A collegiate division 3 championship has nearly doubled in size over the past four years, quietly becoming one of America's largest school competitions.
The National Small College Rugby Championship's 2011-12 field comprises 151 teams representing 21 regional bodies, eclipsing 85 challengers from 6 unions in 2007-08. Beforehand, the tournament was limited to the Eastern seaboard.
The rapid growth suggests that most smaller and fledgling teams are not interested in challenging Cal, Brigham Young, or even local titans. Though they may enjoy occasional opportunities to knock off established powers, they mainly want to play 'natural rivals' in order to have a chance of winning often as not, and to measure themselves year over year.
In this framework, competition and development are essentially two sides of the same coin. And since they generally pay all of their costs themselves, their main administrative interest is fairly run competition, as well as capable referees.
The National Small College Rugby Organization pays close attention to which schools may qualify for its postseason knockout tournament. Independent of USARFU, the volunteer outfit maintains a concise, easily understood policy predicated on the parent school's varsity sports program and student enrollments.
Institutions with male undergraduate enrollment of less than 3,000 are automatically eligible, as are those belonging to the NCAA's division 3, the NAIA, and the like. Any school with a newly formed team also may enter, but larger insitutions become ineligible after three seasons.
Division 2 teams wishing to 'drop down' must be reviewed by NSCRO. A smattering of age- or reserve-grade sides from senior clubs take part in local regular-season matches as a means of promoting rugby participation, but are ineligible for the playoffs.
The tournament requires teams to be in good standing with conferences (or local unions, as lower-division conferences are still forming), and competitors must have paid USARFU dues. It receives funding from conferences and unions which enter their regular-season champions, but not from USARFU.
The field skews toward northeast and mid-Atlantic states, where are more small schools, although in recent years NSCRO has branched further afield. The 'Pacwest' grouping now comprises representatives from Texas, the Great Plains, California, and the Pacific Northwest.
Longwood defeated Occidental 36-27 for the 2011 title, stirring the Richmond, Virginia-area campus.
The 2012 finals are set for the Denver area's Infinity Park on April 28-29, the first time the championship has been contested out of the Eastern timezone. Rhode Island's Salve Regina and Ohio's Franciscan have already qualified.
Three of the 7 Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference (Southern California D1-AA) teams could play in this small colleges conference (Claremont, LMU & USD) and I am sure that there are a number of other D1-AA conferences that have teams that qualify. If USA Rugby doesn't get their act together, you might find some of these small colleges moving to this independent organization.
Posted by: Interesting | 09 January 2012 at 12:21
The NSCRO has done a great job with this tournament so far both in Mens and Womens.
Posted by: Ghostface | 09 January 2012 at 13:16
@Interesting
Or maybe you will instead see D1-AA start to self organize and slowly move away from USAR, just as NSCRO has...
www.usacollegerugby.org
Posted by: D1-AA | 09 January 2012 at 14:06
so who the residency contracts?
Posted by: college | 09 January 2012 at 14:30
Still some hiccups with the Div guidelines I would think. U of Miami in FL has over 10K students and all programs in Div 1. Yet they play Div 3 rugby? a school with a 50 yr rugby history? seems odd.
Were they shut shut down or something?
Last thing we need is a school like that moving down to just win.
We have older schools here in the NE but no Div 1 sports played by most.
Posted by: what the? | 09 January 2012 at 18:12
The "U" rugby club has been in existence since 1989 per wiki, that adds up to less then 50 years...apparently they play a more social game and aren't interested in playing the "big boys". Why should they be? They would probably have to pay for the travel and what college kid wants to do that?
Posted by: rkpeatross | 10 January 2012 at 04:29
Feel free to contact me directly with NSCRO Questions.
FYI - NSCRO Team Eligibility and other Policies are found on our website in the Documents section. Enrollment is based on full-time undergraduate students by gender. UMiami has approx. 4,500 male full-timers.
In addition to the 151 Men's D3 teams, NSCRO also runs D3 and D4 National Championships for Women. 59 D3 teams representing 7 LAUs/Conferences plus 22 D4 teams representing 2 LAUs.
Steve Cohen
NSCRO President
sdcohen4@mindspring.com
Posted by: Steve Cohen | 10 January 2012 at 05:34
U Miami states on their website that male undergrad enrollement is 5,134. I seriously thought UofM had like 35,000 students.
Posted by: Sergeant Hulka | 10 January 2012 at 08:22
Their football success makes you think they are some huge state school. But before the football explosion they were just a small really good academic school.
Posted by: college | 10 January 2012 at 08:47
@D1-AA:
You do realize that website is run by a guy who is actively involved in multiple USAR committees? If he's trying to break everyone away, that's probably news to those committees.
Posted by: Anon | 10 January 2012 at 08:47
I'm also confused as to why anyone thinks USAR should be organizing everything top-down (which is how some expectations come across), especially considering that most people complain about every top-down decision that is made...?
Posted by: Anon | 10 January 2012 at 08:48
The U is actually quite a good university. Maybe not quite a Vandy or a Duke, but still pretty good. I was shocked when I learned that. The Jimmy Johnson/Dennis Erickson era football teams really created another impression.
Posted by: My Dinner With Andre Johnson | 10 January 2012 at 08:51
Above someone states "You do realize that website is run by a guy who is actively involved in multiple USAR committees? If he's trying to break everyone away, that's probably news to those committees."
If you are referring to me, I have no affiliation with USA Rugby, any of its Committees, all TU or LAU. Other than NSCRO, I referee for the East Penn RRS and am the manager of MARS (Golden Oldies Rugby team).
Posted by: Steve Cohen | 10 January 2012 at 09:01
is VarsityRugby (where that link redirects) no longer run by Marty Bradley? Because it's certainly registered to an account (via WHOIS) in Knoxville, and is in the same template he's used for years in running South/SEC competitions....
Posted by: Anon | 10 January 2012 at 10:53
to clarify, I'm specifically commenting at the person who said,
"@Interesting
Or maybe you will instead see D1-AA start to self organize and slowly move away from USAR, just as NSCRO has...
www.usacollegerugby.org"
*NOT* to the above article that Kurt posted.
In other words, the idea that D1-AA is self-organizing and moving away from USAR, which is implied to be supported by the link, seems silly given who runs the site at said link (usacollegerugby.org redirecting to varsityrugby.com).
Posted by: Anon | 10 January 2012 at 10:56
varsityrugby.com exists to provide information that doesn't readily exist anywhere else. Some of us just got tired of being asked the same questions over and over again related to college conferences and the collegiate reschedule so now we can just send them to this site.
Just my attempt to share a little information, nothing more...
Posted by: mbradley | 10 January 2012 at 12:21
NSCRO is better @ webstreaming their games than usarugby by far
Posted by: middlesex rugby | 10 January 2012 at 12:38
NSCRO is better than USAR at pretty much everything.
Posted by: Sexymiddle Rugby | 10 January 2012 at 13:14
To Clarify - U of Mia - over 10K students - correct - started in late sixties - early seventies - played them in 73.
Div III is not social rugby. If a team wants social rugby, go elsewhere. Div III is not for beer on the sidelines rugby.
It's basically for schools that do not have the size to compete on a larger level. Not for schools that are coachless, lack discipline or structure.
No one wants to practice all week and show up for a game against an unfocused, immature group. IT helps no one.
It's to lift the game at all levels.
Posted by: what the? | 10 January 2012 at 14:43
If Miami isn't good enough to play Division 1 or Division 2 without insane travel, they should be granted a Division 3 schedule without Division 3 playoff opportunities.
It's a nice approach, really. The Midwest could have avoided its Lions snafu last year had it taken the approach MARFU used when it had RSL teams. MARFU was excellent about giving PAC, Charlotte, etc. games against Div. 1 opponents in the fall, but kept them from keeping their D1 opponents out of the playoffs.
Posted by: Anon | 10 January 2012 at 15:26