USA Rugby has released its college rugby playoff dates for the 2016-17 season.

Playoff locations have not been confirmed, but last fall the Men's DII final and Women's DI and DII fall finals were held at Furman University, and indications are that the Greenville, SC college would be a good place to hold it again.

The big news for Men's College rugby is that DIAA now has a divided playoff. This was an idea floated (and launched) in 2014 only to see no DIAA teams participate. But this time around, USA Rugby has received firm commitments from the DIAA teams in the fall that they will not only play in a fall playoff, but will also send the winner of that playoff to a championship game on May 6, 2017.

There's a carrot and a stick involved here. The carrot is that you're not a National Champion if you just win the fall playoff, or just win the spring playoff. You're only a National Champion if you win the May 6 Fall v Spring final. The stick is this - if a team wins the fall or the spring playoff and fails to fulfill the May 6 final, then that team will be ineligible for the 2017-18 playoffs, and the team's conference would lose an automatic bid to the playoffs for that year, as well.

So there's a double punishment if a team doesn't go to the final. But if that does happen, the runner-up from that playoff would step in.

Men's College Playoff Dates:

Men's DII Play-in rounds November 12 (some games earlier)

Men's DII Regionals November 19-20

Men's DIAA Regionals November 19-20

Men DII Semifinals Dec 3 (probably at Greenville, SC)

Men DIAA Fall Semifinals Dec 3 (probably at Greenville, SC)

Men DII National Championship Game Dec 4 (probably at Greenville, SC)

Men DIAA Fall Final Dec 4 (probably at Greenville, SC)

Men DIAA Spring Regionals April 8-9, 2017

Men DIAA Spring Semis and Final April 22-23, 2017

DIA playoffs through April.

DIA and DIAA National Championship Games May 6, 2017

The DIAA conferences expected to contribute a champion to the fall DIAA playoffs are: Chesapeake, ECRC, Empire, Keystone, MAC, and SCRC

In addition, independent teams Notre Dame College and Lindenwood-Belleville, along with possibly a team from the Mountain States conference, and other conference runners-up, would likely compete for two more spots to make eight playoff teams. (Addendum: Currently the SCRC schedule calls for a championship game on November 19, which would presumably preclude the winner participating in the DIAA playoffs, so there could be another at-large spot open.) 

In the spring, the DIAA conferences are Gold Coast, Pac West, Heart of America, Ivy League, NCRC, SIRC, and the independent teams that used to be part of the SWC.There is room for another at-large bid,