The Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference (MARC) is the fourth league to join the reconstituted American Collegiate Rugby Association (ACRA) for the fall 2020 season. MARC administers 10 women’s colleges from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
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Sam Hoegle, coordinator for MARC women’s DII colleges, explained that the competition used to be a hybrid that allowed cross-divisional play between its DII and small-college members. Teams would then separate for the post-season, following either the USA Rugby DII Fall College Championship pathway, or joining NSCRO (now named National Collegiate Rugby, NCR) for its national 15s playoffs. But then USA Rugby’s reorganization and bankruptcy saw MARC’s membership divide. The DII schools now comprise the entirety of MARC and will compete in ACRA, which remains connected to USA Rugby. The small colleges have moved to the Eastern Penn (EPRU) conference and will compete in NCR, which operates independently of USA Rugby.
MARC has picked up an important new member: Salisbury University. The Maryland team was a member of the Capital conference, which contested its local 15s season in the fall and then sent its champion (and at-large winners) to the spring regional playoffs months later. Salisbury had expressed discontent with the split-season set-up and will now play its entire 15s season in the fall. Salisbury entered the 2019-20 season as the leading contender for the 2020 DII spring championship.
For more information, visit marc-rugby.org.
MID-ATLANTIC MEMBERS
Bloomsburg University
Drexel University
University of Delaware
Kutztown University
The College of New Jersey
University of Pennsylvania
Rowan University
Saint Joseph’s University
Salisbury University
Temple University