The Heart of America (HOA) is a Division I-AA men's college rugby conference that expanded to 12 teams for the 2025-2026 season. It operates under the College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) and is made up of schools from the middle part of the USA—Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri.
The conference plays its 15s season in the fall but enters its champion in the CRAA D1AA postseason in the spring.
We're entering the playoff period for most fall-playing D1AA conferences and some crucial playoff-deciding regular season games, and fans have a much better idea of who could challenge for a major championship.
Remember, we have NCR and CRAA going on. CRAA's D1AA playoffs are in the spring, but the Heart of America wraps up its championship in the fall. NCRC is also playing in the fall (as well as the spring) and have just started.
Meanwhile, we've got about six weeks remaining in the NCR fall season, so everything seems to matter.
So, here's where we stand.
In CRAA, Central Washington entered into D1AA for the first time after the team's varsity level was taken away last spring. The Wildcats played their first conference game this past weekend, beating a very tough Oregon side 31-21.
Big developments in the Heart of America as newcomers UHSP did Oklahoma a huge favor with a 28-17 defeat of previously 2-1 Kansas State.
For the still-young UHSP side, this was a big step forward as they acclimatize to one of the strongest D1AA conferences in the USA. The followers of Mortarmer McPestle (yes, that's the name of their mascot) has lost in fairly emphatic fashion to OU and Kansas, but won even more emphatically over an admittedly struggling Oklahoma State side.
That win over OSU was, in fact, the Eutectics first ever 15-a-side win. That certainly instilled some confidence, and they followed that up this week with a very good showing against KSU.
"Our defensive discipline and organization has really improved," said Head Coach Peter Lang, who, combined with Assistant Coach Lucas Black has been working a long game with this program.
Kansas defeated rivals Kansas State 47-26 over the weekend to put the Jayhawks in the driver's seat in the Heart of America South.
With the addition of Wayne State and UHSP, plus some steps forward by other teams, this now 12-team conference is getting increasingly competitive. That's not to say there aren't lopsided scores, there are, but we've also seen three games within a try and four more within two tries.
Even this week's big game, a 21-point winning margin, was anything but easy for KU.
Kansas jumped out to an early lead and that was crucial.
"We had good offensive ball movement by our backline supported by stout forward defense," said Kansas Head Coach Marcus Williamson. "Kansas State wasn't done though as they came out with a quick try early in the second half."
It was a wild weekend in the Heart of America with three very close games and still an ongoing question as to which team will end up on top this fall.
A week after beating rivals and defending champs Iowa State, the Iowa Hawkeyes shut out Missouri in the most lopsided win of the weekend. Iowa State, but the way, played a non-conference game against Northern Iowa, and won. Iowa, for their part, have been piecing things together nicely and controlled the game 64-0.
Iowa were led by lock Jacob D'Aniello and center Kevin Tomkins in what was, overall, a strong team display.
Things were a little different elsewhere
Wayne State held off a tenacious Nebraska 29-20 in a game in which the Bobcats were hit with a lot of penalties.
With four starters out and very little ball to work with, Wayne State had to be deadly when they got possession.
In a thrilling in-state rivalry clash, the University of Iowa edged out Iowa State 24–22 in a back-and-forth contest marked by tough defense, heavy collisions, gusty winds, and multiple lead changes in the final minutes.
This was a Heart of America Conference game and with Iowa State being the defending champs, it was expected to be tough sledding for the Hawkeyes.
ISU controlled the first half, playing most of the first 40 minutes in Iowa's half of the pitch. The Hawkeyes displayed patience with good defense against the excellent phase play and continuity from ISU's experienced side.
The Heart of America D1AA Conference has confirmed two new additions for the 2024-25 season.
In the middle of what has become an annual shift of conferences and shift between oversight organizations, the HOA already has added Oklahoma after the Lonestar Conference announced a move to NCR and OU decided not to follow.
Now, HOA has announced the addition of UHSP and Wayne State, Neb. UHSP—University of Heatlh Sciences and Pharmacy—is based in St. Louis, Mo., and has been recruiting and steadily growing over several years. The team has mostly been playing 7s, but its roster has grown enough to embrace 15s.
Iowa State defeated Kansas 43-14 Sunday to win the Heart of America Conference 15s championship.
Kansas and Iowa State have combined to win every conference championship in 7s and 15s since the 2017-18 season. In this two-game weekend in Lawrence, Kans., they were in the final again following Saturday's semis after Kansas took down Iowa 24-13 and Iowa State shut out Kansas State 39-0.
The Cyclones kicked off to begin the game and after a KU clearance kick worked through the phases until hooker Ryan Snider broke the gainline out wide and offloaded to vice captain Drew Guinn for the first points of the match. ISU Back of the Year Justin Johnson was good on the conversion and the Cyclones were up 7-0 only two minutes in.
Coming off back to back seasons of putting teams in the ACR 15s final, the Heart of America has seen some turnover that has lead to a wide open competition so far.
In the South, Kansas and Mizzou are currently tied at the top of the table through two matches. ACR finalists in 2022 Kansas, now led by Seth Akpovona, who took over for club legend Andy Stewart, and captain Trevor Lister, back from a semester in New Zealand, tested themselves early with matches against Oklahoma, Northern Iowa, and Colorado State. They went 2-0-1 in those warmups and followed that with defeats of Kansas State and Oklahoma to start 2-0 with bonus points in both games.
Kansas State's shutout win over Arkansas put many in the Heart of America on notice but a week late KSU got a notice of their own after Kansas beat them 34-12.
For the Jayhawks, this was a fairly important showing because KSU had already shown themselves to be a force to be reckoned with.
"Kansas State had a bunch of really good athletes," said captain and hooker Trevor Lister. "They scored early and we had to adjust. But we have good athletes too and we're improving. We were able to find the space on the edges and went from there."
In a hugely competitive Heart of America Conference, this is a good start for a Kansas team that is looking for a conference championship and perhaps more.
The Heart of America Conference title game between Iowa State (7-0) and Minnesota (5-2) produced a tight and dramatic finale.
These two made the final with semifinal victories over Arkansas and Kansas last fall. The final, however, was delayed until March in order to avoid bad weather and to give the winner a launching pad to the playoffs in the spring. Of course, the weather was bad anyway, and the match ended up being played in Minnesota’s domed field.
The match started off with Iowa State kicking off deep and turning over Minnesota. Within minutes it appeared Iowa State had scored in front of the posts, but with multiple lines on the field for different sports, there was a bit of a confusion and it was determined that the ball had been placed over a line that was not the tryline.
Forty-six players have been named to the Heart of America All-Conference selections.
With the conference having expended, it was decided to make selections based on the two divisions, North and South. Each division had 23 players selected based on position. The entire Heart of America Conference has over 325 registered players competing.
Minnesota and Kansas play for the Heart of America championship Sunday in Lawrence, Kans., with the Kansas game carrying with it more than its share of drama.
The Golden Gophers of Minnesota defeated Arkansas 37-19, putting together perhaps their best performance of the season.
Minnesota Gophers On the Same Page, Writing a New Chapter
It was a lot closer between Kansas and Iowa State, and perhaps the opening scoring attempt was an indication of that—10 minutes in KU captain Chandler Owens attempted a penalty goal. The ball hit the top of the post and bounced away.
Minnesota is atop the Heart of American North after beating Iowa 41-7.
The Gophers ave not lost and are in a good position to make something happen in the playoffs.
"Iowa was a tough and physical team," said Golden Gophers Head Coach Sean Lindersmith. "Our team was challenged the entire way.
"We started executing well after making some adjustments."
Minnesota Gophers On the Same Page, Writing a New Chapter
Arkansas won also, beating Missouri 52-12. The Razorbacks began the game with a 17-0 run but Mizzou got a try just before halftime from prop Cam Gillespie and another right after halftime from flanker Devin Petersen.
One of the weirder endings to a game came last week when Minnesota beat Iowa State 36-35.
The Iowa State players thought that they were leading (we're not sure if the referee told them this or they misheard—whatever actually happened, the ISU players were pretty sure they were in front) and so when they got the ball at the end of they game they kicked to touch. It was only then they the Cyclones fond out they had lost.
It was a harsh lesson in being ab-so-lutely clear on the score. It was also, win or lose, an indication of how far the University of Minnesota has come. After deciding to move out of the Big Ten (in2019 they were 2-4-1 in that competition) the Minnesota rugby program signed on Sean Lindersmith as their coach, and, like everyone else, sat though 2020 with no rugby to play.
In a clash of big offense vs big defense, it was the defense that prevailed as Kansas defeated Arkansas in Week 2 of Heart of America conference play.
Arkansas had put up 72 the week before, but against a tough Jayhawks defense they managed only 10, and that wasn’t enough.
A tough, physical game saw Arkansas bring out the defense too, but the one Jawhawks try was enough.
Kansas scored their only try right off the kickoff. Arkansas misplayed the kick, the Jawhawks put them under pressure, and suddenly Harrison Gloe was over. KU captain and flyhalf Chandler Owens slotted the conversion and the Jawhawks led 7-0.
From there, the Razorbacks dug in and held off several charges from the Jayhawks. But they did that at the expense of penalties, and eventually Owens pointed to the sticks, putting through two kicks for a 13-0 lead.
