NCRC Expands, Adds Second Division

The Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference (NCRC) powered by Serevi is set to undergo a major expansion next season as a number of smaller enrollment schools in the Pacific Northwest join the conference in what is being called the Northwest Cup. At least seven teams have accept with five or six more schools from Western Washington and Oregon having expressed interest and are expect to join. Teams confirmed for the competition include Gonzaga University, North Idaho College, WSU-Tri Cities, Evergreen State College, Pacific University, and Whitman College. Idaho has elected to drop from the DI-AA competition to the new division.

The Northwest Cup will sit under the current DI-AA competition and each of the schools will have an opportunity to earn promotion to that competition through a playoff with the lowest finishing DI-AA team if they choose to pursue promotion. To help ease travel on the new teams the competition will be structured into geographic pods. The hope is that 12 teams will be divided among four divisions.

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According to conference commissioner Matt Hudson, "as this competition grows travel will become more and more localized, it's very feasible that in the near future there might be an entire division of schools in the Portland, Oregon area or Puget Sound area and those teams travel would be localized within their division until the playoff rounds."

Hudson went on to add that all of the participating teams will be equal members of the conference with other NCRC teams and will have full access to NCRC resources and will be eligible to participate in the NCRC Loggers program. Teams will also beat featured on the league's website.

The NCRC is also hoping that expansion will help persuade campuses that currently don't have rugby teams to adopt the sport according to Hudson. "By putting all of college rugby under the NCRC umbrella it allows us as a league to focus on what our mission should be which is to grow college rugby in terms of participants as well as the quality of coaching, playing and refereeing."
"For me this just seemed glaringly obvious and needed, we may not get every single small college on board the first year but that invitation will remain open indefinitely, we want all the colleges in the area working together under one set up, under the NCRC banner."

Many of the teams joining the Northwest Cup are familiar with other NCRC teams. Several of the schools have participated in the NCRC 7s in the past with varying degrees of success. Among the new teams is WSU Tri-Cities, which recently announced major funding for the program.