The National Small College Rugby Organization (soon to be renamed NCRO), has announced that the Cardinals Collegiate Rugby Conference (CCRC) has joined the organization.

The move is not unexpected as the CCRC has been operating as a hybrid conference—Men's D2 and Men's Small College—for some years now. Created in 2013 when the Virginia Rugby Union dissolved, the Cardinals Conference has grown to 23 teams and has boasted the last two Men's D2 champions, Queens University Charlotte in the fall of 2019, and NC State in 2018. VMI just barely missed a national title in 2017.

The Hybrid fall schedule included competition among D2 and Small College teams with the aim of limiting travel requirements while increasing more competitive head-to-head matches. At the NSCRO level, Christendom College, along with Washington and Lee University, have consistently competed in the Final Four round the past few years in the Champions and Challenge divisions, respectively. 

Tthe majority of teams in the conference have been members of NSCRO for several years and the CCRC is very familiar with NSCRO operations and level of support," said Cardinals Conference Commissioner Tom Trumps. "The CCRC Board is most concerned with providing the best collegiate rugby experience for our college and university teams and remains convinced that NSCRO is presently well positioned to provide a high level of effort going forward.”

With USA Rugby entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, NSCRO had earlier announced it was expanding its job description to include non-small colleges, and also that it was taking over insurance and membership services for member schools.

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The Cardinals currently have seven D2 men’s teams located in Virginia and North Carolina.  They are:

University of Virginia;

Old Dominion University

George Mason University

Virginia Military Institute

Radford University;

Virginia Commonwealth University

Queens University of Charlotte.

For Fall 2020 season, CCRC is expected to drop to just four D2 College sides.  Queens Univ of Charlotte will move up to D1AA after winning the College D2 title while VMI and Radford University will compete at the NSCRO Champions level as they continue to rebuild.