New Midwest D1A Conference Announced
New Midwest D1A Conference Announced
With the imminent dissolution of the Mid-South D1A Conference, a new conference will be formed for the 2023-24 collegiate season.
The Midwest Rugby Conference will include Lindenwood, Davenport, Adrian, and McKendree in a slightly more geographically compact competition. Lindenwood (St. Charles, Mo.) and Davenport (Grand Rapids, Mich.) move from the Mid-South and will be joined by former NCR D1 teams Adrian College (Adrian, Mich.) and McKendree University (Lebanoon, Ill.).
Lindenwood Head Coach Josh Macy has been spearheading the effort and added that the key goals of the conference are to drive student experience, and play more better rugby, and create a foundation for others to join.
"At least in the Mid-South, we could have done a better job with student experience," said Macy. "We didn't have a trophy; no events; and only did an all-conference team as awards. Competitively, Adrian and McKendree have a clear message that they are aiming high and want to set themselves apart from the myriad of new varsity teams who are maybe slow-playing themselves in terms of the level where they compete."
This conference is also working to address the ongoing discussion within collegiate rugby as a whole and about playing more 15s rugby at a higher level.
"Teams out there just aren't playing enough matches and can't hope to develop players that way," added Macy. "If you research some of the schedules out there, teams are playing five matches with some of them down a division. In the same breath, those same teams complain about players not getting looks. The MWRC teams just want to play as much as possible.
"Lastly, players want to play, and to make the most of budgets you have to maximize geographic opportunities. Everyone deals with distance, and you need as many regional teams together as possible to drive a robust schedule, raise standards, and create an experience our students want. That being said, we want to lay a foundation for more teams to join and for us to create divisions at different levels of play and hyper-locally to keep things moving along. Any team is welcome."
The Midwest Rugby Conference will release its 2023-24 schedule later this month.
