In the age of Covid-19, colleges and universities are releasing their plans for the impending fall 2020 semester and some include the cancelation of athletics seasons. TRB will track teams’ and/or leagues’ changing schedules and seasons in this document and update it with a high school tab once those competitions start announcing.
[
7.8 UPDATE: WPL became the first women’s senior club competition to announce that it will not be playing fall rugby]
Bowdoin College (Brunswick, Maine) is the reigning National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) Division III National Champion, and will not be playing this fall:
Some NCAA and NAIA athletic departments are eliminating sports teams or suspending seasons. Check out this continually updating resource. So far, Bowdoin is the only school sponsoring NCAA women’s varsity rugby that has announced the cancelation of fall sports’ seasons.
Further south along the Atlantic coast, The College of New Jersey (Ewing Township, N.J.) belongs to the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference and American Collegiate Rugby Association (ACRA). On June 30, the team posted the following message (Facebook Link):
On Friday, our team was informed that our Fall 2020 season will be cancelled because of the pandemic.
Though we all are deeply disappointed, we respect the College’s decision and understand that adherence to it will protect students, professors, janitors, and food service workers, as well as students’ families and coworkers.
This virus disproportionately affects those in low-income households and communities, Black and brown folks, those with compromised immune systems, those with unstable living situations, and those without health insurance.
We hope the College administration and student body will use the time, energy, and funding previously used on athletics and activities to support the students that are struggling to stay safe at this time.
We remain hopeful that we’ll take the field as a team soon enough. We are thinking of you all in these uncertain times. Stay safe.
The following list does not include teams that play all or the majority of their league seasons in the spring. So, for example, the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) suspended all varsity sports (and by extension, club sports) for the fall, but the member institutions that would have been affected (Cal State Monterey Bay, Chico State, Humboldt State, San Francisco State) generally start contesting league games in January. Spring sports have not yet been suspended, unless otherwise noted.
UPDATES: NO FALL RUGBY*
Big 10 (CRAA)
Purdue University (Ind.)
Capital (CRAA)
NOVA Community College (20-21 season CLD)
Eastern Penn (NCR, Small College)
Franklin & Marshall College (Pa.)
Gettysburg College (Pa.)
Swarthmore College (Pa.)
Ursinus College (Pa.)
Mid-Atlantic (ACRA)
The College of New Jersey
NIRA
Bowdoin College (Maine)
New England Wide (ACRA)
Babson College (Mass.)
Brandeis University (Mass.)
Champlain College (Vt.)
MIT (Mass.)
Mount Holyoke (Mass.)
Smith College (Mass.)
Wellesley College (Mass.)
Williams College (Mass.)
Other
Johns Hopkins University (Md.) – aligned with Capital conference in past but was not listed in the league’s CRAA announcement
Rugby Northeast (ACRA)
UMass Lowell (Mass.)
Tri-State (ACRA)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (N.Y.)
* Teams listed are those that play their 15s season in the fall. Teams that contest their 15s season in the spring, but whose fall friendly seasons have been canceled, are not included in this update because the spring has not yet been suspended, unless otherwise noted.
