Editorial: Defining DII Teams

Thursday Jun 28, 2007 in Magazine

The Iowa State Women started the 2006-2007 season as of one of 12 teams (of 80+ women's college sides in the Midwest RFU) competing for the Midwest D1 Championship. They finished the season as USA Rugby's Women's Division II National Collegiate Champion.

Rugby Magazine has always been a major supporter of the numerous National Championships, both unofficial and those sanctioned by USA Rugby, staged annually here in the US. We believe that these championships give teams at different levels attainable goals to shoot for, improve the level of US rugby, and make the players happy in the process.

In order for National Championships at different divisional levels to be both fair and meaningful, however, it is important that clear and rational guidelines are in place that indicate how a club or college qualifies to compete at the Division 1, 2, or 3 levels. Consideration must also be given to the possibility of mandatory upgrades to higher divisions when a club or college becomes a dominant force in a lower division.

To accomplish this requires a significant amount of thought on the part of Competitions Committees at both the Territorial and National levels so that the clubs competing for the championships of different divisions know that they have a fair chance of winning.

2007 D2 Nationals

After reporting on the highly successful National Collegiate Championships this May in Palo Alto, we became intrigued by the variety of colleges represented in the Men’s and Women’s D2 Championships and wondered how a club becomes designated D1 or D2.

Does the size of a student body figure into the equation?

Are there any rules, at either the Territorial or National level, which call for promotion of a D2 club to D1 if it wins a Territorial or National D2 Championship?

Men’s D2 National Collegiate Championship

Middlebury, a small (2,350 undergrads) liberal arts college from Vermont won this year’s Men’s National D2 Championship with a 38-22 decision over Arkansas State University (8,785 undergrads) in the 2007 final. And last year, the Coast Guard Academy (950 undergrads) defeated Northern Colorado (10,590) in the Men’s D2 final.

From the differences in enrollments of these finalists, we deduced that enrollment had nothing to do with divisional status.

We also noted that Northern Colorado, which won the National D2 Championship in 2005 and has reached the National D2 Final Four five times since 1998, had not moved up to D1. So there doesn’t appear to be any promotion-relegation provisions.

There’s nothing on USA Rugby’s website that details how a college’s divisional status is determined (promotion or relegation) and USA Rugby’s Kim Brock confirmed that it is entirely up to each territorial union.

Women’s D2 National Collegiate Championship

An examination of this year’s Women’s Division 2 National Collegiate final, won by the Midwest RFU’s Iowa State 26-19 over defending National D2 Champion UC Santa Cruz (Pacific Coast RFU), further muddied the waters.

According to Rugby Magazine’s latest National Directory, there are 86 women’s college teams in the Midwest RFU. Twelve of those 86 started off the 2006-2007 competitive season contesting for the Midwest’s 2007 Division I Championship.

One of the Midwest’s 12 D1 teams was Iowa State.

Midwest D1 Collegiate Championship

The Midwest’s 12 D1 teams played off in four pools of three teams each. The four pool winners Ohio State, Marquette, Northern Iowa, and Illinois then played off for the Midwest Division 1 Championship, won by Northern Iowa over Ohio State.

Midwest D2 Collegiate Championship

The four Division I teams (Iowa State, West Virginia, Minnesota and Illinois State) that went 1-1 in the Midwest D1 Championship, ostensibly the 5th - 8th best of the Midwest’s 86 women’s college teams, were then slotted into the Midwest’s D2 Sweet 16.

Iowa State won the Midwest D2 Championship and then went on to win the D2 National Collegiate title.

Although Iowa State’s National and Territorial D2 titles are completely legitimate in our present set-up, wouldn’t it have been more equitable for the Midwest to have Plate and Bowl playoffs in D1 and give four different teams a chance to compete in its D2 Sweet 16?

And how do the D2 teams from the other Territorial Unions feel knowing that they will be facing Midwest teams that started the competitive season in D1?

It’s a complicated situation that we don’t pretend to have the answer to, but we do know that the present system (or non-system) for determining divisional status is badly flawed.

This story orginially appeared in the June 2007 issue of Rugby Magazine. To subscribe please click here.