The Heart of America (HOA) is a Division I-AA men's college rugby conference that expanded to 12 teams for the 2025-2026 season. It operates under the College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) and is made up of schools from the middle part of the USA—Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri.
The conference plays its 15s season in the fall but enters its champion in the CRAA D1AA postseason in the spring.
Eighteen college rugby teams will compete in the Heart of America Classic this weekend in Kansas City, Mo., an automatic qualifier for the CRC 7s invitational this coming June in Chester, Pa.
Of the teams involved, one, Lindenwood University, is already qualified having won the Las Vegas Invitational qualifier earlier this month. The rest are looking to get that golden ticket.
One of the interesting surprises in Men's DIAA college rugby is that there's an impression held by some in the East that most of the season is played in the fall.
That's not exactly the case, given that the Gold Coast, Pacific West, NCRC, and Mountain States all start in the winter, and the Heart of America and Ivy League (playoffs, anyway) finish off in the spring.
United World Sports has announced that it has added a second open qualifier for the Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC) 7s tournament - the Heart of America Classic.
In writing about the Chesapeake Conference, where there seemed to be an inordinate number of close games, we decided to see if our impressions were correct.
Some changes and one major realignment mark the 2016-17 season for DIAA Men's College rugby - here's a look at the conferences and what changes we're expecting.
