The pools are set for the Men’s CRC Qualifier in Las Vegas, March 3-5.

There is, in fact, still room for one more team - only 23 have registered, and so one of the pools is still looking for a team.

But, with that said, here are the pools:

Pool A: AIC, Miami (Ohio), Colorado State, Ithaca 2

Pool B: Notre Dame College, James Madison, Colorado, UNLV

Pool C: Air Force, Delaware, Colgate, The Citadel

Pool D: New England College, Lindenwood-Belleville, Ithaca 1, Dixie State

Pool E: Utah, Northeastern, Pittsburgh, (One spot vacant)

Pool F: Life West, St. Joseph’s, Harvard, Millersville

The pools themselves appear to be relatively even. When we at Goff Rugby Report seed these teams, and then add up the seeds per pool, they all seems to have about the same number, about 50 (or an average seeding of 12.5). However, it’s not perfectly equal. Pool E, with just three teams (they’d have a total of 47 if you count the empty seed as #24), is really a pool of one top contender - Utah - and two other very solid teams who are capable of surprising anyone. So that’s a tough pool and, frankly, any team slotting in there will have a rough go of it.

Pool D has the lowest seed total, with only New England College considered a major contender to win it all. Lindenwood-Belleville, is new, athletic, and has nothing to lose, but doesn’t have the experience. Ithaca and Dixie State are not bad teams, but will be hard-pressed. So in a perfect world, perhaps Northeastern switches with Ithaca.

Among the teams to watch out for, AIC is far and away the favored team here. The Yellow Jackets made the final in 2015, and should win. Utah, NEC, Delaware, St. Joseph’s, and Notre Dame College are all capable of knocking off AIC on a good day.

Watch out also for Life West, young and aggressive and athletic, Air Force, which always does well in 7s, and James Madison, the defending USA Rugby DII 7s champions.

As usual, there’s at least one team without its best player because that player is with the Eagles. In this case, it could be Colorado State and Ben Pinkelman. But one player does not a team make.

This tournament will have six pools of four, with the pool winners, plus the two best second-place teams making the Cup Quarterfinals. This makes it very, very difficult to make the QFs as a second-place team in a tough pool. In addition, the forfeit score is usually listed as 14-0. That could cause problems in Pool E, where a big win over an actual opponent could mean the difference between Top Eight and the Next Eight.

With that in mind, we think that Pool C and Pool F offer the best opportunities for teams finishing second to make the quarterfinals. This is because the two best teams (Air Force and Delaware in C, and Life West and St. Joe’s in F) aren’t that far apart, so the losing team won’t be blown out, and the 3rd and 4th teams in those pools are vulnerable to a big score, thus seeing the 2nd-place team rack up a nice points difference. That said, Lindenwood-Belleville is not placed badly in this regard, and neither is James Madison.

Still, we think this is AIC’s tournament to lose.