The University of Oklahoma rugby team is officially out of the DIA playoffs, having reportedly voluntarily stepped down from eligibility.

The Sooners would have been banned from the playoffs anyway as a DIA Disciplinary Committee found they had used three ineligible players during their undefeated run in the Red River Conference. USA Rugby and DIA Rugby discovered the transgressions when they were reported by program sponsor Alan Velie and incoming coach Doug Newhauer as a self-report following the ouster of former Head Coach Jason Horowitz for different reasons.

Mike Andersen, Cale Stumpff, and Colby Townsend all played in conference games despite not being students at Oklahoma. The transgression bypasses simple missed paperwork, or fielding a current student who had used up his eligibility. These players were not enrolled at OU at all.

So OU will forfeit four Red River games that fielded at least one of those players, and as a result are no longer Red River champions. 

(According to a letter from Horowitz to USA Rugby, Anderson played in what was considered a developmental or JV game against TCU; the score of that game was later used in league standings. Horowitz acknowledges using non-students on a developmental team and in some non-league games, and playing Stumpff by mistake in a league match on September 27, 2014. He also says Townsend played in two matches, and that Horowitz was unaware that Townsend was not an OU student.)

Oklahoma has been deemed ineligible for any and all post-season play in the Spring of 2015, and is on probation for the 2015-16 season. The team has a right to appeal but, reportedly, has chosen not to (repeated attempts by Goff Rugby Report to contact the Oklahoma University rugby program in the last two weeks have not produced a reply).

This means no DIA playoffs, and should mean no Varsity Cup for Oklahoma. It is unclear whether Oklahoma will be barred from their April 4 Varsity Cup game against Utah. According to USA Rugby’s ruling, they should be banned from “all post-season” and the Varsity Cup, which calls itself a championship, and in which teams describe it as their post-season choice, surely falls under that category. 

Meanwhile, Horowitz has been hit with a 52-week ban from any rugby activity by USA Rugby for his role in the eligibility issue, and in addition for acts of misconduct (verbal abuse of referees as told in a variety of reports, and which he was, in part, dismissed from the OU program).

Horowitz has admitted fielding the ineligible players, but is appealing the ban.

The DIA playoff spot reserved for the Red River champion (who will now be Texas A&M) will be made an at-large bid.