[Updated: 3/12/26] There are three major collegiate competitions to track during the spring. College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) is moving toward 15s and 7s championships, the latter of which will also involve National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) teams. National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) is also naming its 7s champions, and that annual tournament will occur the same weekend (April 25-26) as the CRAA 7s championship. NCR 7s is in Boyds, Md., and CRAA 7s is in Indianapolis. [lead photo: Zoey Muniz @zoeymuniz.photography]

FIFTEENS

First, 15s, because those CRAA DI and DII champions will be named on April 11 in Sacramento, Calif. USA Rugby and CRAA announced that those title matches (and a DI Bowl Challenger game) will be curtain-raisers to the Pacific Four Series test matches inside Heart Health Stadium. Read more.

The Division I regional championships occur Thursday-Sunday, March 26-29 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. Those games are essentially quarterfinals and semifinals, and will produce the finalists for the April 11 title match.

Claremont Colleges clinched the #1 Pacific Desert seed after a 36-9 win against UCLA last weekend, completing an undefeated regular season. The Foxes know that they’ll face the Pacific Mountain #2 team in its Thursday, March 26 quarterfinal. (Note: The regionals schedule is staggered. Half of the bracket will play a Thursday/Saturday schedule, and the other half will play a Friday/Sunday schedule.)

The conference gets at least two seeds to regionals, and that second spot won’t be decided until March 21, when Grand Canyon and Arizona State face each other. Both teams are 5-1, but the Lopes have two extra bonus points in the standings. Suffice to say, it’s a must-win, and whoever wins will head be on the road to NorCal less than a week later. (*3/12 Update: Pacific Desert now has three seeds, and both ASU and GCU will advance to regionals).

Another must-win situation occurs in the Pacific Mountain South (aka, NorCal) this Saturday. Stanford travels to Cal to renew this classic rivalry, and needs to beat the Bears to remain in playoff contention. [3/16 Update: Stanford beat Cal 26-5]. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has been the difference maker this season. The first-year DI team beat Stanford by two points early in the season, and then Cal topped the Mustangs 36-26 last Saturday. A Cal win on Saturday would mean the Bears and Cal Poly SLO take the league’s two seeds to regionals. With that said, if this group ended up getting three seeds to the playoffs, then Stanford, Cal and Cal Poly SLO would be superb representatives.

The northern half of the Pacific Mountain conference — aka, Pacific Northwest region — has named its champion: Western Washington. The Vikings are undefeated under the guidance of co-captains Lily Airey and Lydia Nelson. Center Clementine Radoff features heavily in the box scores, both in tries scored and conversion kicks, while front row Keeahna Clary, No. 8 Airey and wing Keely Kliewer follow in tries scored. The Bellingham program is heading to Abbotsford this Saturday for a little tune-up.

As previously mentioned, Life University and BYU are expected to feature in the DI post-season, and they faced each other in Marietta, Ga., on Feb. 28. The Running Eagles triumphed 95-7. Head coach Ryszard Chadwick called out Nevaeh Elliott, Lissa Salisbury, Azhinaye Barner, Dorothy Vunipola, Amenekina Latu, Bella Vogel, Hallie Fewless and Megan Chang as big contributors in the win. Last weekend, the Life University club team traveled to Houston and beat sHARC 116-0. (* Life’s situation seems to be in flux; more to come.)

* McKendree University was originally involved in the CRAA postseason, and their involvement would have completed an eight-team bracket. But their withdrawal means a a seed was reallocated to the Pacific Desert. Stay tuned for more information as it’s discovered.)

Division II involves two conferences: Pacific Desert (SoCal) and West Coast (NorCal). Both conferences name their champions on March 28.

The Pacific Desert is between UC Irvine and CSU Northridge. They’ve already played each other twice and split decisions (although the March 7 rematch favors the Anteaters a bit more convincingly, 27-12).

Santa Clara is undefeated in the West Coast and played its toughest match (31-26) against UN Reno. The Wolfpack split games with San Jose State, which currently sits in second in the standings, but the Spartans still have back-to-back games against Santa Clara on March 14 and March 21. In other words, the conference still has important matches to play before naming finalists for the March 28 title match. [3/16 Update: San Jose State beat Santa Clara 18-10.] 

It would make sense to have at most semifinals and final at the DII level, just because of the number of teams that are able to play full-regulation 15s. But it appears that there might be playoff rounds beyond the Round of 4 (see below graphic). As with all things, await official info from CRAA.

 

 

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SEVENS

Two weeks after CRAA names its DI and DII 15s champions, the organization will host its 7s championships in Indianapolis on April 25-26. There is are Premier and Challenger brackets for the women. The former will feature invited NIRA teams and Life University; Challenger will be DI and DII club teams. CRAA has been announcing competitors through its Instagram page and at the time of print, Dartmouth, Harvard and Life are confirmed for the Premier, and Stanford and UC Santa Barbara are in the Challenger. Claremont won the DI Pacific Desert qualifier in the fall and will presumably compete in Challenger.

In years past, teams have been able to compete in both the CRAA and NCR’s CRC 7s events — Army is a prime example — but in 2026, they occur on the same weekend. NCR does a good job of tracking and publicly announcing teams (see: National7s.com) as they qualify for the Boyds, Md., tournament, so just follow @nationalcollegiaterugby for timely updates. At the time of print, the following teams have qualified for the four, 16-team women’s divisions:

PREMIER
American International College (MA)

DIVISION I-AA
Univ Florida
James Madison (VA)
Univ Iowa

DIVISION II
Bowling Green (OH)
UNC Charlotte (NC)
Coastal Carolina (SC)
Univ Texas San Antonio

DIVISION III
Drury (MO)