Utah Vipers (seen here in Vegas) play Black Ice in the tight DI Rocky Mountain. / Photo: Jackie Finlan
This upcoming weekend is easily the biggest in 2018 thus far. The last of the spring-season colleges are naming their 15s champions, meaning that USA Rugby can finalize brackets by close of business Sunday. The Gold Cup enters stage three as eight DI clubs play cross-geographic union matches. The tournament season, 7s and 15s, launches into action.
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COLLEGE
In DI Elite, BYU and Central Washington renew their home-and-away series, but this time it’s the Cougars who are in season. The Wildcats won the fall game 55-0 in Washington and have played one fixture so far: the Vancouver Rugby Festival a month ago. The BYU match is the only one on the current schedule. For BYU, this home game against the NIRA team is the last test before the spring playoffs.
Penn State (Big 10 7s), Life and Lindenwood (Life University 7s) are all playing 7s this weekend.
In Division I, the Pacific Mountain will provide the final pieces to the Spring Round of 16 puzzle, as it pits the north and west teams against each other. Host Stanford plays Oregon State, and Washington State plays UC Davis on Saturday, and Sunday will name final seeds. The Rugby Breakdown will be on site Sunday.
Division II is naming four league champions this weekend: Gold Coast, Mid-America, South Independent and West Coast. Gold Coast and SIRC have traditional final four weekends planned, while Mid-America gave #1 John Brown a bye through Saturday to play the winner of Kansas State and Arkansas Sunday. The West Coast is a single final between Fresno State and UN Reno. The Rugby Breakdown will on site for the West Coast final.
CLUB
We’re still loving on the Gold Cup, which for the second time this year is hosting a full slate of games. This time, the Mid-Atlantic heads to the Midwest, and Atlantic North flies to the Red River. Check out our coverage from round two.
We’re also interested in the Beantown vs. Philadelphia friendly this weekend. Philly leads the DI Mid-Atlantic but isn’t included in the Gold Cup (which is reserved for the top-two teams in a competitive region) due to the two-year commitments required.
NorCal will name its finalists this weekend, while Pacific South, Pacific Northwest, Carolinas and True South play their final round of league games this weekend.
HIGH SCHOOL
Among high schools, we’re looking forward to gauging those teams and leagues finally emerging from the winter. Western New York puts a quartet of teams on the pitch, and Ohio has a full slate of DI and DII games keeping the state busy. NorCal, SoCal and Pennsylvania also have a bevy of games scheduled across multiple levels. See the full lineup.
TOURNAMENTS
The tournament season has sprung, with a variety of 7s and 15s events for every level, but we’re mostly interested in the qualifying events. NSCRO and USA Rugby will be awarding automatic berths to their respective 7s national championships this weekend, and we’ll be checking in with those victors.