IT’s time for Varsity status(Taken From rugbydirt.com)

As anyone who follows collegiate rugby knows, there are only a relative handful of teams that operate under the status of a varsity team. Most teams are club level teams, leaving them to work hard for their own funding and field privileges. This is especially true on the women’s side of the ball and time is running out for women’s college club teams across the country to join the varsity ranks. In 2001, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) put women’s rugby in the category of an “emerging sport” and struck a deal with USA Rugby. The deal was that if USA Rugby could field 40 varsity teams in 10 years, the NCAA would make women’s rugby an official sport. Approaching the seventh year of the bargain, only four schools have teams that have obtained varsity status: Bowdoin, West Chester, Southern Vermont and Eastern Illinois. While the sport is becoming more and more popular in the U.S., it may not be happening quickly enough in the women’s college ranks and there are many that don’t realize there is a timeline that needs to be met. The push to elevate teams to varsity level would allow for teams to have operating budgets, university sanctioned equipment and playing fields and recruiting abilities that most lack now. With three years left in the deal with the NCAA, look for USA Rugby to encourage a number of top women’s teams to make the jump to varsity in order to be recognized by the top governing body in college sports.