This coming week we’ll hear more about the goings on in college rugby—where conferences will play and what organization they will join.

USCRO

You’ll remember the US College Rugby Organization, a new group that sprang up from the Liberty Conference in D1A. Looking to expand past just the Liberty Conference, USCRO looked to be a group of like-minded college teams that didn’t want to play in a spring playoff.

The original plan was to run their own competition and end the fall with bowl games. Now it appears that the Liberty teams will be joining NSCRO—using NSCRO’s organizational infrastructure to get what they want, and removing some of the responsibilities fro the shoulders of volunteers.

Teams from Rugby East were expected to join the USCRO group. What they do now is a little less certain. What is certain is that conferences that play their conference season in the fall are looking for a change. 

Others Joining NSCRO?

It will officially be called NCRO soon, maybe as early as Monday. This National College Rugby Organization will be announcing more D2 men’s and women’s conferences joining. The conference we don’t know about is the SCRC D2. The SCRC has D1AA and D2 men’s conferences, and they want to make a move together. Last we checked they hadn’t decided.

MARC has probably decided, and we’re expecting at least one more D1AA conference in that general region to join NSCRO/NCRO.

Complications

NSCRO interests were probably the least interested in voting for the new USA Rugby bylaws yesterday, and since that vote wasn’t unanimous you have to believe that some of the several NSCRO people on the now-defunct Congress voted “No” or abstained.

But now what is the next step? Will NSCRO/NCRO pay dues to USA Rugby? Will they be a part of the organization in some way, maybe as an “Associate Organizational Member” ? Because if they aren’t, and they operate completely separately, there might be some complications—difficulty touring or hosting touring sides, and maybe some obstacles to cross-divisional play. And what about those hybrid conferences? What if the teams in that conference compete under different organizations, different insurance plans, and different membership protocols? 

These are questions to be answered.

For Now

Expect 95% to 100% of men’s D2 conferences to compete under the NSCRO banner. Same goes for women D2. NIRA will continue continue on its way and continue to work closely with CRAA and USA Rugby. CRAA will have D1A and D1 Elite Women (which we’d very much like to see expand).

Several former D1A and D1AA conferences are still looking for an umbrella organization to belong to. Question—if you’re not officially part of D1A can you call yourself D1A? 

Should be interesting.