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National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) is nearing the regional 15s stage, and conferences are holding their playoffs and naming their champions for deeper post-season play. Some leagues name their champion on regular-season standings, others hold a final, and others still have the participation numbers to hold more than one round of playoffs. A series of updates begins with DI and DI-AA, followed by DII and then DIII in separate posts. Watch NCR’s championship home page, which has brackets for the four sets of divisional regional championships occurring Friday-Sunday, Nov. 14-16. [lead photo: 2025 nationals / Jackie Finlan/TRB]
DI
Has already been decided (read more) and the national semifinals will take place Saturday, Nov. 14. It’s Southern Nazarene vs. Lander in Springfield, Mo., and Penn State vs. Walsh in Indianapolis. The national championship follows the DI-AA final on Saturday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. CST in Houston.
DI-AA
DI-AA regionals (aka, national quarterfinals and semifinals) occur at Springfield, Mo., and Canton, Mass., from Friday-Sunday, Nov. 13-15. We do know which the quartets featuring at both locations but will leave that reveal to NCR. They include conference champions and two at-large berths. The national final is Saturday, Dec. 5 in Houston, kick off at 5 p.m. CST. The following status updates are in alphabetical order.
BIG 10 … The league names its champ on standings, but last weekend’s game between Notre Dame and Michigan lined up nicely as a de facto championship. Both were undefeated heading into the game, but the Irish kept its unblemished status with a 31-7 win. Notre Dame gets the automatic berth to regionals.
HIGH PEAKS … Boise State actually finished atop the western pool of the conference but forewent its post-season berth. Instead, Utah State took the team’s spot in the championship final, which was held at East #1 Univ. Colorado last weekend. The Buffaloes dominated in the 76-0 win and move on.
LONE STAR … Texas A&M just beat Texas 30-10 to end the regular season undefeated and should be taking the conference title to regionals.
MIDWEST … Univ. Northern Iowa closed out an undefeated season with a 125-0 win against Iowa State. The Panthers head to regionals as league champ.
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NORTH ATLANTIC … Quinnipiac University aligned with this conference for its first season with NCR and earned an at-large bid to regionals. The Bobcats most recently beat reigning national champion Northeastern 34-10 to cap an undefeated season, a result that certainly piqued attention.
RUGBY NORTHEAST … Northeastern is undefeated against conference peers and will surely pull important lessons forward after its loss to Quinnipiac in a competitive friendly last weekend. The conference voted against a title match, and so the Maddogs move on as the standings leader.
SOUTH ATLANTIC … The conference held a proper final four weekend, even with the absence of the Florida teams, which opted out of the post-season this year. Durham, N.C., served as the host site for last Saturday’s semifinals and Sunday’s finals.
Top-ranked North Carolina State beat #4 James Madison 53-14 in the semifinals, while #2-seeded Virginia shut out UNC 29-0. That set up the highly anticipated rematch between NC State and Virginia in the final. When the two met early in the season, the Wolfpack triumphed (read more). But the Hoos had the goods on Sunday, beating NC State 22-10 for the title. Faridah Aboueid led with four tries on the weekend and was named forwards MVP in the final. Brielle Karjane earned Back of the Match honors on both days.
NC State got an at-large berth to regionals and will head to Canton, Mass., alongside Virginia.