GRR: College Men
The Army-Navy rematch this weekend has been canceled.
With COVID-19 cases on the apparent increase around the nation, the West Point and US Naval Academy administrations decided to cancel the games for both men and women.
While the COVID shutdowns and delays mean very, very few college rugby teams and conferences are in action, many are still working on decisions regarding what competition oversight group they want to join.
The addition of men’s and women’s rugby at Adrian College has an interesting twist or two.
First off, there’s the fact that the school decided to add the sport despite the COVID-19 shutdowns and the question-marks regarding whether colleges can even afford to have as many sports teams as they have. Adrian, instead of paring back, added a sport, and they chose rugby.
Talk has been drifting around the college rugby arena about a make-up year of eligibility because of COVID-19; we’re here to tell you that it’s not going to happen.
OK, maybe not completely “no.” The NCAA is giving an extra season to athletes, and that will apply to student-athletes in NIRA, as well. But elsewhere? Probably not.
The University of Tennessee men’s rugby team got on the field this past weekend, defeating the Nashville men’s club 39-29 at the Tennessee Rugby Park in Knoxville.
For both teams, it was a welcome opportunity to finally get on the field, and like any rugby organization that has tried to get there this fall, they had to jump through a few hoops to get there.