twitter war between M Rugby and Ohio Rugby

Submitted by J. Lichty on

As an alum of the M Rugby club I thought I would do my part in spreading the word to those of you who either like rugby or who like to beat Ohio at anything.  

The UM Rugby Club is in a race against the Ohio Rugby Club to reach 2000 followers.  

Follow the club  @umrfc

 

 

 

Kevbot

June 12th, 2012 at 10:40 PM ^

I think that it's pretty inevitable that it will happen, but just probably not anytime soon. Rugby is a relatively inexpensive sport, and the popularity around the country is increasing pretty rapidly. I think it's only a matter of time before athletic departments want to bite on it. For example, Davenport University has scholarships for their players, along with a few other small universities already. In addition to that, many schools will pay for their rugby clubs' travel costs for away matches. Penn State is a pretty good rugby team, and their club has basically a partnership with the athletic department where they are free to use the trainers, weight facilities and coaches, etc. that the varsity sports are provided with. I'm not sure if they pay for their travel, but they're pretty close to a "varsity" program other than not providing scholarships. Also, women's rugby has actually been named an NCAA "emerging sport" or something like that, which shows that the interest is there.

I'm the president for Purdue's club, and for anybody who follows college rugby, things could be getting interesting soon. The Pac 12 just started their own rugby conference, and I think they're trying to set up an affiliation with the real Pac 12 conference for television and other benefits. So, a few big ten program coaches decided that we're going to start the Big Ten Rugby Conference. We have been working towards organizing it and making schedules for the past few weeks, and I'm pretty excited about the possibilities it brings about. For this coming year, 10 of the 12 teams will participate (Northwestern and Penn State don't plan to join for competition level reasons). I'm hoping that down the line we can work something out with the Big Ten and maybe the Big Ten Network and try to get some games televised.

Either way, the sport is growing, and I can't wait to see how big it can get!

Chippewa Blue

June 12th, 2012 at 6:50 PM ^

Have rommates who play rugby up here at Central and good friends at teams all over the state including Michigan. Rugby is a great sport to watch, and great group of guys to hang around espically if you enjoy yourself some good old college debauchey