Teams and Comments in Men's Divisions of CRC 7s

04.24.2023College Men

dartmouth v kutztown 2022 crc alex goff 0

The NCR CRC has its men's competitions set, with brackets and pools finalized.

Premier Bracket

The Premier Men's Division is a bracket format with 32 teams. The teams play one game to advance to the final 16 with the teams that lose that first round into a consolation bracket.

There will be multiple consolation brackets as each round concludes. But here are the matchups with some comments:

Indiana vs Tennessee
Dartmouth vs Marian

All four of these teams have seen success in 7s but it does seem like Indiana, despite losing the Big 10 final, are the more polished and seasoned team.

Queens vs Air Force
Brown vs Navy

This is a Navy reserve side since they are in the D1A final. Brown has plenty of talent but overall this is a bit of a tossup bracket. Keep an eye on Air Force.

Kutztown vs Nazareth
South Carolina vs Northeastern

While USC won the SCRC, Kutztown is certainly the favorite of this quartet and is a major contender to win it all once again.

Notre Dame vs Southern California
St. Bonaventure vs Rio Grande

Here we see the cross-divisional aspect of the Premier bracket with USC and Rio Grande bumping up. Notre Dame has had some solid results this spring.

Wheeling vs Howard
Fairfield vs Thomas More

Wheeling is made for 7s.

Mount St. Mary's vs Michigan
Adrian vs Virginia Tech

This one is a bit of a tossup as all have the ability to win a few games on the run ... they just need to play as a unit and hit the ground running.

Notre Dame College vs East Carolina
Siena vs Belmont Abbey

NDC did well in 7s last spring, but Siena especially is a dark horse to watch.

Aquinas vs Iona
Mary Washington vs James Madison

Mary Washington is probably the most likely to be able to win two in a row here, but 7s is always full of surprises.

The Divisions

There is no set division for the Premier Bracket. It's mostly D1, but not exclusively.

Of the 32 teams involved, here is where they play their 15s:

Liberty D1: 7
SCRC D1AA: 2
Big 10: 3
Rugby East D1: 6
Big Rivers D1: 5
MARC D1AA: 2 (incudes Virginia Tech which is moving there this fall)
HBCU: 1
Small College: 1
Southern D1AA: 1
Southern D2: 1
Gold Coast D2: 1
Rocky Mountain D1A: 1
D1A 2nd Side: 1

Division 1

So if you're not in the Premier Bracket you might be in the D1 level. This competition goes to the more traditional pool format, with three pools of four teams:

Pool A: UMass, West Chester, Bowling Green, North Carolina
Pool B: San Diego, Missouri, Boston College, Maryland
Pool C: Clemson, South Florida, UConn, Delaware

San Diego won the R7CC last year and they certainly have to talent to do well here. Bowling Green should be solid, but keep an eye out for South Florida and, potentially, Clemson.

Division 2

It's three pools of four also for the D2 competition and the defending champs, IUP, are nicely-positioned to repeat.

Pool A: NC State, Washington U., Memphis, Towson
Pool B: IUP, Georgetown, UNC Wilmington, Chicago
Pool C: UNI, Norwich, Scranton, Auburn

Pool C looks like a tough one with two conference champs and another that just missed out. Memphi and NC State could make a splash in Pool A.

Small College

Eighteen teams are in this bracket with Christendom, Western Oregon, Cal Poly Humboldt, Babson, and Wayne State all teams we think will do well. This will be six pools of three teams, so everyone gets two pool games before moving on to the knockout rounds. The pool winners and the two best second-place teams will make the quarterfinals.

We're not sure how the remaining 10 teams pan out.

Pool A: Christendom, Coastal Carolina, SUNY Geneseo
Pool B: Babson, Western Oregon, Richmond
Pool C: Susquehanna, Springfield, John Carroll
Pool D: Endicott, Central College, Colorado School of Mines
Pool E: Wayne State, Cal Poly Humboldt, UW Stevens Point
Pool F: Maine, Loyola Md., Wabash

Pool E is the Pool of Death here.

So that's 74 teams for the men's competitions. The CRC has partnered with The Rugby Channel to show some of the games, with NCR's YouTube channel carrying the rest.