The 2015 Penn Mutual Varsity Cup Championship Final returns to Rio Tinto Stadium this May 2nd with extensive live television coverage on NBCSN

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 10, 2015

New York, NY – With the addition of Arizona State and Arkansas State, the 2015 Penn Mutual Varsity Cup Championship teams have continued to expand for the 3rd consecutive year to fourteen of the premier college rugby programs in the country. The schedule and format for this years’ Penn Mutual Varsity Cup will once again feature four rounds of competition, with the championship final being hosted at Rio Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake City, UT. NBCSN will provide live television coverage of the entire championship final on May 2nd, 2015.

The two time reigning champions, BYU, and two-time runner up, the University of California return to vie for the title of Varsity Cup National Champion. Since the first National Collegiate Championship, Varsity Cup universities have won a total of 31 national titles in a span of 33 years. Moreover, Varsity Cup universities have earned 68 final four places during this same period with Air Force, Arkansas State, BYU, Cal, Dartmouth, Navy, and Utah all having played their way to the final four. Since the inception of the Varsity Cup National Championship, Central Washington University and UCLA have added to the Varsity Cup’s list of final four participants. This brings total Varsity Cup university final four appearances to 76 over the course of 35 years. Over the course of these past 35 years, Varsity Cup universities have been crowned National Champions a total of 33 times.

The first round of the Penn Mutual Varsity Cup Championship will take place on Saturday, April 4th at the site of the six highest ranking teams. Central Washington will host PAC Rugby newcomers Arizona State while the University of Oklahoma will visit the always competitive University of Utah.  In the opposite corner of the bracket, the United States Naval Academy will travel to Brophy Field to challenge perennial Ivy Champion Dartmouth, and Arkansas State will head to South Carolina to take on Clemson. UCLA is set to face-off against three time national champion Air Force in Southern California on UCLA’s Westwood Campus, and the first round rematch between Texas and collegiate sports icon Notre Dame will close out the first week of games.

The eight teams to advance to the second round will square off on April 11th at four host campus venues that will be announced following the completion of the first round of competition. Top seeded BYU will travel to the winner of UCLA vs. Air Force while Cal will travel to the victor of the Texas vs. Notre Dame game. 

The third quarterfinal matchup will see the winner of Arizona State and Central Washington facing off with the victor of Oklahoma and Utah. The final four teams, Dartmouth, Navy, Arkansas State and Clemson will yield the final game of quarterfinal weekend.

The Semi-finals will take place on April 18th at the site of the two highest remaining seeds.

For the second consecutive year, the Penn Mutual Varsity Cup final will take place at future Olympic Soccer Qualifier host Rio Tinto Stadium (home to MLS Team Real Salt Lake), in Sandy, Utah.  On May 2nd, the match will be aired live on the NBCSN 2PM Mountain Time (MT).

About The Penn Mutual Varsity Cup Rugby National Championship

The Varsity Cup is America’s top collegiate rugby postseason national championship. The mission of the Varsity Cup is to grow American rugby by harnessing the collective strength of collegiate rugby and collegiate sport in general. The Varsity Cup features the most recognized and accomplished university rugby programs in the country vying for the right to be named the “Penn Mutual Varsity Cup Collegiate 15s Champions.”

For more information please contact:

Name: Blake Mannion

Phone: (914) 831-6267

E-Mail: bmannion@unitedworldsports.com

Website: http://varsitycup.us/