Photo: Jackie Finlan
It’s not uncommon, but still a blemish. Washington State has relinquished its berth to the DI Spring College Round of 16. The Cougars took the Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference’s #4 seed during the April 7-8 seeding tournament at Stanford (read more), but then BYU published a bracket that showed Gold Coast #3 Arizona State in Washington State’s place.
I checked in WSU captain Alex Denzinger, and on April 12, she wrote:
Due to some funding constraints, our team decided not to attend nationals in Utah. Although, we have received an email about possible repercussions on our team if we cannot make it there. It is still up in the air until we receive word from PMRC what those specific repercussions are for whether or not we are 100% sure.
But it appears that ASU is heading to Provo, Utah, instead of Washington State. On the one hand, it’s nutty to travel from Pullman, Wash., to NorCal (PMRC), then Utah (Round 16/8) and potentially SoCal (final four) every two weeks starting April 7. On the other hand, Washington State has been to the playoffs many times and is familiar with what it takes to get there. That said, the PMRC might want to consider again the seeding tournament (which they skipped in 2017) if it means teams struggling financially.