Knoxville, TN - The Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference has announced that Columbia, South Carolina will serve as the official site for the fourth annual SCRC Championship Weekend scheduled for November 15th & 16th. The Columbia Regional Sports Council and Visitors Bureau and the University of South Carolina will be serving as the hosts, with matches to take place at the Strom Rugby Field on campus.

The following match times have been established:
Saturday, November 15
1:00 PM West #1 v East #2
3:00 PM East #1 v West #2

Sunday, November 16
1:00 PM Championship

“We welcome the Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference to ‘Famously Hot’ Columbia, SC,” states Scott Powers, Executive Director, Columbia Regional Sports Council. “While you are here I invite you to enjoy all of our wonderful attractions, museums, dining options, and incredible shopping.”

“We are proud of the accomplishments of our member teams and we thank our hosts for their gracious hospitality,” comments SCRC Commissioner Andy Allen. “We look forward to another successful championship event and we hope to see all of our SCRC supporters from the Columbia and surrounding communities come out and cheer the teams to victory.”

A new component to this year’s event will be the presence of Coaches Aid, an amateur sports broadcasting network providing live streaming, HD video recording, and on site commentary and interviews for all three matches. “We are excited to partner with Southeastern Rugby to promote their athletes, teams, and programs,” states Dean O’Neal, Executive Producer, ASBN Coaches Aid. “We look to cultivate a complete fan experience that is even more exciting and valuable to the conference and their fans.”

Last year’s contest saw South Carolina defeat Louisiana State 41-26 in the championship match, held in Knoxville, Tennessee, to win the SCRC title. Louisiana State (#1 West) had beaten Florida (#2 East) 54-27 in first semifinal, while South Carolina (#1 East) had defeated Auburn (#2 West) 41-05 in the second semifinal.

This year, unfortunately, LSU is under suspension, so they won't be back in the playoffs. So far this year USC and Tennessee lead the East with 3-0 records. In the West there's still much to decide, with Alabama and Auburn leading the division with two wins each so far.

The finalists will each receive an automatic bid to the inaugural American Collegiate Rugby Championship Bowl Series on November 22nd to be held in the new state-of-the-art Rugby Athletic Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The ACRC Bowl Series will feature eight championship bowl games over three days, showcasing some of the very best college rugby teams from around the country. The SCRC champion is scheduled to face off against the champion of the Atlantic Coast Rugby League, which is expected to be a hotly contested match.

The SCRC is a USA Rugby Men's Collegiate Division I rugby conference featuring teams from the universities in the Southeastern Conference. The league members include teams from the University of Alabama, Auburn University, University of Florida, University of Georgia, University of Kentucky, Louisiana State University, University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, University of South Carolina, University of Tennessee, and Vanderbilt University.