College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the auspices of the NCAA and are instead governed by National Collegiate Rugby and USA Rugby, two nationwide governing bodies. 27 women's programs participate in the NCAA.

College rugby is the fastest growing college sport in the US and one of the fastest growing sports in the nation as the number of athletes increased by roughly 350% from 18,500 in 2006 to 65,000 in 2010."Sold-Out Chicago Match Marks Rugby's Rising Popularity" , Bloomberg, October 31, 2014. Women's rugby is an NCAA Emerging Sport.See Chadwick, SS, Semens, A, Schwarz, E, Zhang, D. Economic impact report on global rugby part III: strategic and emerging markets. Researched and prepared by the Centre for the International Business of Sport Coventry University. 2010 http://www.irb.com/mm/Document/NewsMedia/MediaZone/02/04/22/88/2042288_PDF.pdf . Accessed January 2, 2022. Over 900 college teams—male and female—are registered with USA Rugby and hundreds more with National Collegiate Rugby.Forbes, "Why Pro Rugby Could Win In The United States", February 25, 2011. Over 32,000 college players are registered with USA Rugby, making college rugby the largest section of its membership.USA Rugby, "Membership Statistics, 2010–2011".

The highest profile college rugby sevens competition is the Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC). College club rugby has included several championship competitions since 1980.

Rugby has been played in universities since as early as the 1800s, but in the 1960s rugby found a foothold in colleges, led by Catholic colleges such as Notre Dame and particularly Jesuit universities such as Boston College and St. Joseph's in Philadelphia.Delco Times, , June 2, 2011. Several schools have upgraded their investments in rugby by creating programs with varsity or quasi-varsity status and funding for scholarships.

Alumni from collegiate programs make up much of the United States men's and women's national teams.

Major League Rugby implemented its first collegiate MLR Draft in 2020. Players are eligible for the draft after 3 years in college at 21 years old. Free agents can join teams at age 18.

Governance

The College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) oversees the top-level men's and women's divisions.

27 schools govern their women's teams under applicable NCAA bylaws for recruiting and eligibility, under the NCAA's Emerging Sports for Women program. The NCAA has no authority over men's college rugby.

College rugby is often called a club sport because teams are usually administered by a student club sports department rather than the intercollegiate athletics department. Some schools promoted rugby to varsity status, committing resources for scholarships and paid coaches, or given rugby an elevated status short of full varsity status.

History In the United States, college rugby was traditionally governed by (in descending order of authority): USA Rugby, geographical unions (GUs) and local area unions (LAUs) (e.g., NERFU) and administered by a College Management Committee.College Contacts , USA Rugby.

The Ivy Rugby Conference formed in 2009.About Ivy Rugby, Ivy Rugby Conference. This move signaled a shift away from the LAUs and GUs as the governing bodies for regional college rugby. By 2011 USA Rugby was urging college rugby programs to adopt new conference structures like the conferences used by their other athletic programs. In 2019, in the wake of USA Rugby's bankruptcy declaration, the College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) formed to oversee the top-level men's and women's divisions.

Play and participation

Winter and spring are the primary seasons for conferences in the Pacific, Northwest, and South regions (e.g., PAC, Southeastern); the fall is the primary season for conferences in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Upper Midwest (e.g., Big Ten, Atlantic Coast). Conferences establish playing schedules in the primary season, while in the secondary season the teams often set up friendly matches or focus on playing rugby sevens.

USA Rugby maintains player eligibility guidelines, administered by the local area unions. College players generally have five years of rugby eligibility from the time they graduate high school. On-field disciplinary issues are generally handled by the local area unions, while off-field disciplinary issues are governed by the academic institution and the local area union. USA Rugby's CIPP insurance program provides liability insurance to players, teams, administrators, and pitch hosts in exchange for an annual dues payment. Roughly one quarter of college rugby programs offer financial aid to their players."Need Scholarship? Join Scrum", New York Times, John Otis, May 21, 2014.

Outstanding college rugby players are recognized as All-Americans.USA Rugby, College Qualified All-Americans can represent the United States in international tournaments by playing on the United States national under-20 rugby union team or the All Americans rugby union team.

Divisions College rugby competition within USA Rugby's collegiate arm is divided into several tiers: The highest is Division IA for men and women Division IAA for men and Division I for women Division II for men and women

A separate organization, National Collegiate Rugby (NCR), has competition for both men and women in its own defined D1, D2 and small college divisions. National Intercollegiate Rugby Association(NIRA) consists of women's NCAA DI, II and III rugby programs that adhere to NCAA organizational rules under a sanctioning agreement with USA Rugby.

USA Rugby generally allows colleges to select the division in which the college thinks it would fit best. Most schools remain in the same division from year-to-year, but there are exceptions. Schools that have been successful in a particular division may move up but are not required to do so; likewise, poorly performing schools may move down a division, but are not required to. Successful schools may have varied reasons for declining promotion. For example, a school may prefer to remain in its current conference against traditional rivals, or a school with a small budget might resist the additional travel expense that might come from switching divisions and conferences.

Significant movement across men's divisions occurred in 2011 when USA Rugby separated Division I into Division I-A and I-AA."USA Rugby: 'What BYU won ... was a mythical championship'" , Deseret News, May 17, 2013. This new arrangement caused Division I schools to choose one or the other, with 31 schools joining Division I-A and the majority of Division I schools joining Division I-AA. Additionally, the creation of Division I-AA caused several successful Division II schools to move up to Division I-A. The evolving division structures caused significant shifts in schools between Divisions I-A and I-AA in the following years, with half of the original 31 D I-A members leaving by the end of 2013, and new schools from lower divisions taking their place.

The governance of collegiate rugby was split and diverged in 2021. The umbrella of the USA Rugby Collegiate Council includes College Rugby Association of America (CRAA), American Collegiate Rugby Association (ACRA), American College Rugby (ACR), and independent conferences. National Collegiate Rugby (NCR), formerly NSCRO, challenged the existing structure and expanded beyond small colleges to include the higher divisions. Men's and women's conferences each chose as individual conferences (in some cases, schools within conferences also chose) to align with USA Rugby or NCR.

Women Twelve women's conferences that played historically in DII left the oversight of USA Rugby to join NCR. Beginning in 2021, women's college rugby within NCR is split between Small College and an Open Division. The Open Division, which NCR now refers to as its DI, is made up of teams from these 12 conferences.

According to Goff Rugby Report, the DI Elite women's teams are part of College Rugby Association of America, and so are most women's DI conferences (eight conferences) and the independents. There are also a couple of DII or hybrid conferences within CRAA.

The American Collegiate Rugby Association is a group of four DII-level women's conferences remaining under the aegis of USA Rugby, which included 62 teams as of June 2020.

The collegiate women's programs in the NIRA operate their own regular season competition and championship.

Men In 2011 USA Rugby created a new Division 1-A with approximately 30 schools forming a new premier division.Royall Rugby, "College Premier Division Set to Launch" . Two men's conferences that played DI-A in 2019 joined NCR in 2021, as did three DI-AA conferences. Under NCR, they competed in fall 2021 as DI and DI-AA, with separate postseasons. In 2021, there were five men's DI-A conferences plus independents under USA Rugby/CRAA.

Men's DI-AA was dramatically split in 2021, with both NCR and CRAA-run postseasons in the fall. There was also a CRAA-run postseason in spring 2022. According to Goff Rugby Report, there was no way to have a sole men's DI-AA national champion in 2021–2022.

In 2021, most DII men's rugby conferences aligned with NCR.

Varsity programs

Men's varsity Majority of colleges classify their rugby programs as club sports rather than varsity sports. A growing number of universities, however, have begun labeling rugby as a varsity sport, realizing that a successful rugby program can have a net positive effect on university revenue and increase a school's marketability.Rugby Mag, College Rugby State of the Union: Part Deux, Oct. 12, 2011, http://rugbymag.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2303:college-rugby-state-of-the-union-part-deux&catid=101:op-eds&Itemid=302