The Women’s D1 College National Championships have been cancelled for the 2015-2016 season. The news was broken by, The Breakdown, today. Earlier this week, it was announced that the Women’s D1 Collegiate Fall Champions, University of Connecticut, would not be participating in the national championships.
The split of the Fall and Spring season championships for women’s rugby has been in the second year of its inception. It was meant to connect teams that play in better weather conditions in the Fall and the ones that have better conditions in the Spring. Unfortunately, the problem it creates is that the women’s teams may have to travel more than they are able to afford. This seems to have been the issue for University of Connecticut women’s rugby team, who barely made it to the fall championships that were held in Greenville, SC, back in December, due to financial difficulties.
Fast forward to today, where it looks like we will have two women’s collegiate D1 champions, in addition to the Women’s D1 Elite champions and the Women’s collegiate D2 champions. USA Rugby will have to take a look at how to solve this issue, as the argument progresses of when the college 15s season should be played. The problem lying in two key issues, collegiate start dates (quarter system universities starting later than others) and weather (schools dealing with snow). There is no easy way to solve this where everyone wins, but there still needs to be a compromise somewhere. As rugby in the US continues its journey towards stability and serious credibility, it will have to figure out how to merge these school seasons. For now, the Spring Women’s Collegiate Championships on May 7th will be the only one this spring.