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The College Numbers Breakdown

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The College Numbers Breakdown

Photo courtesy Virginia Tech rugby.

Through all the discussion of which college conferences will join which college umbrella organization, we at Goff Rugby Report felt it was time once again to look at who is going where.

To do that we took official announcements, a little rumor, and plenty of analysis and guesswork to come up with some numbers.

We have moved some conferences from NCR to unattached because it's now reasonable to assume that at least some of the western small-college conferences might find another home given that NCR has committed to fall 15s championships. We have an asterisk on Liberty and Rugby East because it's highly possible that one or two of the teams from those conferences will opt for a different home. Four teams in Liberty—AIC, Northeastern, SUNY Oswego, and Boston College—would be leaving D1A earlier than contracted if they moved to NCR, and there's a fee for that early exit that the universities promised to pay. So we'll see if they make the move or not. 

Here's our overall breakdown of teams and players per umbrella organization.

 


Estimated Future College Totals
Group Players Teams
NCR 13634 513
CRAA 5904 151
ACRA 1860 62
NIRA 828 23
Unnamed Men/s D1 2226 53
Currently Unattached 2966 97
Total 27418 899

These numbers do not include the small-college teams that aren't verified as being viable (the old NSCRO numbers had as many as 237 men's small-college teams, but we went through that list and there are a lot of "pending" teams). Our estimates of players is low. We went through a long list of rosters and came up with average roster sizes. With the COVID-19 pandemic throwing everything into doubt, we decided to err on the side of being cautious. So when a conference might have had an average roster size of 30, we've dropped it to 27. The largest roster-per-team conference, the Liberty, remains so, but at a lower level than in 2019-2020.

These numbers are also completely unrelated to what is probably going to happen in 2020-2021. Take these to be relevant for the fall of 2021.

Here's the breakdown by umbrella organization:


NCR
Division Conferences Teams Est. Players
D1A Men Liberty* 19 1121
D1 Men MARC, Chesapeake 17 590
D1 Elite Women X X X
D1 Women Midwest 4 100
D2 Women Great Waters, Upstate NY, Ohio Valley, Allegheny, Northern Lights, Illinois, SARC 50 1250
D2 Men Great Lakes, Great MW, Cardinals, Gateway, MCRC, Southern, Allegheny, Northern Lights, Deep South, MARC, Tri-State, NEWCRC, Rocky Mountain 98 2768
D3 or Small-College Women Allegheny, Carolinas, Capital, Cascades, Colonial Coast, East Penn, Great Waters, Illinois, Northern Lights, Ohio Valley, Pacific Desert, Prairie States, RNE, Texas, Tri-State, Upstate NY, Independents 160 3680
Small-College Men Cardinals, Chicago, Colonial Coast, Deep South, Dixie, Florida, Georgia, Great Lakes, Mid-America, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Minnesota, New England, Potomac, Southern, Three Rivers, Tri-State, Upstate NY, Wisconsin 165 4125
Total 65 513 13634
       

CRAA
Division Conferences Teams Est. Players
D1A Men California, PAC, Mid-South, Red River, Rocky Mountain, Independents, Big 10, Rugby East* 40 2320
D1 Men X X X
D1 Elite Women Independents 4 170
D1 Women Big 10, Blue Ridges, Florida, Northeast, Pacific Desert, Pacific Mountain, Rocky Mountain, Texas, Independents 68 2244
D2 Women Capital, Carolinas, Florida, SIRC, Pacific Desert 39 1170
D2 Men X X X
D3 or Small-College Women X X X
Small-College Men X X X
Total 24 151 5904
       

ACRA
Division Conferences Teams Est. Players
D1A Men X X X
D1 Men X X X
D1 Elite Women X X X
D1 Women X X X
D2 Women Tri-State, NEWCRC, MARC, RNE 62 1860
D2 Men X X X
D3 or Small-College Women X X X
Small-College Men X X X
Total 4 62 1860
       

NIRA
Division Conferences Teams Est. Players
D1A Men X X X
D1 Men X X X
D1 Elite Women X X X
D1 Women NCAA D1 8 296
D2 Women NCAA D2 7 252
D2 Men X X X
D3 or Small-College Women NCAA D3 8 280
Small-College Men X X X
Total 3 23 828
       

Unnamed Men's D1
Division Conferences Teams Est. Players
D1A Men X X X
D1 Men MAC, Heart of America, NCRC, Lonestar, Gold Coast, Pac West, Florida 53 2226
D1 Elite Women X X X
D1 Women X X X
D2 Women X X X
D2 Men X X X
D3 or Small-College Women X X X
Small-College Men X X X
Total 7 53 2226
       

Unattached or Undeclared
Division Conferences Teams Est. Players
D1A Men X X X
D1 Men SCRC, Ivy League, Independants (Iowa Central, Univ. Notre Dame) 18 756
D1 Elite Women X X X
D1 Women X X X
D2 Women Cascade, Great Lakes, Lonestar, MAC, Rocky Mountain, West Coast, SoCal 42 1260
D2 Men SCRC, Independents, Rocky Mountain 15 400
D3 or Small-College Women X X X
Small-College Men Lonestar, NCRC, NorCal 22 550
Total 11 97 2966