The Men’s D2 college rugby season is well and truly starting this weekend and as usual you really don’t know until the cleats hit the grass.

Allegheny, Cardinals, High Peaks, Liberty, MARC, Northern Lights, NACR, SCRC all get going.

A couple of spotlights on the conferences: The old NEWCRC is now the North Atlantic Collegiate Rugby conference (NACR) with seven teams in what could be the most competitive conference in the country. 

Heading up the slate this week is probably Vermont at Norwich. Both teams were semifinals last year.

“UVM will be high-paced; they will be a challenge for us,” said Norwich Head Coach Bob Weggler. “We have players in new positions, not the depth we have had  in past years, but the boys are working hard. This year it will be all about how we develop singularly and collectively.”

Vermont Club President Roman Legere knows this is a massive challenge to open the season.

“We’re all aware of what we can achieve and feel prepared,” said Legere. “We’re proud of the standard we set last season, but we know that’s behind us now. Our focus now is on staying grounded, putting in the effort, and taking it one game at a time.”

One game at a time, but it’s a big game.

Don’t overlook Maine at Coast Guard, as Maine has had a coaching change and Coast Guard could be poised to move up. BU at UNH is a challenge between two teams that have found some success and perhaps sees this game as a step up for one of them.

Allegheny Conference Opens as D2 Champs Win

Other Conferences of Interest

The Northern Lights conference is well and truly back, finally. Minnesota was one of the toughest states in the Union in terms of COVID bounceback, and that really hurt rugby there and also in the Dakotas (which is part of the Minnesota-heavy league).

This is a hybrid league with D2 and D3 teams. There’s a Competitive division, which includes NDSU, UM-Duluth, and defending champs MSU Mankato, but also includes D3 teams such as St. John’s and St. Thomas. It’s a robust eight-team league.

High Peaks is another hybrid league that seems to have found a happy medium with good, competitive teams. This league covers an enormous area. East to West (Idaho State to Northern Colorado) is about 550 miles. North to South (Montana State to New Mexico Tech) is about 1,100 miles. 

By out estimation the league covers at least 200,000 square miles, which is like having a league that covers all of New England, New York state, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania—although with a lot less traffic.

School of Mines at Western Colorado, New Mexico Tech at Northern Colorado (now there’s a road trip), and Colorado College at Denver opens the season, but this will be another good league to see blossom.

Great Midwest

The GMW actually starts in a week, but we’re keeping an eye on this because there’s a chance for some changes.

Loyola has a nice crossover match with Grand Valley State which will be a good test for both. It’s actually fairly rare to see teams from different conferences in D2 play each other. The conference and playoff schedule is pretty packed into the fall so there’s not a lot of time for that. It's actually more comment to see D2 teams warm up against D1 teams.

Kickoff Noon Central. Live Stream Here>>

Witness UNI against Iowa State. This has been a habit of Northern Iowa, to play against tough D1AA teams and they benefit from it. Northern Iowa is putting it together but it’s a reloading year, said Head Coach Zeus Ramirez. 

“We feel good at the new recruits are getting their feet under them. It should be a good year.”

Gateway oopens up with a featured Friday night game Washington at SLU on TRN.