The Tri-State Rugby Conference was first set-up in 2012-13 when USA Rugby encouraged universities and colleges to form conferences rather than remain part of their Local Area Unions (LAUs). The majority of the collegiate teams that comprised the Metropolitan New York Rugby Union became part of the Tri-State Collegiate Rugby Conference.
Marist pulled off a very big Tri-State Conference win early in the season, beating RPI 25-12.
RPI came into the season with a big roster and some experience, and certainly plenty of potential. Marist also has bolstered its numbers and looked fairly polished on the day.
William Paterson has won the Tri-State Conference, defeating RPI 34-19 in Sunday's championship match to vault WPU into the national playoffs.
Paterson came back from a 16-10 halftime deficit to defeat a very intelligent and savvy RPI team.
"They came at us very hard," said WPU Head Coach Kisset Chirengende. "RPI is a really good team."
RPI shocked pretty much everyone with a 30-19 defeat of the US Merchant Marine Academy Sunday to move on to the Tri-State Conference Men’s DII final.
Ten conferences have confirmed their Men's DII College conferences, with three more to go.
Here's a rundown of what has happened so far.
(Photos by Sara Hoener, Villanova Rugby, and Kelly Williams)
