May 15 - Over 25 new teams will join the National Collegiate Rugby women’s competition starting in the Fall of 2024. The new teams are largely from the Rocky Mountain Conference, which will be merged with the High Peaks Conference, and from the New England Wide Collegiate Rugby Conference, which will create a new women’s conference following its merger with Colonial Coast.
With eleven new teams, the High Peaks Conference will become one of the largest and most competitive conferences in the country with nineteen clubs across Division I, Division II and Small College. Colorado State, Wyoming, Utah and defending Rocky Mountain conference champion, Colorado Mesa, join other perennially-strong clubs such as Colorado Mines and Boise State, who are back-to-back champions of the Lonestar Bowl.
During the regular season, the High Peaks teams will compete regionally in order to send divisional champions to the national playoffs. Tracy Gola, Assistant Coach of the University of Colorado, will partner with Kayla Dustin, the current High Peaks Commissioner, to co-lead the High Peaks Conference.
High Peaks Commissioner, Kayla Dustin commented “We’re really pleased to unify the region’s women’s teams and create a more manageable travel schedule. The High Peaks teams are playing some great rugby, and we look forward to seeing more of our teams compete on NCR’s national stage.”
Fourteen new programs will join NCR’s Small College Competition in the New England region. These schools, currently playing in the New England Wide Collegiate Rugby Conference, will merge with other Small College programs in the Colonial Coast Rugby Conference, creating one of the deepest Small College XVs divisions in the country.
The new clubs include CRC champion,Yale, along with several other strong rugby schools such as Smith, Wellesley and Southern Connecticut. The schools will be divided across a Championship Division and Challenge Division, with the winner of the Championship Division receiving an automatic place in the XVs national playoffs. NCR’s national Small College competition will exceed 120 schools across the country in 2024.
Angela Smarto, NCR’s Women’s Director, said “I applaud these new programs for coming together under a singular fall 15s championship pathway. This is a huge step forward to creating a seasonality alignment for prospective NCAA teams, as we hope to see more schools support women’s rugby with NCAA resourcing. I’m excited to see how teams from New England and the Rocky Mountain region will shake up the competition this year. ”
The following teams will join National Collegiate Rugby in the Fall 2024 season:
New England Wide Collegiate Rugby Conference teams:
New High Peak Conference Teams (former Rocky Mountain teams)
The existing High Peaks teams include Boise State University, Colorado College, Colorado School of Mines, College of Idaho, Idaho State University, Southern Utah University, University of Colorado - Colorado Springs, and the University of Northern Colorado.