West Coast runner-up Santa Clara receives a bye through the first round of spring playoffs. / Photo: Jackie Finlan
Adapting to the vicissitudes of the college rugby landscape takes diligence, and with the Women’s DII College Spring Championship poised to kick off, we’re reminded of the challenges that face aspects of the women’s game.
RELATED: Women’s DII College Spring Bracket • DII Spring Rankings • Women’s Rugby Results: April 1-2
The Spring Round of 16 begins with 14 teams, compromising the playoffs from the start. Three DII conferences are contributing six (instead of eight) teams to the western portion of the bracket. Last year was complete, so what changed? Let’s take a look at the health and make-up of the three western conferences this year:
Cascade (Pacific Northwest)
– Seattle forfeited every match in the fall portion of the season
– Lewis & Clark withdrew after the fall portion of the season
– In February 2017, Reed and Southern Oregon started forfeiting
– Western Oregon aligned with NSCRO post-season
– Remaining teams (2): Western Washington, Eastern Washington
Gold Coast (Southern California)
– Claremont & Occidental aligned with NSCRO post-season
– 2016 leaders UC Riverside and USC forfeited at least two games apiece
– Remaining teams (3): UC Irvine, Grand Canyon (first-year program), Long Beach State
West Coast (Northern California)
– Humboldt promoted to DI for 16-17 season
– CSU Monterey Bay aligned with NSCRO post-season
– Remaining teams (7): Fresno State, Santa Clara, UC Santa Cruz, UN Reno, St. Mary’s College, Sacramento State, Univ. San Francisco
That leaves 12 teams along the entire Pacific Coast that didn’t play a compromised season (i.e., one without forfeits) or align with the NSCRO post-season. And all of the aforementioned notes were known by February, and we started to reference them en masse in the first DII spring ranking.
So it’s a judgment call – do you fill out the Spring Round of 16 for the sake of filling it, or offer first-round byes to two teams? That said, the UC Irvine playoff site (which will see the host and Santa Clara with byes into the spring quarterfinals) could have featured a Long Beach State (which finished *just shy* of Grand Canyon) vs. St. Mary’s College (West Coast Plate champ) match. But planning that game hinges on proper notice and therefore understanding of what’s happening on the ground.
Hindsight is 20/20, but the point is that a fluctuating landscape needs constant attention, especially because this first-round bye situation has real consequences. It’s no secret that for one team, the spring is very expensive – just revisit Tulane’s situation last year. Finances become just as important as depth and talent. It’s something Fresno State, for example, is acutely aware of. The West Coast champion is traveling 1,000 miles to Bellingham, Wash., this weekend for two games, while the West Coast runner-up is heading to Irvine (265 miles from Fresno) for one game.
The logic of that placement was raised and USA Rugby explained a rotating bye set-up between the three Pacific Coast conferences. It’s a proactive solution (that would have been useful if circulated early in the season) and should be used if indeed this region can only produce six of the eight teams required of it.
This says nothing of the talent or validity of the teams participating in this weekend’s spring playoffs, but it is important to note that the fall competitions don’t encounter these issues. Since there are many more women’s DII colleges competing in the fall, and schedules/playoff sites are named well in advance, forfeits and byes in the Fall Round of 16 are generally not an issue. The fall hosts a Round of 32 that might include some byes, but the subsequent round is sound. That’s part participation numbers and part administration being in tune with its constituency.
This is what the country is dealing with right now. When the fall champion and spring champion contest a national final in Marietta, Ga., celebrate the teams that are competing, and remember that imperfect paths led there.