A new DIAA college rugby conference has been announced as the Chesapeake Collegiate Rugby Conference.

The Conference is made up of college rugby programs that have succeeded at the DI or DII level. 

The founding members are the following, from north to south:

• Mount St Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md.

• Towson University in Towson, Md. 

• University of Maryland in College Park, Md.

• Georgetown University in Washington DC

• Salisbury University in Salisbury, Md.

• James Madison University in Harrisburg, Va.

• University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va.

• University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va .

• Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.

The conference will play in DIAA, and several of the teams have been successful in past years. Towson and Salisbury are regular visitors to the DII national semis; JMU won the 2014-15 DII 7s championship, 

The formation of the conference was a combination of looking for tough, competitive games every weekend, but also to provide regular competition for their 2nd sides. It was a source of frustration for many of these programs to have regular conference games end up as forfeits, or, if they were played, to have no B-side game accompanying. 

The programs involved played in four separate conferences in the fall of 2015: Mt. St. Mary's comes from the Capital DIII conference, and Mary Washington come from the Cardinals DII conference, with MSM actually looking to win a National Small College title. Salisbury, Towson, and Georgetown are the three strongest teams from the Capital DII conference.  Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Maryland come from DIAA conference ACRL. JMU comes to the Chesapeake after one season in the Keystone Conference in DIAA. 

The schools will partner in a 7s series this spring - the Capital 7s Series. They have developed plans for all-star play and have secured a sponsor in Canterbury USA.

Tim Brown at Mary Washington said the individual schools have provided plenty of support for the move.

"The schools are starting to see rugby as an important sport," said Brown. "The schools are all supporting each other, and the coaches have had three meetings to just break bread and talk. It's been a very enjoyable process."

One of the interesting aspects of this conference is that teams are being asked to move toward having a dedicated rugby field - no confusing additional lines from other sports.

The conference has a new website: www.CCRUGBY.org.