The Las Vegas Invitational Men’s CRC Qualifier pool are out and they’re … interesting.

It’s wonderful to see the CRC 7s (held every year in Chester, Pa. and broadcast on NBC) opened up again to any team that wants to try, but that doesn’t mean we can’t hold the qualifier’s feet to the fire regarding seeings.

To help you along, here’s a look at our initial preview, which broke teams into three categories (Top Contenders, Watch Out, Dark Horses, and Hey, You Never Know). Let’s make it simpler, and call these categories 1 (for the strongest), 2, 3 and 4 (for the least strong).

I made it easy for them. Six teams in each category, so you should have one team from each category in each of the six pools.

How let’s look at the pools:

A: St. Joes, JMU, Creighton, Lewis & Clark

B: Kutztown, Miami, Columbia, Buffalo

C: Air Force, Georgetown, Dartmouth, Pittsburgh

D: Lindenwood, Bowling Green, Notre Dame College, Oklahoma

E: Utah, AIC, Claremont, WJU

F: Arkansas State, Stony Brook, Notre Dame University, Wittenberg

Here's how the categories are divided:

Pool A is 3, 3, 4, 4

Pool B is 1, 2, 3,4

Pool C is 1, 1, 3,4

Pool D is 2, 2, 2, 2

Pool E is 1, 1, 3, 4

Pool F is 1, 2, 3, 4

Now, I don’t have a problem if a pool has two teams from Level 3, or two from Level 4, because the differentiation is small. Can you guarantee that Columbia is better than Georgetown (as I suggested)? No, of course not. Not the top teams are obvious. Anyone paying attention knows who the top teams are. And the bottom teams are obvious. Anyone paying attention knows who those teams are.

So with that in mind, I have to say that whoever seeded this competition did pretty well, except for two pools. Pool B and Pool F are, I think, right on. Pools C and E are a bit off, but not by much - they just have two Level 1 teams in there, rather than a 1 and a 2. But the other two pools are inexcusably wrong.

No one with any knowledge of college rugby would say Pool A (St. Joseph’s, James Madison, Creighton, and Lewis & Clark) is a strong pool. Yes, I might have been harsh ranking St. Joe’s a 3 instead of a 2 and JMU a 3 also, but I am not that far off. Creighton and L&C are not contenders in this competition, but now, a little luck and they’re in the top knockout bracket. That doesn’t make sense to me.

And then Pool D is awful, too. All four teams are basically the second tier of the contenders. Some very good team will not make the quarterfinals. And in fact I think three teams out of this supremely tough pool will not make it - only two second-place teams will get in and the loser of Utah v AIC will be one of them.

If I’m in Pool A I am feeling pretty good about my chances. If I am in Pool D, I’m mad.

And this could have easily been fixed. Swap Bowling Green for Lewis & Clark and you’ve got it close to right. Swap Bowling Green and Notre Dame College for Lewis & Clark and Creighton and you’re closer. 

Nevertheless, our preview picks remain sound. Should be fun.