It's decision time within American college rugby, especially among the men, as the fall season approaches.

Teams and conferences have to make a decision about which organization they are to be affiliated with, and what 15s postseason plans they will pursue. It's a little less complicated since the news that ACR teams will join the College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) and run their postseason under CRAA.

That means that in the spring, there will be a playoff pathway for spring-playing DIAA teams, DIA teams, and women in DI and DII. That spring-fall split is mostly geographical, with teams in the West and parts of the South and Southwest preferring their playoffs in the spring, and teams in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest preferring 15s playoffs in the fall. The Midwest is split somewhat either side of the Mississippi.

CRAA will have its fall postseason weekend, too, but that will center around the Women's D1 Elite, which has moved exclusively to fall play, and Women's DI Fall and Women's DII (which came about with ACRA joining CRAA). There is expected to be some bowl games in men's college at that finals weekend, too.

National Collegiate Rugby, meanwhile, will oversee a D1 playoff, D1AA-Club playoff, D2 playoff, and Men's Small College playoff culminating in December. NCR has the vast majority of men's D2 and Small College teams and conferences under its umbrella and playing in the fall. There are a few D2 teams playing in the spring under CRAA, and a few small college teams under NCR playing in the spring.

But More About D1

Here's how we see the conferences aligning so far (with regular season time period in parentheses):

D1A: Mid-South (fall and spring), Rocky Mountain (fall), Big 10 (fall), Red River (fall/winter/spring), PAC (spring), California (spring), Rugby East (not all teams ... fall), Independents (two teams, both spring).

The California is adding a couple of teams, while Grand Canyon, formerly a California Conference team, is going independent. One team from Rocky Mountain is expected to move to being an NCR independent (Utah Valley). Rugby East is 11 teams that, as far as we can tell, will be made up of three or four DIA teams, six or seven NCR D1 teams, and one NCR D1AA-Club team in Virginia Tech.

Total D1A teams: 42, maybe 43.

NCR D1: The higher-level D1 competition for NCR includes Liberty Tier 1, Big Rivers (new conference of varsity programs), six or seven Rugby East teams, and one independent. All play their 15s season in the fall.

The Liberty has split into tiers, with the 2nd tier being D1AA-Club. The Tier 1 has brought in Brown, Harvard, and Dartmouth from the Ivy League. 

Total NCR D1 teams: 25 or 26. 

D1AA: CRAA's D1AA conferences include NCRC (fall and spring), Heart of America (fall and spring), Lonestar (fall and spring), California Conference (spring; formerly Pacific Western), Gold Coast (spring).

The Pac West is now basically the 2nd tier of the California Conference. We're not fully sure how the Gold Coast fits in as it's a hybrid conference. NCRC is split between CRAA and NCR teams.

NCR's DIAA-Club conferences include Liberty, MARC, NCRC, and Southern Conference.

The SoConn added a D1AA tier (they used to be just D2 and Small College). NCRC is split. Liberty is easily the largest group. There is also one team (Virginia Tech) out of the Rugby East.

Independents. The Mid-American Conference (MAC), SCRC, and Florida conferences are all independent. They don't have a direct affililation for a postseason. There is talk that the SCRC will join NCR, as their D2 conference has already done so.

Total CRAA DIAA Teams: 30-34 (reply hazy on all of the Gold Coast teams)

Total NCR D1AA Teams: 26 ... maybe as many as 30

Total Non-Affiliated DIAA teams: 23