NCAA Division 1 Rugby?

Question

Hey,

Are there any Divsion 1 Schools that offer Women's Rugby as a seasonal sport, like softball and volleyball?

Just wanting to know, because I know some D1 schools offer Men's Rugby as a Seasonal sport like Football.

Anything would be good,

+++One Luv

Answer 1

I was at San Jose State a while back and they had a men and women's rugby teams. I think UC Berkley and Stanford has both too.

Answer 2

There are currently 5 women’s rugby varsity teams supported by the NCAA: (Division I -Eastern Illinois University - Charleston, IL ; Division II- West Chester University- West Chester, Pennsylvania; Division III- Bowdoin College- Bowdoin, Maine; Southern Vermont College- Bennington, Vermont; Norwich University- Norwich, Connecticut.)

There are NO NCAA division mens rugby teams.

there are club teams with titles of division I,II, III though.

NCAA has been able to approach the college officials with rugby as a women’s emerging sport due to a law called title IX- which basically says that women have right of equality for representation of sports from their college/ university...NCAA has been able to approach universities based on this federal law for women... unfortunately the men’s sports departments are saturated already and do not have room/ space/ funding for emerging sports. NCAA women’s rugby is in its second year and to be fully functional, wants 40 women’s teams involved. There’s a LONG way to go!!!! Because of the title IX law, USA rugby had to petition to even get rugby onto the list of emerging sports- and that took a long time- like 9 years... and finally in 2002 it was put on the list... i think NCAA has 10 years to develop the program... and get to 40 teams!!! Rugby is not even on the emerging sports list for men’s NCAA sports yet... I’m not even sure they have a list! The other emerging women’s sports are: archery, badminton, equestrian, squash, synchronized swimming, team handball… rugby is the only cool one!!! Basically the possibility of men’s NCAA recognition relies on the success of the women’s program. So the best thing you can do is get your college to sponsor a women’s team and get involved with them.

There is huge controversy as to if rugby club sports can really transfer to the NCAA… especially because of the social aspect of our sport. There will be so many more rules and regulations when involving the NCAA, but the http://www.usarugby.org/default.asp site has a question/ answer section highlighting all these concerns.

Hope this helps.

check out the www.usarugby.org site for info about scholarships- thye offer them for ncaa and club sports.

Answer 3

Penn State is the premier college in the United States Winning the D1 Women's Championship Last year and placing 2nd the year before.

Answer 4

I play for a men's Rugby team at Tulane university and we have a womens team as well. They aren't truly D-1 sports, but the schools are. The Ivy league schools, some southern schools, and most schools on the East coast have men and women's rugby teams. You be on scholarship to play at many schools, but some schools take it serious and recruit.