it is certain that too many club-level teams pursue such an itinerary at the expense of the building blocks which support this NCAA-caliber schedule. Are most of this weekend's competitors traveling with certified medical staff? When they play at home, do they operate concessions in order to raise money to defray travel?

These are practical questions for union administrators to start addressing.

Then we come to the competitions themselves. The Pacific Coast is at best uneven -- a fifth-place NorCal team with 4 wins from 11 games is taking Washington State's place, while the winner of the BYU-Utah match effectively went right through to the round of 16 -- and though there are admirably 'fair' regions like the Mid Atlantic, they are not producing more and more powerful teams. Only more games.

The cry will go up: But teams want to play for championships. Yes, that is what they want. What they need are stronger local leagues, run by administrators who design and enforce organizational standards that bring rugby into the mainstream. 'Building' from the top down is the cause of Washington State's plight.

Comments

[Blame USA Rugby]

The "Top Down" model is because it is the only way that USA Rugby can justify the paying of CIPP dues. If there is not a national championship and all championships are local, then what is the justification of USA Rugby aside from managing the national teams?

USA Rugby is bust without the CIPP dues. It is their only reliable source of revenue, and the national competition is the only reason players pay it.

[playoff joke]

Why does the US college championship need to be a USA Rugby championship? Why don't the teams just get together and organize it, and stop all this BS.

How badly is UC Davis getting screwed in this? In the first round they play a bad Stanford team 3-9, that somehow still makes the PCRFU playoffs, while St Marys watches. Then has to play St Marys 24 hours later.

All this for a pay your way invite to the Balloon park in New Mexico.

[AA]

It is the definition on insanity. We set up the same playoff system every year and expect a different result. Read any article about college rugby and you get the same message - no resources from the school and no help from Boulder. Then we have teams bailing at the last minute and other teams getting penalized by no fault of their own. Teams in Nor Cal play each other twice and go through a meat grinder before playoffs even start, while other leagues play 4 games and head straight to Nationals.

[Blame USA Rugby]

Nothing will change until USA Rugby either sees their CIPP revenue dry up because of decent by the clubs, or they start getting sponsorship and broadcast dollars that make the CIPP revenue less important. If the latter happens, watch them kick member services to the curb ASAP and become whores to the sponsors and broadcasters.

[Goeagles]

What a bunch of morons. Teams like Texas A&M and WSU choose to spend their money competing in tournaments or going on tours because they know they cannot compete for a national championship. Then we get people complaining about USA Rugby's role in all of this? Maybe if WSU got a real coach for once or TAMU progressed beyond having the Texas U19 team and had some coaching, they would do decently. Until then, fuck the heck?

[J-TANG_ShOgUn]

Hey, did any of you happen to hear what Davidson did when their school made the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament? They paid for travel and hotels and tickets for EVERY student that wanted to attend and support their team. It is a model example of how a college should support their athletic clubs. Why should the blame fall on USA Rugby to finance the travel of all these teams to postseason games? The NCAA doesn't pay for teams postseason appearances. If it is such an issue, why don't these teams ask the school for money - if they are an upstanding club, competing for national title and recognition, I am sure the school will be able to help with some funding. However, sadly, most of the teams are still perceived(not without good reason) and drunken fools and give the university no reason to support them beyond their initial budget. As pointed out before, these teams spend their budgets on tour as opposed to saving up for national championships travel...To argue that USA Rugby should pay the fees for these teams is preposterous. Does the NFL pay for teams to travel in the playoffs? How about the NBA? It is a cost for the individual club to set aside and deal with! Besides, if USA Rugby did give these teams additional funds, wouldn't it be a bigger issue since they are giving money to only 30 or so clubs as opposed to all of them? Guaranteed the day after there would be an article on gainline bashing USA Rugby for favoritism

[wrong]

You are wrong, the NCAA pays for team expenses to their championshis.

[AA]

J-Tang -
Did you just wake up from a very long nap? Most colleges could really care less about rugby and rate the team right next to the ultimate frisbee team. They have a set budget for the entire club sports program - no more, no less. Unless a sugar daddy almuni ponies up, the program usually competes for scraps. That is the reality of college rugby in the USA.