Reports are that the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference (MARC) Women's D2  league is joining the American College Rugby Association, ACRA, to manage its league and playoff competition.

ACRA was formed about seven years ago and operated women's collegiate rugby in the Northeast, working hard to produce a fall-centric competitive cycle. Once USA Rugby developed a fall playoffs for women's D2 college, and ACRA kind of went dormant, but with the massive changes in who is running the college game, ACRA is back. With Vassar Head Coach Tony Brown heavily involved, the Tri-State Conference and the New England Wide Collegiate Rugby Conference have both announced they are in ACRA.

Now it's MARC's turn, and we can expect one or two more. Interestingly, all three of these conferences have men's counterparts that have joined NCR. But, as Brown told Goff Rugby Report, NCR offers a solid pathway to a national championship, but for most ACRA teams, a national championship isn't what they're about. These are teams with small budgets and a lot of passion for the game. They want to play within their league, and maybe travel a little bit for some inter-conference play, but they don't want to devote large amount of time and money to a national playoff.

This is the case despite the fact that Vassar in the Tri-State, Coast Guard in the NEWCRC, and Bloomsburg and Temple in the MARC have all challenge or won national D2 playoffs. 

"We want to remain local," said Brown of the ACRA model.

In the NEWCRC, the players were polled on that mattered to them. A majority of men's players in the NEWCRC were interested in national playoffs. But among the women's teams, 85% said national playoffs were not important.

"We'll be able to have a longer season, and we'll have bowl games, and we'll be able to manage our finances better," said Brown. 

The MARC Women's D2 Conference includes:

Bloomsburg
Delaware
Kutztown
Scranton
St. Joseph's
York
Temple
Rowan
Penn
Salisbury
TCNJ