On 7s and Olympic TV programming

Like many, I taped the Olympics primarily to observe my (other) sport on a big screen, and to skip past features and adverts.

A segment about 1972 standout Olga Korbut, however, was instructive of rugby's 2016 prospects. The Soviet gymnast, whose fresh style and sunny personality created a media sensation, propelled the hitherto little-known sport into the ranks of swimming and track, then as now considered anchor competitions.

Though it is more feasible than ever to televise virtually every discipline, not discovering the next big thing but audience ratings and advertising revenue are television's main goal. The formula which coalesced at those Munich Games hasn't changed much: 1) feature swimming and diving, gymnastics, and track and field along with a few fads (in London, beach volleyball), 2) focus on US medalists, and 3) highlight personalities (preferably American).

For most sports, hopes for exposure turn on the latter two categories. Rugby will be no different. Indeed, the rise of online programming, watched by diehards in real time, has liberated American producers from pretending they are concerned with a broad range of live competition.

The niche of marathon swimming illustrates this dynamic. Prior to its 2008 debut, the 'open water' benchmark was the 25-kilometer (15 1/2 mile) race, but as with the International Rugby Board's campaign for seven-a-side, swimming officials scaled back to the 10K distance in order to be added to the Summer Games. Still, the distance races lack the pool's US stars. Consequently, no prime-time coverage.

Meanwhile, boxing and wrestling are two examples of once-powerful sports that now lack medal contenders, and so have fallen off the prime-time radar.

Of course, America first must qualify for the truncated 12-team field, in a process which has not yet been determined. Otherwise, seven-a-side's prime-time moments may well be limited to glimpse of the haka.

Comments

[NBC Fail]

NBC's coverage was dreadful and does not bode well for rugby in 2016. Rugby will get the same coverage as handball did in London when we don't qualify.

Its a good job we have the CRC in Philly. But whats the odds they pull out of that when Team USA doesn't qualify for Rio?

[alan airth]

While the men have a stiff climb, we can expect the women to put Olympics rugby on the TV map. Curiosity and success can make a potent mix.

[Grant Cole]

Both teams will likely be able to qualify. There are too many good things occurring on the landscape of US 7s. Also, taking two teams out of the qualifying equation because of Great Britain's consolidation will help teams like the US & Canada that seem to be on the bubble.

BTW Kurt, Welcome Back!

[NBC Fail]

The problem is that once NBC sees the standard of the women's game, they'll pull the plug, just like they did at the CRC!

[Regal Eagle]

NBC Fail,

The standard of the women's game is going to improve drastically by 2016. It's only even been played internationally for a couple years now and with various NOCs funding it, the standard will go though the roof. It still won't be anywhere near the men's standard of course, but it will be way better than it is today.

Grant,

I don't think it's all that likely both will qualify. You get 12 teams, broken down like this:

Brazil (host)
Top 4 in IRB points for 2014-2015 season
1 Europe
1 North America
1 South America
1 Oceania
1 Africa
1 Asia
1 Repechage

The top 4 last year were NZ, Fiji, England (will qualify for all of GB) and Samoa. That would mean the following would probably be the winners of their regions

Africa: South Africa
South America: Argentina
Europe: Portugal
Asia: Japan
Oceania: Australia
North America: either us or Canada

Whoever doesn't win North America will get stuck facing off against Kenya, France, Spain, Ireland (maybe), Tonga, Italy and a couple others for just 1 spot. And that's assuming that South Africa or Australia don't get upset along the way and end up in the repechage playoff. While we'd certainly have a shot, that's a tough way to qualify.

[NBC Fail]

Regal,
I hope you are right because at the moment it is a joke to think of women's rugby on mainstream TV.

I do agree with you about qualifying though, I think the women might get in, just, but the men will struggle. If that happens we will have the same status as US handball.

And that would be a disaster for the game!

[Max Headroom]

NBC's target audience for the Olympics is women. They learned long ago that the only way to have a home's TV tuned to sports for 2 weeks straight during primetime was to make it must see TV for women because they run the home. That means drama in the form of sports with judges, tear jerking narratives packaged as athlete profiles and sports with male skin on display. Rugby doesn't check the boxes for this American Idol, View, Housewives of blah blah city audience NBC wants.

[Regal Eagle]

Max,

Explain why NBC has put resources, money and time into promoting 7s then. They certainly aren't in the business of throwing away those things on sports they don't plan to broadcast.

[Max Headroom]

It is called managing their longterm Olympic investment. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Grant Cole]

Regal, Regarding NBC putting money into 7s: I think it has something to do w/ my wife's infatuation with Colin Hawley & DJ Forbes. Max got the demographics dead on. I'm here to tell you, NBC will salivate once the Kiwis perform their shirtless Haka FTW!

[Regal Eagle]

So why aren't we seeing the same for team handball or field hockey?

[Show Me The IRB Money]

Hope nobody has already purchased a plane ticket to fly to Argentina for the inaugural IRB 7s stop in 2012.

http://www.irbsevens.com/news/newsid=2063382.html#argentina+sevens+world+series+round+postponed

[Max Headroom]

@Regal

The IOC inclusion of rugby and golf is one of the times when the tail (NBC and their massive broadcast rights check) aren't wagging the dog. Traditionally, NBC got their way with having softball and baseball in the Olympics when it really didn't make sense. On numerous occasions they were also able to get want, including having the swimming early in the morning in Bejing so it would be on prime time live in the USA. Not great for the organizing committee to maximize revenues.

So, golf is a traditional sport in the USA and NBC will have little problem figuring out how to max return on broadcasting it. Rugby on the other hand presents a problem for NBC. For the IOC rugby is a slam dunk for the following reasons:

1) Organizing committee (Rio 2016) loves the ROI on rugby. Just like the RWC, Lions tours, 6 Nations, Hong Kong 7s and other big international rugby events tens of thousands of rugby supports will descend on Rio ready to purchase every ticket, drink and eat the stadium dry, buy every piece of merchandise available and light up the cash registers of every brothel, bar, cafe and restaurants in Rio. All this with no political protests, fights or other unpleasant incidents. There may be a streaker or two.

2) This massive wave of supporters are not your typical Olympic travelling spectator opening up a new market to the IOC. My guess is that most the supporters will go to the Olympics for the 7s and after a few days in Rio will go tour other parts of the country and not go to boxing, football (soccer) or whatever. However, they will be there and the IOC will have a chance to sell them on the rest of the games.

3) The broadcast of the 7s will be attractive to many of the biggest rights holders around the world.

So, NBC has their back against the wall a bit with the inclusion of rugby. They lost the baseball/softball inclusion fight after having it for a number of years and they are now trying to cope. They can not ignore the fact that 70 or 80 thousand people will be viewing rugby in the main stadium (holding opening/closing ceremonies and the torch) for 2 days like they can ignore handball and field hockey.

[Regal Eagle]

That's quite an interesting argument there. Now you're saying they've invested in rugby because they can't ignore it after arguing that they will ignore it. Which is it?

By the way, rugby is probably going to be played in a separate stadium than the Olympic Stadium. The one they are primarily looking at is called Sao Januario and has a current capacity of ~25k but they have said it may be renovated for the Olympics (perhaps increased to 40k?).

[Max Headroom]

I said NBC is forced to invest in rugby in th USA as a hedge to their longterm Olympic strategy, and that on paper rugby doesn't match their demo.

Last week it was announced that rugby will be played in the famous Estádio do Maracanã, which is going through renovations for the games, and will host the marathon; archery; athletics; rugby; football; volleyball along with the opening and closing ceremonies.

[Max Headroom]

It will seat 85K, and my guess is that rugby will sell out.

[Regal Eagle]

Why would they need to hedge if it doesn't match their demo and they don't plan to show it? There would be nothing to hedge. Everything NBC has said contradicts what you're saying.

Please show me a link to the announcement of rugby being at the Maracana Stadium. I cannot find anything about it, anywhere, and that is because you are confusing the Maracana Stadium with the Maracana Zone, one of the 4 zones for the 2016 Olympics. There is no way they are holding archery and volleyball in an 85k seat stadium. If you go to the Rio2016 website, you'll notice that the Sao Januario stadium is located in the Maracana Zone: http://rio2016.com/en/the-games/venues-map

[Show Me The IRB Money]

Here's a link to the Maracana Zone map from the Rio 2016 website. Click on Zone 3 (Maracana).

Rugby will be played at San Januario Stadium.

Athletics will be held at Joao Havelange Stadium.

http://www.rio2016.org.br/en/the-games/venues-map

Also, I believe rugby is scheduled for the final four days of the Games. Women on Thursday & Friday, men on Saturday & Sunday.

[College]

Can we all please remember that rugby is infinitely more watchable than team handball and field hockey? No it is not a traditional American sport. But Americans understand big hits and long runs for touchdowns. It is very sellable and NBC has been doing a fine job with injecting a little more rugby each year. By 2016, they will have a sizable audience who want to watch it

[USAR Fail]

College
Couldn't agree more - case closed, lets now talk about all the teeth gnashing on Rugbymag about the USAR D1-AA/D1 -A/Varsity Cup!

USA rugby is like a dying empire trying to cling on to the best parts only to see it go up in smoke. The college game is going to implode and there is nothing that they can do about it.

[Beagles]

USA 3 to 1 underdog to qualify for Rio 2016. Money on Canada to take the Americas spot with Brazil (host) and Argentina.

[meltdown]

@USAR Fail

Truer words have never been spoken. Boulder has created a mess out of their best and most important product.

What is clear at this points is there are about 20...that's 20 D1A teams that don't belong in US rugby's top level college competition AND there are about 12 teams in the D1AA who are among the best US rugby college teams. What a fudge up. We aren't just talking about just Cal and BYU, the entire divisional set up is flawed.

Two reasons for this.

1) USAR has allowed any team into to D1A. No team was turned away. No on-field or off-field criteria was used. USAR was at their worst. Nigel as CEO ran from the hot potato. Cortez, Battle and Snyder panicked and rather than creating a smaller more elite competition they allowed a truckload of very underachieving teams into the D1A mix.

2) Once BYU offered the Varsity Cup as a post season alternative it was clear the USAR strangle hold on national championships was over. Most who closely follow college rugby already understood this with the impact the CRC has had on US college rugby. The VC takes the Ivy champ, two of the best military academies, iconic brand ND, perennial postseason teams like Utah and national champions like Cal and BYU. This is a true split from USAR.

What Battle, Cortex and Snyder really did wrong was declare if a team was going to play in the VC, they and their conference could not be D1A. You will find this business move in the dictionary under cut your nose off to spite your face.

So rather than have a great D1A with the likes of BYU and the entire PAC conference they reduce the attraction of their competition. While furthering the split between the best rugby universities and USAR.

So now the question is where was the USAR leadership during this meltdown of college rugby?

[positive news]

Its not all melting down. My google alert just brought me here

http://pac-12.com/sports/rugby.aspx

This is a good association for rugby.

[+1]

And a well written piece and good photo. It promotes USA Rugby and its national team, mentions the other college players Holder and Davies. A training camp at US Military Academy West Point. All stuff we know in the rugby community, but when this stuff gets into the mainstream it has the potential for impact.

This is what can happen if we move towards a better connection with intercollegiate athletics and the true conference structures.

[Rape Ape]

RE: Seamus Kelly

Looks like Tolkin is handing out more candy to his Xavier favorites. Hope it isn't a Sandusky deal going on.

[moving in the right direction]

The Harvard women going varsity and the official web site of a major conference having a rugby page are real positives for our sport.

If NBC gets behind the Varsity Cup like they have the CRC, it will be a significant success.

[moving in the right direction]

Here is were we live at the USOC website.

http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Rugby.aspx

[rugbycoach]

Any truth to the rumor that the Super League has been disbanded by USAR effective yesterdaY?

[club man]

Watching USAR in action is like watching a slow motion car crash.

What is the payroll at USAR? Over a dozen full timers, what is your guess?

Over a millions dollars in annual payroll before benefits is my bet. This and I cannot think of one thing USAR employees do which is done well or couldn't be done better by a group of volunteers.

[gotta wear shades]

1.8M
guidestar.org has all of usa rugby financials, and any other nonprofit organization. $6m is a shoestring for a national governing body of an international sport. they accomplish a lot with very little. your dues are less than a weekend bar tab.

You can look at a group forming their own thing as USAR failing, flip side is usar can now focus on other things, those teams are mature enough and have the institutional support to pull off their own championships. The NCAA doesnt runt the SEC Championships, the SEC does. I see this as a positive development. No one cares about 'national champion' there are no cinderellas, let em do their own thing.

Youth development is the greatest thing ever. We are seeing HS frosh who are entering with all the skills and knowledge required to play the game - the HS coach can focus on making them better. They are making Rugby their sport of choice and ignoring baseball, track, since they have been playing since they were 9 and 10.

When the 'Old Boys' hang up their boots, compete against each other with their squads of U9s to show off how much they can teach an 8 yr old, pass on the core values, we'll be getting somewhere in a hurry. The Quadrennial starts now.

[sevens]

@rugbycoach: At Clubs 7s on Treasure Island I heard that many clubs were not going to continue in RSL. Good chance RSL is dead but I haven't an official announcement. USAR and RSL have never been good with PR.

[sorry charlie]

The reason USAR..as the owner of national events..and the recipient of dues from 100k players and clubs..and the recipient of grants from the IRB and USOC is only a mere $6mm dollar business has everything to do with the futility of its staff and executive leadership.

Nigel Melville has been wholly ineffective as a businessman. He lacks all forms of executive business expertise needed to monetize rugby onto a platform for success.

The USAR Board is detached. Congress is a sad joke.

Every major stride occurring in US rugby happens outside the authority and work plans of USAR.

A dynamic CEO and Board would propel US rugby onto a stage and business platform unknown to American rugby. Once this CEO and Board depart USAR will have its greatest chance in its lifetime to get it right. For now the dance continues..one step to the left, one step to the right, a half a step forward and one step back..and repeat. Slowly losing ground with lots of motion.

[college]

A list of things which have little or nothing to do with our $1,000,000 USAR staff.

1) The CRC, NBC!
2) The grassroots youth rugby movement
3) College rugby traditional sports conferences
4) Varsity status of college and HS teams
5) Increased sport media exposer

[just sayin]

*6 Las Vegas stop on the IRB 7 circut.

[Craig]

If the RSL is dead, not sure how I would feel about it?

Is the RSL too proud to take HP money to keep it going and build a premier comp? Its got to be better use of our grant money than giving to the current d1a comp. just look at some of those schools...

If we gave the rsl the same grant, we could have a 10 team comp play once through and we cold keep the coats the same as the last year or so with off setting grant money.. Its got to be a better ROI...

Just saying

[RSL Fail]

Of course we need a better top competition, that should be universally recognized. Quick imperial evidence...we are not beating tier I and tier II comp are beating us as well. At best we are standing still.

Does the RSL get better with more HS players and a better college driven competition? Yes, but that is a slow burn as that is evolution which again by nature takes time and does not necessarily address the lack of coaching development needed to compliment more players.

So the answer lies with an alternative. Two choices, limit to 8 teams max and throw a shed load of player, coach and club development resources and HP money at them. Mandate all players play there and the clubs develop there area in conjunction with paid development director, SBRO, and commercial director. You can pick areas already, NY, SF, SD, Seattle, Denver, DC, Chicago, other.

Second choice is create club regional competition, resource them, but no travel support you would put in above and work on a semi pro model for late spring/summer where fifteens and sevens overlap. Funding for this is a midterm challenge.

[Not a hater.]

@ gotta wear shades. I couldn't have said it better myself. Fat Boy Rugby (aka men playing past their prime) is the next major hurdle. If we can get that group to start coaching, the sky is the limit.

[RK Peastross]

"rugby is infinitely more watchable than team handball and field hockey"

I suppose you are talking about men's field hockey? Or did you miss the Dutch or Kiwi women? I could watch them play all day.

[Old boy rugby Fail]

Not a hater, you a dead right.
You want to see 'Fat Boy Rugby' at its best, go to Raleigh, North Carolina, any Saturday afternoon. All sipping the glory days cool aid (Div 2 that is) and trying to cheap shot college kids and young players half their age!

And they are not the only ones!

[sevens]

Interesting article at scrum.com about whether 7s will overtake 15s. Looking at TV coverage, sponsorships, Olympic support, and money paid to national team players, 7s has already overtaken 15s in the US. Should USAR allocate scarce resources to develop a replacement for RSL in Club 15s or would the money be better spent on developing a more robust National Club Sevens Competition? Should USAR licence National Club Sevens (and regional qualifiers) to USA Sevens who has a much stronger track record of selling tickets, getting sponsors, and increasing TV coverage.

http://www.espnscrum.com/scrum/rugby/story/168640.html

[Craig]

Its a good question on 7s-

should the club 7s Championships be moved to late September from the first of August, and the NASC two weeks later? This would allow more time for competition, but should there really be a 7s circut?

[7's vs XV's]

There are several reasons to bet on 7's to continue to overtake XV's in the US.

Yes it all starts with the Olympics. However the allure of the Olympic Games has attracted outside investors, which is what most always hoped would happen in the XV game.

These investors, namely USA Sevens LLC and partner NBC are working outside the confines of USAR. These are separate businesses run by seasoned professionals, not the types occupying Boulder. This is the biggest reason to bet on 7's over XV's.

If schools join the 7's movement as most suspect they will, this will further divest USAR from a governing leadership role. Schools don't take to dues charging under-performing NGB's. In fact no other NGB charges dues of HS and college players and teams. USAR will soon be seen as the bloodsuckers they are within the schools. Schools go direct, direct to the NCAA, State Boards of Education and Sport, USOC. There are no bloodsucking dues collectors in between.

In the final analysis USAR will hold some bad national 7's competitions played in front of few fans with no media. Private investors will have the big events like the CRC and IRB 7's stop. All on TV in big stadiums, with large crowds.

USAR will have the XV game which continues to splinter. If private investors enter the XV game then it will have a chance against 7's. If not, if USA XV's is run by Boulder it has no chance.

[how it should work]

It is interesting to evaluate USAR in context with other rugby unions around the world. The biggest difference is the other rugby unions serve their member teams and players not the other way around. Rugby unions sell the game of rugby at the highest level then distribute downward the proceeds. Clubs don't pay dues they receive a distribution of funds from the union to run and build their game at the local level.

This is backwards to how USAR works. They go to the local level and raid the treasury to pay for the $300k CEO and his staff. They charge dues to students in an attempt to subsidize the adult levels.

USAR has never built an event commercially then distributed those proceeds to their member teams. This is how it is suppose to work. BTW, redirecting IRB grants isn't what professional sports administrators do. This is welfare re-distribution, which builds a welfare mindset.

[Irish]

Pat Clifton has a story up at RM on D1AA.

He mentions that the teams not willing to play in the USAR postseason haven't made the commitment. Not really sure what he means by this statement. He uses Dartmouth and Cal as his examples. So lets get this right. If a team plays everybody in their league along with with some exciting non-league matches, then elects to play in the Varsity Cup over the USAR postseason option...they haven't shown commitment. Really?

The VC postseason competition looks much tougher to win than the USAR version. More like serious commitment.

The real issue RM hasn't explored is why band teams from D1A just because they don't want to pay to play in the USAR postseason? We have TUs which fail to send a team to USAR all-star national championships! Teams back out last minute at all levels of USAR championships! Why is USAR banding college teams from D1A because they are choosing up front to not play in the USAR postseason? At the very least this is heavy-handed, unprofessional conduct by USAR.

Seriously, after a college team pays its dues and is full compliance shouldn't the team be allowed to decide their postseason plans based on university direction? What if the VC was less expensive? What if the students preferred the VC? What if the USAR postseason schedule wasn't preferred to that of the VC?

Isn't bullying teams and entire conferences because they don't want to play in the USAR postseason a bit much? Is it legal? Will it create an even larger divide in college rugby? Is this the work of Nigel Melville?

It will be interesting how this will all work out, but USAR seems exposed.

[wrt]

@Irish

Re-read Pat's article and you will see he provides you with the answer to why USAR is playing such desperate illegal defense.

Without the USAR college national championship they won't be able to collect CIPP dues from college kids. They have about one million reasons to fight and fight as dirty and illegally as they can. The problem is USAR won't win with this tactic and it will only hasten the breakup of US college rugby.

[Regal Eagle]

How it should work,

That is true of Tier 1 nations but I don't think it's true of the Tier 2 countries. The main difference between Tier 1 and Tier 2 countries is that Tier 2 countries don't get big crowds to their test matches and as a result have to use their dues to pay for the national team rather than using their national team to fund the game in the rest of the country. That's part of why seeing 17,000 people at a test match against a bottom rung Tier 1 side who doesn't bring a ton of fans (compared to other Tier 1 sides) is such a positive for the game in this country. If the Eagles can start drawing these types of crowds consistently for multiple tests per year, a lot of positive things will happen both for grassroots development and for the Eagles.

[D1AA conferences]

wrt- USAR tried to convince the D1-aa conferences that if a team didn't compete in the D1-aa USAR national championships the whole conference was disqualified. This was aimed at the Ivy and ACRL, trying to keep Navy and Dartmouth from being allowed to play in the VC. The D1AA conferences told USAR, no way. Next USAR pressured ND with no matches.
Then USAR didn't allow AFA and BYU to play in their old conference in the west. The west conference instead enter Northern Colorado and New Mexico in and kept AFA and BYU out. Nice move! Good swap! Former national champions for D2 teams. Maybe its want the west teams want, how else was a team like Colorado ever going to win the west? Jim Snyder the CU coach and USAR employee has driven much of the policy to attempt to punish VC teams, or clear the way for CU making the playoffs. I understand the Pac was willing to be a D1-a conference and clearly has the credentials to do so, but because Utah and Cal were going to play in the VC, USAR said they have to be D1-aa. What? This is USAR at work. Melville can't lose that dues money. The VC creates a threat to the college CIPP dues. The VC could expand easily to a 16 team competition. The ACRL vs Southeast conference post-season bowl game conversation isn't going away. Other teams just electing not to participate in the USAR postseason creates a further threat against the CIPP dues. USAR has Rich Cortez and Kevin Battle making decisions at the behest of Nigel Melville. What a show they are putting on.

[Eat Fresh]

PAC chose D1AA. They were invited to D1A (just like most conferences) and declined. That decision was made long before the Varsity Cup debate. Clifton's Cliff Notes article frames the issues very well.

[rj]

"Traditionally, NBC got their way with having softball and baseball in the Olympics when it really didn't make sense..."

1. There are as many countries good at baseball as they are rugby union if we're being bluntly honest with ourselves.
2. Since when did the network NBC showcase baseball as a major sport when it was in the Games?

[rj]

"I sometimes have hope for the game of rugby in America. Then I go read the commenters on gainline.us ..."

[abob]

Hey, I am an old boy who still plays a few games a year, just so I don't kill someone. I also initiated and coach a youth rugby program, serve on a college alum support group, and help admin on my small town team. My biggest challenge is not old boy ruggers or their perception of them, it is the college teams with no coaches on a drunken fury. Convincing our HS football coaches to create a team is a struggle as their image of rugby is from the small colleges with no parental supervision. If you want to play, I have no problem, but you need to coach youth, high school and college. Stop bitching about low level rugby- many of those guys are coaching.

[Member of the Raleigh Vipers]

"You want to see 'Fat Boy Rugby' at its best, go to Raleigh, North Carolina, any Saturday afternoon. All sipping the glory days cool aid (Div 2 that is) and trying to cheap shot college kids and young players half their age!"

- old boy rugby fail

Old Boy Rugby Fail, if you have something to state, why don't you use your real name instead of hiding behind anonymity and then come to our field and tell us your feelings to our faces like a real man does?

The fact of the matter is we enjoy giving East Carolina University and North Carolina State University games, it's a win-win for both sides. It's good for us for purposes of recruiting for the future (and it looks to have paid off for this coming season), it's good for them to play a team that has more experience than they do, and it's good for both to not play teams that are a four-hour drive away. Sure we hit them harder than what their opposite number in college rugby hits them, but they also man-to-man are faster than who we normally play. We will not though be playing any collegiate teams this fall as we'll be busy with our schedule from Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union Division I.

And if we wanted to sip the koolaid of a Division II national title living off those glory days, we would have never self-promoted ourselves to Division I choosing to raise the challenge to ourselves. And in those four years, we have finished top 4 out of the 10-team MARFU DI twice, thereby qualifying for the playoffs twice.

Our first home game this fall is Schuylkill River on September 22nd (you actually can't come every Saturday afternoon, half our games are away after all). You must know where we play to describe our level of play as a bunch of fat boys, so come find us and act like a man for once if you have an issue with any of this by not hiding behind a fake internet name.

[Eat Fresh]

And, it should be noted the East Carolina Univ is now left out of the conference system completely because they have no non student leadership and no one will agree to put there name down as the coach. But, hey, a least they get quality games, right?

Congratulations on building a strong senior men's team at Raleigh but don't pretend you are doing college rugby a favor through your mere existence.

[liar liar pants on fire]

The Pac 12 was invited to the D1A competition. So was BYU, Airforce and ND. All declined. USA Rugby asked that all teams that plan to participate play all their matches, not pick and choose what matches they will/won't play at their own convienience.

Anyone who says differently is just shifting the blame to try and justify their own selfish decisions. I'm not a big fan of the "Star Chamber" we now have running college rugby, but we can't hang this one on them.

[Pat clifton]

Irish, not sure where i said teams not willing to play in USARs posteason "have not made the commitment".

I think the Varsity Cup is a bold move and one that could pay off in spades for rugby. My only worry is, should it succeed and expand, it will exclude varsity teams like Lindenwood, Wheeling Jesuit and Life. if it does, i have problems with it. If it doesn't, i have no problems.

People making money in rugby is a good thing. I have lauded the University of Minnesota for their efforts to really market a game a year in their football stadium and make some money from it. i think it's a huge missing piece in the game.

I hope the Varsity Cup does really well.

[Show Me The IRB Money]

Anyone who thinks Jack's little project will eventually stoop to allowing Life, Wheeling, Davenport or any good program that isn't a "brand" (or not a threat to Cal) is a fool.

[Regal Eagle]

Lumping in Wheeling (as well as Lindenwood and Notre Dame College) is idiotic as they are NCAA member schools. Dump on the NAIA trade schools like Life all you want (although I think that is a mistake too) but the ones listed above are all advancing rugby in this country and are NCAA member schools. Seems to me like Cal is afraid of real competition after years of being able to dominate club teams as the only varsity team in town.

[D1AA conferences]

@liar

Yes you are partly correct. All the VC teams and for that matter almost any old team were indeed initially invited into the D1A competition. There was one big proviso, they had to compete in the USAR post-season. For the VC teams this wasn't possible therefore some were locked out of regular-season leagues and others had to remain in D1AA.

Fair enough, I don't really think the VC teams care but as a college coach of a non-VC team I care. USAR now has some very poor teams (2nd division teams in D1A) and some very good teams in D1AA. USAR has only hurt themselves and college rugby with this policy.

Further, USAR has D1A team (CWU) with no conference and teams with two or three team (Life, ASU) (Davenport) D1A conference. What a mess. USAR has botched US college rugby. They are a really bad at their role.

[funny pages]

Yep, BYU and Cal are afraid of Wheeling. And since they both beat RSL teams, by extension RSL teams are afraid of Wheeling. We are all afraid of Wheeling. Where is Wheeling? I know, we'll all soon know. Frighting for all teams. Hell, watch out Ark St! Be careful Army. Why even have a team Penn State? If Cal and BYU are afraid of the mighty Wheeling what must these teams be thinking?

[question for somebody]

Why isn't rugby listed as one of Lindenwood's intercollegiate sports. There is no team information on the athletic website, nor is the coach listed in the schools directory.

Are they really a varsity team?