There have been a couple of changes to the College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) Women’s Division I 15s playoffs. They are still kicking off tomorrow, with quarterfinals on Thursday-Friday, March 26-27, followed by semifinals and consolation matches on Saturday-Sunday, March 28-29. The DII West Coast conference is also contesting its title match on Saturday. All games will occur inside Steuber Rugby Stadium, home to Stanford University Rugby in Palo Alto, Calif., and will be live-streamed (semifinals include commentary). Victors advance to the April 11 finale, which will pair with the opening round of the Pacific Four Series in Sacramento, Calif. [lead photo: Jeff Dalton @jeffd2u]

RELATED: March 17 Update

Grand Canyon University beat Arizona State University 34-13 last Saturday to close out DI Pacific Desert conference play. Both were slated for regional playoffs, but the Sun Devils have withdrawn. Grand Canyon is traveling as Pacific Desert #2 — the #6 seed overall — and will play host Stanford at 1:30 p.m. PT in Friday’s quarterfinals. Had Arizona State made the trip to NorCal, the team would have played #1 Life University in the Round of 8. Consequently, Life gets a bye through the quarterfinals and will compete on Sunday only.

Division II is essentially contesting its semifinals this Saturday. UC Irvine and CSU Northridge are playing for the Pacific Desert title, and Santa Clara and San Jose State report to Palo Alto for the West Coast trophy match. The two victors will contest the DII championship in Sacramento on Friday, April 10 with 7:30 p.m. PT kickoff.

Everything else remains the same:

SCHEDULE

DI QUARTERFINALS
All times local PT

Thursday, March 26
6 p.m. #2 BYU (Ind)  v #7 Cal Poly SLO (Pac Mtn #3)

8:30 p.m. #5 Claremont (Pac Desert 1) v #4 Western Washington (Pac Mtn #2)

Friday, March 27
#1 Life BYE

1:30 p.m. #3 Stanford (Pac Mtn #1) v #6 Grand Canyon (Pac Desert #2)

Saturday, March 28
10 a.m. DI Semifinal between Thursday victors

12:30 p.m. DI Consolation between Thursday losers

3 p.m. DII West Coast conference final
Santa Clara Univ v San Jose State Univ

Sunday, March 29
10 a.m. DI Semifinal: Life v Stanford/Grand Canyon
12:30 p.m. DI Consolation between Friday losers

Frustration abounds, and one can sympathize will all of the teams’ perspectives. From a scheduling point of view, games on Thursdays are pretty unorthodox, but it needed to happen in order to accommodate the number of teams, the desire for a recovery day between two matches, and BYU’s inability to play on Sundays.

The schedule has fluctuated, and in no small part due to the late release of the post-season format and locations for regionals and final. CRAA’s social media is heavily promoting its 7s national championships, but there is very little on the women’s 15s playoffs and finals. At the time of print — a day prior to playoffs kicking off — there’s nothing on a schedule or participating teams on CRAA or USA Rugby sites.

 

The aforementioned grief comes from the coaches themselves, and while they might be, regrettably, familiar with this lack of communication, there are real consequences. Life, for example, was notified on Monday that it was receiving a bye through the quarterfinals. Flights could not be altered and so the team is spending an extra two days in California. That’s tens of thousands of dollars that has to be justified to an athletics department. Life is the undeniable favorite to win the DI title, which will mean a second trip to NorCal for April 11. Yes, the Running Eagles have assets, support, rugby recruits, numbers — and that comes with pressure to prove to their institution that they’re worth the investment.

And the blame doesn’t fall on Arizona State for pulling out. DIA/DI Elite dissolved after the spring 2025 season, and so the remaining teams — Life and BYU — are being tacked on to the DI playoffs. USA Rugby experimented with a similar set-up — DI Elite and DI teams in a combined Round of 16 — last decade and teams withdrew, because what’s the point of a team that finished third in its DI conference facing a program that has national team pool players in it? Neither side benefits, and that’s why they were in two completely different divisions. To be fair, Life and BYU are in separate tiers, too. The Running Eagles beat the Cougars 95-7 earlier this month.

 

To CRAA’s credit, the organization is just trying to find Life and BYU games since DIA dissolved. The teams have taken different routes to fill in their schedules, as Life has fielded teams in college and senior club competitions, and BYU is competing in both CRAA and National Collegiate Rugby. Teams need to play games, and their organizing body has provided them with games. And the April 11 finale in Sacramento does feature a “DI Challenger Bowl” before the DI championship. It acts like a 3rd place match, but it’s just nomenclature. It would have made sense to have a Life vs. BYU exhibition match, and then a DI collegiate club final.

There will be plenty to celebrate these coming weeks. Lots of good rugby will be played, and that will distract from the discontent in various corners of the pitch. Lessons will be learned and hopefully applied forward. There is so much potential for this CRAA competition to form this richly competitive and recognizable West Coast identity. All of the pieces are there; they just need to knitted together and promoted.