Division 1-A Rugby (formerly known as the College Premier Division) is the highest level of men's

college rugby 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 ...

within the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and is administered by

USA Rugby USA Rugby (formally the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugby ...

. Division 1-A rugby is modeled after NCAA athletic competitions, with the 40 D1-A rugby schools divided into seven conferences: East, Midwest, Rocky Mountain, California, Big Ten, Lonestar River, and Independent. The regular season sees all teams in the conference play one another, with the two top seeds qualifying for the playoffs. Playoffs are a single-elimination format, occurring each year in April and May, with the winner of D1-A declared the National Champion. Regular seasons for most conferences are played in the spring, although some cold-weather conferences, such as the Big Ten Universities, play their regular season in the fall. The competition's first season was played during 2011 and consisted of teams from 31 schools from across the United States. The first ever match of the competition was played on Friday March 4, the

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the sport, athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's Varsity team, varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Divisi ...

hosted the

Colorado Buffaloes The Colorado Buffaloes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Colorado Boulder. The university sponsors 16 varsity sports teams. Both the men's and women's teams are called the Buffaloes (Buffs for short) or, rarely, the Golden ...

at the Arizona State University Soccer Stadium in

Tempe, Arizona Tempe ( ; ''Oidbaḍ'' in O'odham language, O'odham) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in t ...

. The 2011 final was played at

Rio Tinto Stadium America First Field (formerly Rio Tinto Stadium and referred to as The RioT) is a soccer-specific stadium in Sandy, Utah, United States. It is the home of Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Utah Royals of the National Women' ...

, in

Sandy, Utah Sandy is a city in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, located in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. The population was 96,904 according to the 2020 United States census. Sandy is home to the Shops at South Town shopping mall; the Jord ...

, on the 21 May 2011. Several players who have excelled in the top-level competitions in

have also represented their country as part of the

United States national under-20 rugby union team The United States national under-20 rugby union team, for sponsorship reasons known as the AIG Men's Junior All-Americans, is the United States' junior rugby team at the national level. The U-20 team has competed at the IRB Junior World Champion ...

or the All Americans rugby union team.

Formation

History of college rugby in the U.S.

A group of British Army officers organized a game of rugby against the students of

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

(

Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada) in 1865; the Canadians were so enamored of the game that they decided to continue to play football by the Rugby code. In 1874 McGill organized two games of football against

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

, one was played under Harvard's rules, the other under "McGill" rugby rules. In late

1874 Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes The Bronx. * January 2 – Ignacio María González becomes head of state of the Dominican Republic for the first time. * January 3 – Third Carlist War: Battle of Caspe &n ...

, the

team traveled to Montreal to play McGill in rugby, and won by three tries in front of 2,000 spectators. In 1875 Harvard athlete Nathaniel Curtis challenged

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

's captain, William Arnold to a rugby-style game. Columbia,

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

and

were persuaded by Harvard to play football according to the

Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...

code in 1876. These four colleges formed the Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA), an organization that eventually expanded to become the "

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

." In fact, the governing body of all American intercollegiate varsity sports, the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) traces its roots to the IFA and is thus a product of rugby rather than any of the sports it now governs. By 1886 the Yale coach

Walter Camp Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American college football player and coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage a ...

had modified rugby's rules in order to solve the problem of tackled players lying on the ball by introducing a series of four downs to gain ten yards; ironically in the same year the

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...

in England solved the same problem by requiring that tackled players release the ball. This is still one of the most fundamental differences between Rugby Union and American Football but one further modification, that of allowing one forward pass per down, was suggested by the Notre Dame coach

Knute Rockne Knute Kenneth Rockne (; March 4, 1888 – March 31, 1931) was an American football player and coach at the University of Notre Dame. Leading Notre Dame for 13 seasons, Rockne accumulated over 100 wins and three national championships. Rockne is ...

which, when accepted in 1905, gave rise to that distinctly American form of football. USA 1924 rugby team

Around the turn of the century American football was being frowned upon for its violence. Publication of graphic photographs of a harsh game between

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

and the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

caused a stir; President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

was forced to insist upon reform or abolition of the game. During this period of uncertainty, rugby made a brief but important reappearance in many colleges, most notably at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

and at

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

. It was Stanford that supplied most of the players to the two US Olympic rugby teams (

1920 Events January * January 1 ** Polish–Soviet War: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. ** Kauniainen in Finland, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its ow ...

and

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

), along with Santa Clara University and the University of California, who claimed fame by winning both gold medals. As 1924 was the last time the Olympic Games staged a rugby competition, this made the USA the defending Olympic champions when rugby was re-introduced after almost a century at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. In 1934, there was only one official rugby body in the United States, the Eastern Rugby Union, with a total of 9 member teams. By 1950, there were 30 clubs in the US, existing only in small pockets on the East and West Coasts. Duke rugby 1968 02

It was not until the mid-1960s that rugby began to re-appear with regular fixtures and competitions; the game suited the mildly anarchistic temperament of American College students of the period; it required minimal costs for the individual, the style of the game provided constant action, there was an emphasis on enjoyment rather than winning because rugby was not part of the now rigidly institutionalized athletic system that American Universities had developed. The formation of the United States of America Rugby Football Union (USARFU, now

) in 1976 was a major organizational milestone for the sport in the US, and by 1980 there were over 1,000 clubs nationwide. In 2011, there were 2,433 clubs in the United States with more than 88,000 registered players, approximately 40% of which are college players (about three-quarters being male and one quarter female).

Formation of Division 1-A

Prior to the formation of Division 1-A, there had been some difficulty in determining how many teams each territory would send to the ''Sweet 16'' tournament, as the relative strengths of the rugby teams in each territory fluctuated over time, and despite the disparity in the levels of rugby, it was politically difficult to deny a union any playoff bids, even though the team that came third or fourth in a more powerful territory might be a better side. Further problems occurred because of the different competitive seasons across the continent; in the East the league season is played in the fall while in the South and West spring is the primary season, so this structure was frequently open to criticism. Because of these issues, and to raise the level of rugby in the consciousness of the American public,

restructured Division 1 college rugby. In 2010, several of the top college teams agreed to form the College Premier League to begin play in spring 2011.USA Rugby forms a College Premier League
The Roar March 17, 2010 USA Rugby and the top colleges believed that an elite level college rugby competition would make it easier to get college rugby onto TV and attract sponsors. D1-A Rugby secured sponsorships in 2012 with World Rugby Shop and Veloce. USA Rugby also believed that a higher level college competition would develop players to potentially play for the U.S. national team. The governance of collegiate rugby was split and diverged in 2021.

National Collegiate Rugby National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) formerly the "National Small College Rugby Organization" ("NSCRO") is a rugby union governing body in the United States. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, NCR was created in 2007 by Chip Auscavitch and Steve Coh ...

(NCR), formerly NSCRO, emerged as a rival by expanding beyond small colleges to include the higher divisions. The umbrella of the USA Rugby Collegiate Council includes College Rugby Association of America (CRAA), among several other organizations. In 2021, there were five men's DIA conferences plus independents under USA Rugby/CRAA. Two men's conferences that played DIA in 2019 joined NCR in 2021.

D1-A Championships results

Collegiate Championship results prior to D1-A Formation

The earliest claims to a national title go back to the mid-1960s when ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' Magazine started demonstrating an interest in Collegiate rugby. During the 1965-1966 season, the

University A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

of Notre Dame won several cups and tournaments and, in the absence of a bona fide national championship, ''Sports Illustrated'' named them unofficial Collegiate Rugby Champions. The next year, under the authority of USARFU, Notre Dame played a match on April 8, 1967 against

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

at Memorial Stadium for the unofficial national championship, again as a result of both teams being highly rated by ''Sports Illustrated''; Cal won 37-3.

National Invitational Championship

National Collegiate Rugby Championship

The first official National Collegiate Championship series began in 1980. Rugby in the United States is divided into territorial unions (the Mid-Atlantic,

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas North America Countries on the western side of North America have a Pacific coast as their western or south-western border. One of th ...

, the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

, and the

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

). Each of these unions organized collegiate rugby into "Division One" and "Division Two" league competitions, generally with promotion and relegation between the divisions. Between 1980 and 2010 each Territory qualified Division One and Two teams for the ''Sweet 16'' of a D1 and D2 National championship.

was dominant in Division One for the 31 years that the competition was run in this format, winning 25 titles.

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

won three titles; Harvard,

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system. SDSU is ...

, and

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

each won one D1 national championship.

Participants

Below is the list of Division 1A conference participants for the 2024–2025 season.

East

Mid-West

California

Rocky Mountain

Big Ten

Lonestar Conference

Independent

Former Conferences

PAC Rugby Conference The PAC Rugby Conference was a college rugby conference composed of four schools from the Pac-12 Conference that competed against each other in Division 1-A Rugby. It was formed in 2012 with six teams, with conference play beginning in February 2 ...

* Red River Conference

Rankings

Notes: * 2012: Cal was not included in the D1A rankings because it withdrew from D1A mid-season. * 2013: Utah was not ranked because its rugby program was suspended by the school. Central Florida, and Bowling Green were new to the rankings; they had been ranked #17 and #19 respectively in D1-AA during the previous 2012 season. * 2014: Army was ranked low, due in large part to the team's suspension during the season. * 2023: No final D1A rankings were released so rankings listed above of week 1 from the 2023–24 season

Seasons

2011 season

;Notable events * First Season of the College Premier Division * Funding for Cal Rugby, which previously was announced would be dropped, was restored after additional funding was raised by donors, alumni and fans. * Life University participated in its first playoff game in school history * BYU hosted its first rugby playoff game in club history. * BYU and California played for the national championship for the 6th consecutive year (2006-10 in USA Rugby Collegiate Tournament, 2011 USA Rugby College Premier Division) ;Regular season Records and final standings for 2011. x-Conference champion
y-Qualified for playoffs
Gold = national champion
Silver = national runner-up
Bronze = national semifinalists ;Playoffs and final ;After the season * Tennessee and LSU moved from D1-A to join other SEC schools in the newly formed D1-AA

Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference The Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference (SCRC) is an annual college rugby competition played every spring among 10 universities from the Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, ...

. * Dartmouth moved from D1-A to join other Ivy League schools in the newly formed D1-AA Ivy Rugby Conference.

2012 season

;Regular season Records and final standings for 2012. x-Conference champion
y-Qualified for playoffs ;Playoffs and final ;After the season * Nine schools from the Big-10 joined Ohio State in D1-A and formed the Big Ten Universities conference. * Texas A&M and Oklahoma were joined by several other Texas schools to form the Allied Rugby Conference, composed mostly of Big-12 South schools. * The Pacific Coast Conference was renamed the California Conference, several former D1-AA California schools were promoted to this conference, and Central Washington became an independent D1-A school. * D1-AA champion Davenport was promoted to D1-A and joined the Mid-South Conference. * UCLA, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State moved from their respective past conferences to the newly formed D1-A

.
BYU moved from Division 1A
to the D1-AA Mountain States Conference

to the

Atlantic Coast Rugby League The Atlantic Coast Rugby League was an annual college rugby competition played every spring among eight universities—seven from the Atlantic Coast Conference, plus Navy (from the Patriot League). The league was disestablished in 2016. Member sc ...

; and Rutgers moved from D1-A to the Empire Rugby Conference.

2013 season

x = conference champion and automatic quarterfinal berth
y = conference runner-up and eligible for playoffs
z = conference champion and eligible for playoffs ;Playoffs and final ;After the season * The following schools, either late during the spring 2013 season or after the season, left D1A and moved to the Varsity Cup:

Central Washington Central Washington is a region of the U.S. state of Washington between the western and eastern parts of the state extending from the border with the Canadian province of British Columbia in the north to the border with the U.S. state of Oregon i ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. * The following schools joined D1A: Wheeling Jesuit, Lindenwood.

2014 season

;Regular season ;Playoffs and final ;After the season * The Allied Rugby Conference folded. Many of the schools went and formed the Red River Conference.

2015 season

For the 2014–2015 school year, a number of conferences — particularly those in the colder northeast and upper midwest — played their regular seasons in the fall. ;Playoffs and final

2016 season

;Playoffs

2017 season

;Playoffs ;After the season The Varsity Cup folded in November 2017 when the organizer, broadcast partner and a major sponsor, Penn Mutual, withdrew their support.

2018 season

;Standings ;Playoffs

2019 season

;Playoffs

2022 season

;Standings ;Playoffs

2023 season

;Standings ;Playoffs

2024 season

;Standings ;Playoffs

2025 season

;Standings ;Playoffs

Rudy Scholz Award Winners

The Rudy Scholz award goes to the best male Division 1-A rugby player in the country. Below is a list of all prior recipients: *2016: Dylan Audsley, Saint Mary's *2017: Bryce Campbell, Indiana *2018: Connor McNerney, Navy *2019: Harley Wheeler, Life University *2020: Payton Telea-Ilalio, Saint Mary's *2021: Emmanuel Albert, Lindenwood *2022: Larry Williams, West Point *2023: Lewis Gray, Navy *2024: Wyatt Parry, BYU *2025: Oscar Treacy, CWU

References

External links

* {{Rugby union in the United States College rugby union competitions in the United States Sports leagues established in 2011 2011 establishments in the United States

Formation

History of college rugby in the U.S.

Formation of Division 1-A

D1-A Championships results

Collegiate Championship results prior to D1-A Formation

National Invitational Championship

National Collegiate Rugby Championship

Participants

East

Mid-West

California

Rocky Mountain

Big Ten

Lonestar Conference

Independent

Former Conferences

Rankings

Seasons

2011 season

2012 season

2013 season

2014 season

2015 season

2016 season

2017 season

2018 season

2019 season

2022 season

2023 season

2024 season

2025 season

Rudy Scholz Award Winners

See also

References

External links