The Red River Rugby Collegiate Conference is a

college rugby College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States of America. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the ...

conference in

Division 1-A Rugby Division 1-A Rugby (formerly known as the College Premier Division) is the highest level of college rugby within the United States and is administered by USA Rugby. Division 1-A rugby is modeled after NCAA athletic competitions, with the 67 D1-A ...

, formed during summer 2014. The conferences consists of many of the same schools from the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

that had previously been in the Allied Rugby Conference adding the

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples ...

rugby team. The "Allied Rugby Conference" (ARC) was an annual rugby union competition played among universities in the

South Central United States The South Central United States or South Central states is a region in the south central portion of the Southern United States. It evolved out of the Old Southwest, which originally was the western portion of the South. The states of Arkansas, ...

. ARC featured a spring 15s competition and a fall 7s competition. The ARC folded in the summer of 2014.

Member schools

Notes: * Texas left the ARC during the summer of 2013 to play its regular season in the SouthWest Athletic Conference and its post season in the

Varsity Cup Varsity Cup is the collective name for four South African rugby union competitions involving the top rugby playing universities in the country. It was launched in 2008, with eight teams participating in the Varsity Cup competition and each univers ...

. Texas is now a full member of the Red River Conference. * Sam Houston State was a member of the ARC but is not a member of the Red River Conference.

Founding and early success

The formation of the Allied Rugby Conference was announced in May 2012. The Allied Rugby Conference was formed with three schools from the D1-AA Southwest Conference (Texas, Baylor, Sam Houston State), two schools from the D1-A Mid-South Conference (Oklahoma, Texas A&M), and one school from D2 (Texas Tech). The formation of this new conference was part of the trend in

of regrouping into traditional conferences to take advantage of existing brands and rivalries. Another goal behind forming the ARC was to assist clubs to reach their maximum potential and raise the standard of rugby throughout the region. The conference also formed to establish a core group of name-recognizable institutions to market for sponsorship & recruitment on the collective college campuses. Before the Conference had even begun play, they had already secured sponsorship from the World Rugby Shop, and the Allied conference also secured a sponsorship with Gilbert. The ARC was formed to get the teams significant exposure from a marketing and brand perspective. Games are podcast and in some instances live web cast. The ARC webcasts a conference "game of the week" each Monday during the spring 2012 competition.

Leadership

TeShay Flowers is the Conference Commissioner.

Competitions

The ARC announced a desire to pursue a bowl game type of event, which would involve playing matches against teams from neighboring conferences.

Regular season

Notes: * Gold shading indicates qualified for the ARC championship.

Playoffs

Sevens

The Allied Rugby Conference 7s is played every fall, and includes all conference teams plus select non-conference invited opponents. The winner lands an automatic place in the

USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships The USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships is an annual competition among the top college rugby teams in the country to decide a national champion in rugby sevens. USA Rugby organized the championship to capitalize on the surge in pop ...

. The ARC also announced it aims to gain an automatic qualifier to the

Collegiate Rugby Championship The Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC) is an annual college rugby sevens tournament. The CRC is the highest profile college rugby sevens competition in the United States, with the tournament broadcast live on NBC from 2010–2017, on ESPN News an ...

7s event played every June in Philadelphia.Rugby Mag, New College Conference Launching in Texas
May 15, 2012

References

External links

* {{Rugby union in the United States 2014 establishments in Louisiana Rugby union in Texas 2014 establishments in Texas 2014 establishments in Oklahoma