The USA 7s CRC invitational has confirmed its pools for the May 29-31 tournament to be held at PPL Park in Chester, Pa.

 

Defending champs Cal joins Pool A with Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, and Boston College.

 

Here are the full pools:

 

Pool A

Cal

Virginia Tech

Notre Dame

Boston College

 

Pool B

Kutztown

Air Force

Navy

Temple

 

Pool C

Indiana

Clemson

Life

Alabama

 

Pool D

UCLA

Arkansas State

Michigan

Texas

 

Pool E

Dartmouth

Arizona

St. Joseph’s

Penn State

 

This is easily the most competitive CRC ever as the tournament finally bowed to pressure to include more qualifiers and put aside the idea that local but not competitive teams would bring in fans.

 

Only on pool, Pool A, seems to have a clear favorite (Cal), while a couple, such as Pool C and Pool D promise to be real barn burners.

 

Here are our initial picks for how the pools will pan out:

 

Pool A - Cal should win comfortably. It’s battle for 2nd, and with points difference being the tiebreaker for the three 2nd-place teams trying to get to the quarterfinals, losing big to Cal and winning a couple of close games will hurt all of these teams.

 

Pool B - Kutztown should take this, but will be pushed by Air Force and Navy. Those two will have an almighty tussle for 2nd.

 

Pool C - Life should win, and Indiana has an excellent chance of taking 2nd, but every game in this pool should be close.

 

Pool D - Arkansas State and UCLA will clash for 1st, although we respect Michigan and Texas a great deal.

 

Pool E - This is a case of four good teams who all have ability, and who all have key flaws. We’ll go with Dartmouth and St. Joe’s, but it could be totally different.

 

 

Quarterfinal matchups:

#1 Cal v #8 St. Joseph’s or Air Force or Navy

#2 Kutztown v #7 Indiana

#3 Arkansas State v #6 UCLA 

#4 Life v #5 Dartmouth