GRR: Liberty Conference
LIberty's NCR D1 league continues to be an intriguing conference as some teams found out this week.
Rivalry ClashIona were defeated by nearby rivals Fairfield 23-13 in what Fairfield DOR Austin Ryan called "an absolute dog fight against a bitter rival."
Both teams have suffered from injuries but that didn't mean they would be hesitant to get stuck in.
If you were going to pick any favorites to win the Liberty D1AA Conference, there’s a good chance you might be rethinking that choice.
The Liberty D1 season got going this weekend with four games: Brown vs Siena, Dartmouth vs Syracuse, AIC vs Fairfield, and Iona vs Fordham.
All four games were competitive, or even extremely close.
The Liberty Conference D1 schedule kicks off in a week with the first conference games, so this week is a quick runway for everyone.
It's a relatively tight schedule as these teams try to squeeze as many 15s games into the fall as possible. Teams have one week off and other than that go week-to-week to get nine games in before the NCR playoffs kick off.
American collegiate rugby has split up into very specific tiers and because of that it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that all the potential high performance players are in the highest divisions.
But that’s certainly not the case; witness our latest example, Ray Santiago.