Seventeen teams will punch their tickets to the Collegiate Rugby Championship over the weekend, the penultimate round of qualification ahead of Selection Saturday, on April 20. All eight divisions will see teams qualify Saturday and Sunday:; Men’s and Women’s Premier Cup, Division I Club, Division II and Small College.
The Big Ten conference will crown a women’s champion Saturday at the Wolverine 7s in Ann Arbor, MI, with the winner punching its ticket to the Premier Cup, and the runner-up qualifying for Division I Club. Two-time defending 15s national champion Michigan is a contender, as are Iowa, Indiana and Notre Dame.
The Midwest Conference’s qualifier series rolls into its second stop Saturday in Minneapolis. Minnesota, Iowa State, Northern Iowa and Wisconsin are playing a round-robin over three stops, seeding a semifinal/final at the final venue, April 13 in Cedar Falls, IA. The champion will qualify for the Women’s Premier Cup, and the runner-up will head to Division I Club.
The seventh of eight open Men’s Premier Cup qualifiers, Monumental 7s, is being hosted by the New England Free Jacks Saturday in Quincy, MA. Babson, American International College, Kutztown and Siena enter as top seeds in the 16-team bracket, the Beavers and Golden Bears having already won qualifiers. Dartmouth, Fordham, Michigan and St. Bonaventure also look like dark horses.
The Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference Championship in Knoxville, TN will qualify teams across three men’s divisions. Several DI teams have been active so far this spring and are gunning for the Premier Cup, including Clemson, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. Memphis looks like the team to beat in Division II.
Women’s DI Club bids will be claimed at the Fool’s Gold 7s in Boise, ID Saturday and at the Upstate New York Conference Championship in Olean, NY. Someone will also punch a ticket to Women’s DII at Fool’s Gold, as well as the Mid-America Conference Championships in Columbia, MO the Prairie States Championship in Vermillion, SD, and Sunday’s Tri-State Championship in Stony Brook, NY.
In Men’s Small College, there are open automatic qualifiers at Niagara University in Lewiston, NY, Babson College in Wellesley, MA, and Founders Field in Pittsburgh, PA. Tri-State will crown its champion Saturday at Fairfield University in CT.
The lone qualifier in Women’s Small College this weekend is the Ohio Valley Championship at Denison University in Granville, OH.
