Contents

Varsity Cup Championship

Varsity Cup

Sport	Rugby union
Inaugural season	2013
Ceased	2017 (post-season)
Number of teams	16
Country	United States
Holders	Cal (2017)
Most titles	Cal and BYU (2 titles each)
Website	varsitycup.us
Broadcast partner	NBC Sports

For Varsity Cup is the collective name for four South African rugby union, see Varsity Rugby.

The Varsity Cup Championship was an American college rugby competition established in 2012 to serve as an invitational championship following the breakaway of several schools from Division 1-A Rugby.^[1]

The Varsity Cup was organized by United World Sport, the organization which also ran the USA Sevens tournament and the Collegiate Rugby Championship.^[2] The 2014 Varsity Cup final was televised by NBC SportsonNBCSN.^[3] The Varsity Cup's ability to get onto television was seen as a boost to the Varsity Cup and to the rugby programs of the member schools.^[4]

The development of the Varsity Cup post-season tournament created some controversy. The Varsity Cup Championship did not replace Division 1-A Rugby, but it was endorsed by USA Rugby.^[5] The schools participating in the Varsity Cup often referred to it as the national championship, but with the rival Division 1-A Rugby post-season tournament running concurrently, USA Rugby did not consider the Varsity Cup to be the national championship.^[6]

The founding schools formed the Varsity Cup with a number of goals in mind. One was the ability to manage and control their playoff games. Another was to develop a tournament with commercial appeal, that would generate revenue from attendance and concessions, and that would generate marketing exposure through TV coverage.^[7]

The Varsity Cup folded in November 2017 when the organizer, broadcast partner and a major sponsor, Penn Mutual, withdrew their support.^[8]

The teams invited to compete in the Varsity Cup were from schools where rugby enjoyed varsity status or advanced club status.^[7]

• Utah was supposed to be one of the eight teams participating in the 2013 inaugural Varsity Cup, but the Utah rugby team was suspended by the school,^[11] with Central Washington replacing Utah in the 2013 Varsity Cup.^[12]
• Arkansas State committed in 2014 to join the Varsity Cup beginning in 2015, in significant part due to the ability of the tournament to improve the name recognition of the school's rugby program.^[13]
• Arizona State joined the Varsity Cup in 2015 to increase the prowess of their Olympic athletes. Soon after their coach was fired following a lawsuit in which it was revealed that an ineligible athlete assaulted an opponent. No criminal charges against Lane were filed and all civil litigation was settled out of court.^[14]
• Oklahoma was supposed to participate in the 2015 Varsity Cup but had to forfeit their scheduled match vs. Utah due to the use of ineligible players.^[15]

Note: BYU's 2015 victory was vacated because BYU fielded an ineligible player.^[20] Upon the discovery and further questions of the usage of ineligible players by BYU, the team left the Varsity Cup and rejoined D1-A.^[21][22]

Note: BYU's 2015 victory was vacated because BYU fielded an ineligible player.^[20]

Italicized teams hosted each round.

Italicized teams hosted each round.

Most points for one team (single match):

1. 136 — California vs Texas (2016)
2. 113 — BYU vs Arizona State (2016)
3. 100 — California vs Texas (2015)
4. 100 — Penn State vs Harvard (2017)

The following table shows the broadcasters for each year's final match.

• Division 1-A Rugby
• Collegiate Rugby Championship
• Intercollegiate sports team champions

• Official Site