NSCRO Release
The Cardinals Collegiate Rugby Conference (CCRC) is pleased to announce their commitment to the NSCRO Open Division D2 Competition beginning in Fall 2020. The Cardinals Collegiate Rugby Conference was created in 2013 when the Virginia Rugby Union dissolved. The conference quickly grew to 23 teams and expanded its footprint to North Carolina (NC State; Queens and Duke) and Maryland (UMBC and Naval Academy developmental sides) as it adopted an “inclusive” philosophy and Hybrid scheduling system. The Hybrid fall schedule included competition amongst D2 and Small College teams with the aim of limiting travel requirements while increasing more competitive head-to-head matches. As the CCRC looks back over the past few years, it is proud of the success with the Hybrid scheduling system and postseason play that resulted in three different teams making the National College D2 championship matches the past three seasons (VMI 2017 Runner-up; NC State 2018 National Champs and Queens U of Charlotte 2019 National Champs). Additionally, on the NSCRO level, Christendom College, along with Washington and Lee University, has consistently competed in the Final Four round the past few years in the Champions and Challenge divisions respectively.
When asked about the Cardinals’ commitment to NSCRO, Commissioner Tom Trumps commented that “the majority of teams in the conference have been members of NSCRO for several years and the CCRC is very familiar with NSCRO operations and level of support. The CCRC Board is most concerned with providing the best collegiate rugby experience for our college and university teams and remains convinced that NSCRO is presently well positioned to provide a high level of effort going forward.”
The Cardinals currently have seven D2 men’s teams located in Virginia and North Carolina. They are:
- University of Virginia;
- Old Dominion University
- George Mason University
- Virginia Military Institute
- Radford University;
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Queens University of Charlotte.
For the Fall 2020 season, CCRC is expected to drop to four D2 College sides. Queens Univ of Charlotte will move up to D1AA after winning the College D2 title while VMI and Radford University will compete at the NSCRO Champions level as they continue to rebuild.
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