The College Numbers Breakdown
The College Numbers Breakdown
Through all the discussion of which college conferences will join which college umbrella organization, we at Goff Rugby Report felt it was time once again to look at who is going where.
To do that we took official announcements, a little rumor, and plenty of analysis and guesswork to come up with some numbers.
We have moved some conferences from NCR to unattached because it's now reasonable to assume that at least some of the western small-college conferences might find another home given that NCR has committed to fall 15s championships. We have an asterisk on Liberty and Rugby East because it's highly possible that one or two of the teams from those conferences will opt for a different home. Four teams in Liberty—AIC, Northeastern, SUNY Oswego, and Boston College—would be leaving D1A earlier than contracted if they moved to NCR, and there's a fee for that early exit that the universities promised to pay. So we'll see if they make the move or not.
Here's our overall breakdown of teams and players per umbrella organization.
Estimated Future College Totals |
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Group | Players | Teams |
NCR | 13634 | 513 |
CRAA | 5904 | 151 |
ACRA | 1860 | 62 |
NIRA | 828 | 23 |
Unnamed Men/s D1 | 2226 | 53 |
Currently Unattached | 2966 | 97 |
Total | 27418 | 899 |
These numbers do not include the small-college teams that aren't verified as being viable (the old NSCRO numbers had as many as 237 men's small-college teams, but we went through that list and there are a lot of "pending" teams). Our estimates of players is low. We went through a long list of rosters and came up with average roster sizes. With the COVID-19 pandemic throwing everything into doubt, we decided to err on the side of being cautious. So when a conference might have had an average roster size of 30, we've dropped it to 27. The largest roster-per-team conference, the Liberty, remains so, but at a lower level than in 2019-2020.
These numbers are also completely unrelated to what is probably going to happen in 2020-2021. Take these to be relevant for the fall of 2021.
Here's the breakdown by umbrella organization:
NCR |
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Division | Conferences | Teams | Est. Players |
D1A Men | Liberty* | 19 | 1121 |
D1 Men | MARC, Chesapeake | 17 | 590 |
D1 Elite Women | X | X | X |
D1 Women | Midwest | 4 | 100 |
D2 Women | Great Waters, Upstate NY, Ohio Valley, Allegheny, Northern Lights, Illinois, SARC | 50 | 1250 |
D2 Men | Great Lakes, Great MW, Cardinals, Gateway, MCRC, Southern, Allegheny, Northern Lights, Deep South, MARC, Tri-State, NEWCRC, Rocky Mountain | 98 | 2768 |
D3 or Small-College Women | Allegheny, Carolinas, Capital, Cascades, Colonial Coast, East Penn, Great Waters, Illinois, Northern Lights, Ohio Valley, Pacific Desert, Prairie States, RNE, Texas, Tri-State, Upstate NY, Independents | 160 | 3680 |
Small-College Men | Cardinals, Chicago, Colonial Coast, Deep South, Dixie, Florida, Georgia, Great Lakes, Mid-America, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Minnesota, New England, Potomac, Southern, Three Rivers, Tri-State, Upstate NY, Wisconsin | 165 | 4125 |
Total | 65 | 513 | 13634 |
CRAA |
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Division | Conferences | Teams | Est. Players |
D1A Men | California, PAC, Mid-South, Red River, Rocky Mountain, Independents, Big 10, Rugby East* | 40 | 2320 |
D1 Men | X | X | X |
D1 Elite Women | Independents | 4 | 170 |
D1 Women | Big 10, Blue Ridges, Florida, Northeast, Pacific Desert, Pacific Mountain, Rocky Mountain, Texas, Independents | 68 | 2244 |
D2 Women | Capital, Carolinas, Florida, SIRC, Pacific Desert | 39 | 1170 |
D2 Men | X | X | X |
D3 or Small-College Women | X | X | X |
Small-College Men | X | X | X |
Total | 24 | 151 | 5904 |
ACRA |
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Division | Conferences | Teams | Est. Players |
D1A Men | X | X | X |
D1 Men | X | X | X |
D1 Elite Women | X | X | X |
D1 Women | X | X | X |
D2 Women | Tri-State, NEWCRC, MARC, RNE | 62 | 1860 |
D2 Men | X | X | X |
D3 or Small-College Women | X | X | X |
Small-College Men | X | X | X |
Total | 4 | 62 | 1860 |
NIRA |
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Division | Conferences | Teams | Est. Players |
D1A Men | X | X | X |
D1 Men | X | X | X |
D1 Elite Women | X | X | X |
D1 Women | NCAA D1 | 8 | 296 |
D2 Women | NCAA D2 | 7 | 252 |
D2 Men | X | X | X |
D3 or Small-College Women | NCAA D3 | 8 | 280 |
Small-College Men | X | X | X |
Total | 3 | 23 | 828 |
Unnamed Men's D1 |
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Division | Conferences | Teams | Est. Players |
D1A Men | X | X | X |
D1 Men | MAC, Heart of America, NCRC, Lonestar, Gold Coast, Pac West, Florida | 53 | 2226 |
D1 Elite Women | X | X | X |
D1 Women | X | X | X |
D2 Women | X | X | X |
D2 Men | X | X | X |
D3 or Small-College Women | X | X | X |
Small-College Men | X | X | X |
Total | 7 | 53 | 2226 |
Unattached or Undeclared |
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Division | Conferences | Teams | Est. Players |
D1A Men | X | X | X |
D1 Men | SCRC, Ivy League, Independants (Iowa Central, Univ. Notre Dame) | 18 | 756 |
D1 Elite Women | X | X | X |
D1 Women | X | X | X |
D2 Women | Cascade, Great Lakes, Lonestar, MAC, Rocky Mountain, West Coast, SoCal | 42 | 1260 |
D2 Men | SCRC, Independents, Rocky Mountain | 15 | 400 |
D3 or Small-College Women | X | X | X |
Small-College Men | Lonestar, NCRC, NorCal | 22 | 550 |
Total | 11 | 97 | 2966 |