Playoff Spots Decided in NCR

11.09.2026College Men

Tennessee vs Texas A&M. Photo Will Fagan.

Author: Alex Goff

NCR has finalized their playoff brackets in men's collegiate rugby.

Here is how it all shook out:

NCR D1

Twelve teams will compete with eight facing off this coming weekend while the top four teams await them in the quarterfinals. Those top four are Brown, St. Bonaventure, Indiana, and Marian.

The bracket is split along geographic lines and so more western teams will be playing in Springfield, Mo., and Indianapolis, while the more eastern teams play in Malden, Mass, and Rock Hill, SC.

The first-round matchups are (with bye team awaiting them in parentheses):

Dartmouth vs Kutztown (St. Bonaventure) in Malden
Queens vs Fairfield (Brown) in Rock Hill

Aquinas vs Walsh (Indiana) in Indianapolis
Southern Nazarene vs Belmont Abbey (Marian) in Springfield

The addition of Belmont Abbey was a question-mark as there were other teams potentially vying for the spot. The big surprise to anyone watching and certainly to GRR in general is that UCLA is not in the playoffs. After all that effort for UCLA to get into NCR, they won't be in the playoffs.

NCR D1AA

This is a straight Round of 16 and the big question was on some of the at-large bids. Would Tennessee, Northeastern, or Texas State get a bid? Yes, they all did. Good news also for Missouri and Virginia Tech. Kansas State or JMU? No.

Here's the first round:

Bowling Green vs Iona
Missouri vs Kentucky

Texas A&M vs Oklahoma
Texas State vs Louisville

Boston College vs West Chester
Northeastern vs St. Joseph's

South Carolina vs Virginia Tech
Tennessee vs UNC-Charlotte

This group is also split along geographic lines. However, the bracket is a little more event as Boston College and St. Joe's are on one side, while Kentucky and Texas A&M are on the other. The MAC was a bit of a tossup and those teams are split.

NCR D2

Six teams are in play-in games to round out the Round of 16.

Benedictine of Kansas plays Northern Iowa (the Great Midwest took a bit of a playoff-seeds hit last year).

Miami of Ohio is at Cornell. Loyola-Chicago is at Minnesota-Duluth. (This matchup is listed by NCR as University of Chicago at Duluth, but Chicago is the GMW champion and should be in the Round of 16 and, in fact, is listed there. So we think it's Loyola.)

Waiting for them is:

Chicago, IUP, GVSU, Weber State, Memphis, Sam Houston State, Vermont, Scranton, RIT, UNC Wilmington, Villanova, and Coastal Carolina.

NCR D3

Five games are play-ins, with Xavier at Alfred State, Colgate at Holy Cross, Susquehanna at Richmond, and The Citadel at Vanderbilt. On Sunday it's Middlebury at the US Merchant Marine Academy.

Top seeds? Slippery Rock, Montana, Franciscan, and Catholic await some of these teams.