The South Independent Rugby Conference (SIRC) is home to the reigning Division II College Spring Champion, Tulane University. The Louisiana school will set the expectations for performance in this eight-team division, which begins league play on Jan. 26.
RELATED: Spring’s counterpart: Fall champion Vassar
The competitions are divided into two pools of four, and teams play each once before crossover playoffs on March 23-24. The USA Rugby DII College Spring Championship begins with a Round of 16, meaning two regional championship sites east of the Mississippi. There, teams from SIRC will meet fellow title-vying programs from the Capital (Maryland-Virginia-D.C.), Florida and Mid-America. The two 2-0 teams will then move onto the final round against the two western regional victors on May 4-5.
In one SIRC pool is Tulane, UT Chattanooga, UT Knoxville and Alabama, and they’re all active on Jan. 26. The pool with Kennesaw State, Georgia, Emory and Georgia Tech gets going on Feb. 2. Many teams will attend Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day tournament for extra competition. Full schedule below.
Life University is an affiliate member and fields both varsity and JV teams, the latter of which has a few friendlies scheduled against DII SIRC teams. There’s also a SIRC 7s tournament in Marietta, Ga., on April 13, which will presumably serve as an automatic qualifier for 7s nationals.
SIRC SCHEDULE
SPRING 2019
JAN 26
Alabama @ UTC
UTK @ Tulane
FEB 2
Emory @ Kennesaw St
Georgia @ Georgia Tech
Life @ Alabama (f)
UTC @ UTK
FEB 9
Alabama @ Tulane
UTC @ Life (f)
(10) Kennesaw St @ Life
FEB 16
Emory @ Georgia
Kennesaw St @ Georgia Tech
Alabama @ UTK
Tulane @ UTC
FEB 23
Georgia Tech @ Emory
Kennesaw St @ Georgia
MAR 23
Conference crossovers
APR 13
SIRC 7s @ Life
APR 20-21
DII College Spring Championship: R16/8
MAY 4-5
DII College Spring Championship: R4/Final