The West Coast Rugby Conference will know its finalists after this Saturday, and the Pacific Desert Rugby Conference has two 5-0 teams just waiting to face each other and name a champion. These two women’s Division II leagues anchor the College Rugby Association of America (CRAA), which will name its 2025 champion on April 18-19 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
RELATED: CRAA DI 15s Championship Update
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo tops the West Coast standings with a perfect 6-0 record. The team was meant to end with Cal Poly Humboldt on Saturday, but that game was canceled. The Mustangs quickly pivoted for a Sunday friendly against DI Stanford in Palo Alto and put up a solid fight in the 36-33 decision to the Cardinal.
This Saturday is the final round of the regular season, and it will decide which team faces Cal Poly SLO in the March 29 conference championship, to be held at San Jose State. Santa Clara and UC Santa Cruz are the two contenders. If the former wins its match against San Jose State this Saturday, then it’s game over — the BRUWS advance to the West Coast final. If Santa Clara loses, and UCSC beats UN Reno this Saturday, then two teams will be 4-2 on the season, and a tiebreaker (typically point differential, but sometimes head-to-head) will decide the second finalist.
View this post on Instagram
The West Coast championship is a one-day affair with several pieces. The 3rd- and 4th-place teams will also contest a match to determine the top-four teams in the league, but there are no post-season ramifications for spring 2025. There will also be a 10s tournament for those four teams on the circuit this season.
Both finalists will move onto the next stage of playoffs, which occur Friday-Saturday, April 18-19 at Stanford University. Friday is for semifinals and Saturday is for the CRAA DII championship. The DIA and DI finals will also be held at Steuber Rugby Field in Palo Alto.
The Pacific Desert will be on the other side of the semifinal bracket, but it’s TBA as to whether there will be one or two representatives at Stanford. The caveat is Florida’s Eckerd College, which received a direct berth to the 2024 DII CRAA final. It did not go well for the Sirens, BUT, if the St. Petersburg program participated in the 2025 postseason, it would receive a direct berth to the semifinals instead of the final, and that makes more sense.
No official word yet, but Eckerd hasn’t really built a spring schedule that looks like it’s building toward postseason contention. It’s played Univ. South Florida and then Ave Maria last weekend in 7s and 10s. This Saturday is an intrasquad scrimmage, and then there’s nothing on the books until April 5. If the Sirens are out, then Pacific Desert will send two teams to the April 18-19 finale.
View this post on Instagram
The SoCal league has regular-season games through March 29, but the top-two teams have already sifted to the top: reigning champ UC Irvine and also-undefeated Long Beach State. Their February match was postponed during a bout of heavy rain and was rescheduled for tonight (March 11), but alas, more rain. Third attempt is this Saturday but there is still rain in the forecast. Fingers crossed.
Hopefully it makes it onto the calendar — for obvious reasons, like officially naming a champion and seeding teams into the spring final four; and for less obvious reasons, like the value of quality competition. Several teams in the Pacific Desert have been playing 7s, 10s and 12s, and both UC Irvine and Long Beach State would sharpen each other in a strong 15s match.
This piece includes several what-if scenarios, which are painful considering these women’s colleges are a month-plus from their spring 15s championships. CRAA is the organizing body and hopefully circulates some public information shortly.