The Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference (PMRC) has named its playoff competitors, and eight teams spanning from San Diego to Pullman, Wash., will converge on Stanford March 28-29.

The three-division conference was waiting on two games this past weekend. In the South, the outcome of Arizona State vs. Arizona was to decide whether the Sun Devils or UC Santa Barbara extended their respective seasons. In the teams’ first meeting, ASU triumphed 40-5, but the Wildcats had surged in the second half of league play. Arizona all-star Amy Naber dotted down four tries en route to the 45-34 victory, a result that afforded UCSB the seed to playoffs.

In the West, UC Davis and Chico State played their make-up match, and the former won comfortably, 41-12, to finish 4-2 on the season. Chico State and Cal both finished 1-5, but the Golden Bears were four bonus points better in the standings.

Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference Playoffs
Saturday, March 28
10:30 a.m. Game 1: Chico State (West 4) v Central Washington (North 1)
12:30 p.m. Game 2: UC Davis (West 2) v UC San Diego (South 1)
2:30 p.m. Game 3: Stanford (West 1) v UC Santa Barbara (South 2)
4:30 p.m. Game 4: California (West 3) v Washington State (North 2)

Sunday, March 29
9:30 a.m. Game 5: Loser Game 1 v Loser Game 2
11:30 a.m. Game 6: Loser Game 3 v Loser Game 4
1:30 p.m. Game 7: Winner Game 1 v Winner Game 2
3:30 p.m. Game 8: Winner Game 3 v Winner Game 4

The conference playoffs will not name a champion, and that’s intentional. There is ambiguity at the national playoff level, and the conference doesn’t know how many seeds it is receiving or where those seeds will be sent in the Round of 16.

“With that information, we would be able to gear playoffs toward seeding at the [western] sites – Stanford and New Mexico,” PMRC Competitions Chair Heather Smith indicated. “But we don't know how many seeds will go to each location. And we don't know if [USA Rugby] will just have our teams play teams regionally, meaning our best teams will be playing each other in the first round of USA Rugby playoffs – which might end up happening.”

These cross-divisional games will help rank the conference’s top teams and provide some flexibility when details on the national playoffs are released.

“So, we will provide [USA Rugby] with our top two teams, hoping that they aren't put in the same Round of 16 bracket, as both are capable and deserving of moving on to the next round,” Smith continued. “It also is unclear if Stanford and UNM will play at home regardless of their rankings. Then I wouldn't be surprised if our 3rd-5th ranked teams end up at the location closest to them.”

But first, there are some very important, eagerly awaited games to be played, and Goff Rugby Report will be on site to cover them. Stay tuned.