UCLA Men's Team Announces Move to NCR But Are They Too Isolated?

05.19.2026College Men

UCLA vs Indiana in 2025. This is a matchup that could still be part of UCLA's season with the move to NCR.

Author: Alex Goff

UCLA Men’s Rugby announced late Monday that they will be competing in NCR for the 2026-27 season.

According to reports, UCLA will intend to remain registered with USA Rugby as a CRAA team, and UCLA's own press release seemed to back up that prediction. But the Bruins will be playing an NCR competitive schedule for the fall and spring, playing 15s in the fall and, it appears, according to their press release, concentrating on 7s in the spring.

"This decision is about more than just UCLA," said UCLA Head Coach Harry Bennett in the team's statement. "Over the last few years, I've had the chance to really study the collegiate landscape from multiple angles and have a lot of conversations with people across the game. I genuinely believe this move positions our players and program in the best possible environment while also supporting what I think should be a larger goal for college rugby moving forward — greater alignment, collaboration, and unity across the sport."

Bennett continued:

"We're really excited about joining NCR because it's all about creating the best possible environment and opportunities for our student-athletes. NCR has built an impressive platform through its national events, media exposure, and overall membership experience. This decision gives us the flexibility to compete against top-level opposition across the country while providing a clear pathway in both XVs and 7s competition."

Good for NCR, But What About Competition?

This is a bit of a get for NCR. They have long been pushing to garner a high-level foothold on the West Coast and NCR Men’s Director Brad Dufek was quite prominent at at least one West Coast 7s tournament, visiting team tents and engaging in intense conversations that, according to some connected with those conversations, centered around recruiting teams to NCR.

But one team does not a movement make and UCLA will be in a difficult position when it comes to competition. Sunday night members of the CRAA California Conference met and said as a group that they would not be interested in scheduling games with an NCR team such as UCLA.

If that remains the case, UCLA will have to look to NCR competition for games—Texas (Texas A&M), Oklahoma (SNU), the Midwest (Notre Dame, Indiana, Big Rivers teams), and the East Coast, which is where the vast majority of NCR D1 teams reside. Of the 31 or so NCR D1 teams from last season, 28 are in the Eastern time zone.

Certainly UCLA could look to some potential CRAA opponents outside of the California Conference, and with that in mind the Rocky Mountain Conference teams, which play a fall schedule, might be a possibility. However, all of this requires travel—air travel.

Furthermore, UCLA’s long-standing Dennis Storer Classic tournament, which was first played in 2005, will have a distinctly different look if CRAA opts not to sanction it and California Conference teams opt not to attend.

UCLA’s announcement addressed some of those concerns:

As part of joining NCR, UCLA has already begun assembling an ambitious Fall 2026 schedule featuring several of NCR's top Division I programs. The Bruins also intend to preserve key traditional rivalries through dual membership while continuing to expand their national footprint through marquee matchups and championship-caliber competition.

Other Issues Helped Prompt the Move

There are two additional factors, over and above Bennet’s statement that this is the right move, that might have had an influence. The first, and lesser, factor, is friction between UCLA and CRAA over the playoff seeding. It’s no secret that the Bruins have been unhappy with playoff seeding the last few years, and this year they were on the cusp of getting the #8 seed out of the West only to be edged by University of San Diego.

Offered a spot in the Challenger Cup playoff (which was ultimately won by Davenport), UCLA declined.

But perhaps more important is a rules change within CRAA that directly affected what players could play on the UCLA team.

In the spring of 2024 CRAA started looking at a change in eligibility rules regarding Extension programs. CRAA had already suspended recognition of consortium agreements because of alleged abuse of that system. Then the Executive Committee of CRAA started to look at Extension programs.

Extension programs are generally used as non-degree courses for professional or personal development. However, UCLA’s Extension program had been determined, within CRAA and D1A, to be a degree-seeking program administered by the same registrar as UCLA undergraduates and more traditional grad students.

This situation held until other members of UCLA’s conference reportedly raised concerns that some UCLA players in the Extension program were not attending any classes on-campus and were, in fact, not seeking a degree.

This prompted a review that resulted in the CRAA Competition Committee and the CRAA Eligibility Committee adjusting their eligibility rules. Part of that reads as follows:

Requirement for Competition - To be eligible for competition, a student-athlete must be enrolled full-time in a degree-seeking academic program (undergraduate or graduate), defined as no fewer than 12 semester or quarter hours. Graduate-level eligibility requires a previously earned undergraduate degree from an accredited U.S. institution. Enrollment solely in certificate programs, professional development courses, continuing‑education offerings, or any other non‑degree curriculum does not satisfy this requirement.

(Emphasis ours)

This basically said, if you take extension courses as you seek a degree, that could be OK, but if you are exclusively an Extension student, you're not a full-time, degree-seeking student.

UCLA’s Campus Life Department asked for a pause in implementing the rule, and on May 13, CRAA sent a letter saying the rules change will go into effect for next season. Less than a week later UCLA announced that they are joining NCR.