NCR Looking to Help UCLA's Schedule by Recruiting More SoCal College Teams

06.29.2026College Men

NCR's timeline of how their events go during the academic year.

Author: Alex Goff

Faced with the very real issue of newly-recruited UCLA not having much in the way of a season, NCR has launched a campaign to recruit more Southern California college teams to NCR.

A recruiting deck was submitted to a number of college teams in Southern California. Most of the deck is very straightforward information about NCR—membership, dues levels, and major events.

It also includes a full page touting its All-Star event as a "High-Performance" event.

But what would perhaps catch even the most casual observer was NCR's proposed schedule.

Playing 15s in the fall with a championship in the fall has been a raison d'être for NCR, and, in fact, during a discussion between GRR and NCR CEO Jeremy Treece about three years ago Treece said that any unification within the college rugby space would have to start with 15s in the fall and 7s in the spring.

However, in order to recruit Southern California teams, NCR has proposed a "SoCal Cup" to run over six weeks in February and March, with the rest of the spring dedicated to 7s qualifier tournaments leading to the CRC event.

There is currently one CRC-qualifying 7s tournament on the West Coast, which is a D3 event in Northern California. There are tournaments in Idaho, Colorado, and Texas. But a season of three or two 7s tournaments in March and April would likely require major travel, or a new tournament.

the proposed schedule leaves it open for what these Californian teams would do in the fall.

According to the deck submitted, NCR is looking to recruit University of San Diego, Cal State Long Beach, and UC Santa Barbara into their D1, and several more teams in D1AA and D3.

This is an interested shift from NCR, which has historically been adamant that the only right way to run collegiate competition is to have 15s in the fall and 7s in the spring. This is a departure from that stance.

Meanwhile, several sources within college teams in California have told GRR that they will not be playing UCLA because the Bruins will still be using players that CRAA has ruled are ineligible. One SoCal CRAA team, as far as we know, will play them. And while there is the "Scholars Cup" set to include Brown, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, and UCLA, this proposal from NCR is perhaps an indication that UCLA Rugby as a whole are concerned about filling their schedule.