North Texas won the round robin SWC 7s tournament Saturday, beating Texas A&M in what amounted to the championship game, and earning a spot in the USA Rugby Men’s Collegiate 7s Championships.

Led by MVP performances from Jon Hiller, Michael Bliss, and Hame Havili, UNT defeated Texas A&M 31-28 to secure the tournament.

That is the last of the qualifiers for the May 23-24 tournament in Denver. Of the automatic qualifiers, 11 are confirmed to be attending - San Diego State, Central Washington, Nevada, Central Florida, West Virginia, Bowling Green, AIC, Arkansas, Miami (Ohio), Texas A&M, and North Texas. 

That leaves 13 spots open for at-large bids, and USA Rugby is confirming those teams now. It seems certain tat Sacramento State and Arizona State - two teams that finished 2nd in more than one qualifier. The 2013-14 runners up, St. Mary’s, should get a look, and so should teams that did well in the previous year’s tournament and showed well at the LVI - Utah and Lindenwood. Several qualifier runners up are expected to be part of the field of 24, but not necessarily all.

Those that have not committed to the CRC and finished second include Sac State and ASU, and also Western Washington, Yale, Georgia Tech, Kansas State, St. Bonaventure, Colorado State, Stony Brook, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Mississippi State. Texas A&M and Bowling Green finished 2nd in a tournament, but also won a qualifier. So of those ten runners up, expect at least six to go to Denver, and don’t be surprised if you see a couple of other teams that did well in qualifiers, but didn’t finish second, in the tournament, as well.

(Consider that the ACRL, SCRC, and Big Ten all had qualifiers for their final tournament, and so a winner from those qualifying tournaments might get a look.)

In the DII tournament, things are a shade simpler. There were 11 qualifiers for 12 spots. Wisconsin-Whitewater won two of the qualifiers, leaving room for an extra at-large, and word is that Vermont may not have the funds to travel. So the confirmed teams are Wisconsin-Whitewater, East Carolina, Principia, Notre Dame College, Providence, Vassar, Coast Guard, Southern Illinois, and St. Louis. 

Watch for Minnesota-Duluth to get serious consideration for an at-large bid, as they finished 2nd in two qualifiers, and that leaves space for two more.