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College rugby, more specifically rugby union, is played throughout universities in the United States of America. College rugby is governed by USA Rugby, and does not fall under the auspices of the NCAA. There are over 900 college teams — male and female — registered with USA Rugby.〔Forbes, ("Why Pro Rugby Could Win In The United States" ), February 25, 2011.〕 There are over 32,000 college players registered with USA Rugby, making college rugby the largest section of USA Rugby's membership.〔USA Rugby, ("Membership Statistics, 2010-2011" ).〕 Rugby has been played in universities since as early as the 1800s, but it was the 1960s when rugby really found a foothold in colleges, led by the Catholic colleges such as Notre Dame and particularly the Jesuit universities such as Boston College and St. Joseph's in Philadelphia.〔Delco Times, ("Notre Dame and Boston College to Represent Catholc College Rugby in National Sevens Championship" ), June 2, 2011.〕 Today, college rugby continues to grow in popularity, and rugby is one of the fastest growing sports across college campuses.〔 The 32,000 registered college players in 2010 marked a 14% increase from 28,000 college players in 2008.〔Florida Rugby Union, ("Latest stats from USAR membership" ), May 7, 2009.〕 Over 180 college rugby clubs started between 2010 to 2014.〔("Need Scholarship? Join Scrum" ), New York Times, John Otis, May 21, 2014.〕 The National Small College Rugby Organization grew from 85 teams in 2007 to 151 teams in 2011 and to over 200 men's teams for 2012.〔(Gainline.us )〕〔Rugby Rugby, ("NSCRO Changes D3 Reference to Small College Rugby" ), August 24, 2012.〕 Several schools have increased their investments in men's and women's rugby programs, by creating rugby programs with varsity or quasi-varsity status and funding for scholarships,〔(WV Metro News – Sports )〕 and Notre Dame and Texas have upgraded their rugby programs from "club" status to "Olympic" status. Women's rugby is now classified by the NCAA as an emerging varsity sport.〔Sports Field Guide, ("Rugby emerging as NCAA sport" ), November 3, 2010.〕 There has been increased interest in college rugby (particularly in rugby sevens) from TV since the International Olympic Committee's announcement in 2009 that rugby would return to the Summer Olympics in 2016. The highest profile college rugby sevens competition is the Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC), which began in 2010. The CRC, which is played every June at PPL Park in Philadelphia, is televised live by NBC Sports and regularly draws attendances of 18,000.〔Bleacher Report ("Rugby: NBC's Collegiate Sevens Championship Preview" ).〕〔2011 USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship〕 Several top schools started a competition in 2013 called the Varsity Cup, with the 2014 Varsity Cup final broadcast live on NBC Sports. College rugby includes a national championship competition (since 1980). California has won the majority of titles, with Air Force and BYU also winning multiple championships. In 2011 a new Division 1-A was created with approximately 30 schools forming the new division.〔Royall Rugby, ("College Premier Division Set to Launch" ).〕 ==Governance== In the United States, college rugby is governed by (in descending order of authority): USA Rugby, geographical unions (GUs) and local area unions (LAUs) (e.g., NERFU). USA Rugby has established a College Management Committee and a collegiate director, Rich Cortez, to oversee college rugby.〔(College Contacts ), USA Rugby.〕 The NCAA has no authority over college rugby. Often called a club sport, each college team is administered by either the athletic department or the student club department. In 2011, USA Rugby continued to urge college rugby programs to adopt new conference structures similar to the conferences used by their other athletic programs. The highest profile example was the formation of the Ivy Rugby Conference in 2009.〔(About Ivy Rugby ), Ivy Rugby Conference.〕 This move signals a shift away from the LAUs and TUs as the governing bodies for regional college rugby. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「college rugby」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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