Three conferences held their championships last weekend, and now the combination DI Elite/DI spring tournament knows its participants. The Round of 16 and quarterfinal games will be contested Friday-Sunday, April 21-23 at Stanford, UC Davis, Life and Penn State.
UC Davis repeated as Pacific Mountain conference champion, defeating Stanford 52-19 on Sunday. Chico State had a thrilling weekend, as the Wildcats beat Oregon 27-26 in the third-place semifinal, and Washington State 22-21 in the third-place match. Both Chico State and Washington State – which defeated Cal 69-15 on day one – are moving onto regional playoffs.
UVA also repeated as Mason Dixon champion and started with a 69-0 semifinal win over Kent State, followed by a 48-7 title win over Virginia Tech. James Madison, which lost 57-5 to Virginia Tech in the semifinals, bested Kent State 17-5 for the third and final seed to regional playoffs.
Arizona is the Gold Coast champion after topping UC Santa Barbara 52-31 on Saturday and then Arizona State 45-22 in the Sunday final. The Sun Devils advanced to the title match after beating UC San Diego 39-22 in the final four. Both Arizona schools will now travel to California for their Round of 16 games.
USA Rugby has not released the official bracket, and the following pools/match-ups are based on a previous draft. Things may change to balance out the pools, so use the following for its list of qualified teams. The DI Elite teams, however, know their sites.
DI ELITE NATIONAL / DI SPRING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Round of 16 / Quarterfinals
April 21-23 @ four locations
Palo Alto, Calif.
Lindenwood (DI Elite) v Washington State (Pac Mtn 4)
Stanford (DI Elite / Pac Mtn 2) v Arizona (Gold Coast 1)
Davis, Calif.
BYU (DI Elite) v Chico State (Pac Mtn 3)
UC Davis (Pac Mtn 1) v Arizona State (Gold Coast 2)
Marietta, Ga.
Life (DI Elite) v TBD *
Central Florida (Florida 1) v UVA (Mason Dixon 1)
State College, Pa.
Penn State (DI Elite) v James Madison (Mason Dixon 3)
Notre Dame College (at-large) v Virginia Tech (Mason Dixon 2)
* Seed was for Florida #2 – the University of Florida – but UF cannot attend.