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.
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."
One of the weirder endings to a game came last week when Minnesota beat Iowa State 36-35.
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.
The Heart of America Conference remains one of the more competitive conferences in DIAA and certainly the conference started that way.
Iowa State held off University of Iowa 18-10 in a tense Heart of America conference game Saturday.
The Cyclones secured an early 15-0 lead but after that was under a lot of pressure from Iowa. Seeing one player get two yellow cards, and thus being shorthanded throughout the second half, didn’t help.
