ELLENSBURG, WASH — Central Washington University Athletics announced today that it has discontinued sponsorship of men’s and women’s rugby as varsity sports, effective at the end of the current academic year.
Director of Athletics Dr. Dennis Francois said the university administration arrived at the decision after months of careful consideration, citing numerous factors, including the uncertainty resulting from pending state budget cuts.
He thanked the many coaches and athletes who have helped the CWU men’s and women’s rugby programs establish themselves among the nation’s best over the past decade.
“This was a very difficult decision, and this news is incredibly disappointing for our rugby student-athletes, coaches, and our department as a whole,” Francois said. “I want to be clear that this decision is by no means a reflection on the student-athletes or coaching staffs who have helped these programs perform at an extremely high level year after year. Their success in competition and in the classroom speaks for itself.”
Francois pointed to additional factors that led to the decision to forego the sponsorship of varsity rugby at CWU, including increased operational expenses and the structural deficit the university is facing as a result of lower post-pandemic enrollment.
After weighing each of these financial considerations, CWU Athletics performed a comprehensive analysis of its current sport offerings and determined that it could no longer continue varsity sponsorship of the rugby programs, which were both elevated to varsity status in 2014-15.
CWU will honor all current rugby athletic scholarships for the 2025-26 academic year and provide support to help these student-athletes navigate the transfer process, should they wish to enroll elsewhere for degree completion.
For more information on the recent changes within the athletic department, please refer to the comprehensive FAQ available here.
Francois added that CWU Athletics will continue to focus on providing the resources required to maintain academic and athletic excellence for its remaining 13 NCAA championship sport programs.
All Comments
I see this in two ways: first, most college/university rugby programs are not varsity and the players aren’t on any sort of athletic scholarship. At one time, decades ago, NO school had varsity status in rugby. No school had a edge on any other, except for the numbers of players out of a student body that could be recruited to play. Many schools have rugby alumni financial support regardless of varsity versus club status. On the other hand, the fact that Central Washington has dropped varsity status for rugby is disheartening. Now the players are going to have to come up with other means of support. This isn’t anything new, though. For decades, the support of rugby by all the various schools that have the sport has been hot and cold. I can look at my former school as an example, but also two universities near to where I live that I have given financial support to as well as having refereed numerous matches, and one where I coached for a few seasons back in the 1980s. For no good reason at all, the goal posts were not allowed to be put up at one of these schools for this season by the powers that be. At the other, there was an issue post Covid about having a trainer available for games, so for one season, there was no home matches for either the men’s or women’s sides. Things like that don’t help programs that have no real school support other than alumni.