[11] Several schools have upgraded their investments in rugby by creating programs with varsity or quasi-varsity status and funding for scholarships.

[12] Alumni from collegiate programs make up much of the United States men's and women's national teams.

[13][14][15][16] The College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) oversees the top-level men's and women's divisions.

In the United States, college rugby was traditionally governed by (in descending order of authority): USA Rugby, geographical unions (GUs) and local area unions (LAUs) (e.g., NERFU) and administered by a College Management Committee.

[20] This move signaled a shift away from the LAUs and GUs as the governing bodies for regional college rugby.

[17][18] Winter and spring are the primary seasons for conferences in the Pacific, Northwest, and South regions (e.g., PAC, Southeastern); the fall is the primary season for conferences in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Upper Midwest (e.g., Big Ten, Atlantic Coast).

USA Rugby maintains player eligibility guidelines, administered by the local area unions.

College players generally have five years of rugby eligibility from the time they graduate high school.

[citation needed] On-field disciplinary issues are generally handled by the local area unions, while off-field disciplinary issues are governed by the academic institution and the local area union.

Roughly one quarter of college rugby programs offer financial aid to their players.

[23] National Collegiate Rugby (NCR), formerly NSCRO, challenged the existing structure and expanded beyond small colleges to include the higher divisions.

Twelve women's conferences that played historically in DII left the oversight of USA Rugby to join NCR.

[25][26] The collegiate women's programs in the NIRA operate their own regular season competition and championship.

An "Emerging Sport" must gain championship status (minimum 40 varsity programs, except 28 for Division III) within 10 years, or show progress toward that goal to remain on the list.

As of the fall of 2022, the NCAA had sanctioned rugby for 27 schools across 3 Divisions, adding Princeton University for the 2022–23 season.

[84][85][86] Four additional schools joined the Varsity Cup for 2014, bringing the number of teams in that tournament to twelve.

USA Rugby responded to the successful promotion of its Varsity Cup rivals by signing a ten-year contract in October 2014 with IMG that would focus on the marketing and increase exposure of USA Rugby's Collegiate National Championship.

[87] The Varsity Cup folded in November 2017 when the organizer, broadcast partner and a major sponsor, Penn Mutual, withdrew their support.

[126] The National Collegiate Rugby Organization obtained the rights to the CRC in 2020 and in 2021 and 2022 staged its championship 7s matches at the tournament in New Orleans.

[130] The tournament was held annually at the end of the fall season for its first three years and featured 24 teams.

[147] The conference champion is invited to the D1A playoffs along with several at large bids for independents or other highly ranked teams.

[156] The IRC was formed to foster better competition among rugby teams from the Ivy League schools and to raise the quality of play.

In December 2010, a core group of founding schools formed the Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference (SCRC).

By April 2010, the SCRC had expanded to 11 schools, comprising the entire membership of the NCAA's Southeastern Conference (SEC) at that time except for Arkansas.

[158] The Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference, formed by the aforementioned 11 SEC schools, was created in late 2010 and began play in the 2011–12 season.

Florida won the conference title in the inaugural season, defeating Tennessee in the championship match.

[159] Nine D1A rugby programs currently compete in the Big Ten Universities conference, which was founded in 2012.

The Southwest Conference (SWC) was created in 2011 with charter members from seven Texas schools.

The tournament provided an opportunity for teams to play outside of their conferences and was therefore relevant to establishing final fall 15s college rankings.

The National Small College Rugby Organization conducted a Women's only Division IV championship from 2006 to 2011.